Hawaij substitutes

The savoury blend rebuilt from four jars, which is essentially the real thing since most Yemeni household versions are exactly this.

Best for

marak, Yemeni chicken soup, lentil soup, rice, roast vegetables, chicken and lamb

Nothing meaningful is lost here, because soup hawaij is a short blend and these are its main components. Some cooks add ground coriander, and some add a pinch of caraway. Grind the black pepper fresh if you can, because the peppery bite is the blend's signature and stale pre-ground pepper leaves the soup tasting merely yellow rather than warm and lively.

The closest single jar most kitchens already own, sharing cumin, turmeric and coriander with soup hawaij.

Best for

marak, chicken soup, rice, roast potatoes, a weeknight shortcut

Curry powder brings fenugreek and usually some chili, so the soup tastes rounder, faintly sweeter and unmistakably more Indian, and the fenugreek adds a light maple-bitter note hawaij does not have. It is also generally more turmeric-heavy, so the broth goes a brighter, more insistent yellow. The extra black pepper is what restores hawaij's clean peppery lift and it makes a real difference.

A Levantine warm-spice blend with an overlapping backbone, corrected for the turmeric it lacks.

Best for

marak, lamb and beef soups, stuffed vegetables, rice pilaf

Baharat is built on black pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and allspice, so it lands warmer and sweeter than hawaij and reads more Levantine. Without added turmeric your broth will stay pale rather than yellow, which matters visually in marak. The clove and nutmeg do show through, so use a slightly lighter hand than you would with hawaij itself.

A long North African blend that covers hawaij's warm-savoury territory and then keeps going.

Best for

soups and stews, roast chicken, vegetables, when nothing simpler is on the shelf

Ras el hanout usually contains turmeric, cumin, pepper, ginger and cinnamon, which is a genuine overlap, but it also frequently contains rose petals and sometimes lavender. The result is perfumed and floral rather than clean and peppery, and it can make a simple chicken soup taste oddly fancy. Use three-quarters as much because it is more complex, and add a little extra black pepper.

The sweet blend rebuilt from four jars, for coffee, tea and baking.

Best for

Yemeni coffee, spiced tea, cakes and cookies, milk drinks, poached fruit

This is the real thing in household proportions; some versions also include a little fennel or anise, which pushes it sweeter and more liquorice-scented. Ginger should be the loudest note, and the most common mistake is letting cinnamon take over, which makes it taste like a generic bakery spice rather than Yemeni coffee spice. Cloves are the one ingredient to measure carefully.

Two ready-made sweet blends that sit close enough to coffee hawaij to be drinkable.

Best for

spiced coffee, chai and spiced tea, baking, an emergency

Chai masala is the better of the two, since it already leads with ginger, cardamom and cinnamon; you may just want a touch more ginger. Pumpkin pie spice is nutmeg- and allspice-heavy and usually contains no cardamom at all, so the coffee tastes autumnal and American rather than Yemeni, and the added ginger only partly fixes it. Either works; neither is exact.