Bamboe instant spice mixes
Bumbu is Indonesian for spice mix, and Bamboe is a company that makes instant bumbu.
When you hear instant, don’t think neon cheese powder. Every ingredient is all-natural. The kinds of things an Indonesian cook would use to make bumbu from scratch. Shallots, garlic, chili, and various spices in a bit of oil to make a paste. Ingredients like lemongrass and galangal (a relative of ginger) that are not always easy to find.
What's inside Bamboe packets
Most varieties are made from gluten-free ingredients. Check the label to be sure, at least one of them (Bumbu Bali) contains soy sauce.
Bamboe’s curries are probably my favorite. However I’ll use any of their gluten-free mixes in my cooking. There are directions on the back of the packets to make the dish in a traditional way, and creative recipes on the Bamboe website. Often I will simply check the ingredients list for the flavors I am looking for and use a packet that sounds good to improvise with the ingredients I have on hand.
Look for Bamboe at Asian grocery stores. You could even ask your local health food store if they would order Bamboe mixes. Pure and natural, they’d fit in perfectly on a health food store shelf.
Hi Laura!
I made chicken noodles soup with their Yellow Chicken Soup seasoning. It came out pretty good.
Hi Tina,
I’ve used the yellow soup mix to make a veggie curry sauce before, but never the actual soup. Maybe I’ll have to try it!
So let me get this straight. All the mixes can be used for vegetarian dishes? I looked at the ingredients and most of them have pretty much the same lists, but some said good for vegetarian and some do not mention.
Hi Tina,
I use them all for veggie dishes, even the ones that only mention meat. You’re right, the mixes do share many of the same ingredients…shallots, garlic, chili. But it’s the ingredients that are not shared among them all that give a slightly different flavor to each: coriander, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric. I don’t think they have any spices in their mixes that wouldn’t blend well with veggies. It just depends what sort of flavor you’re looking for.