Five-spice powder recipes
Five-spice powder is a powerfully scented mixture in which star anise and cinnamon dominate. It will also include spices such as fennel, cloves, nutmeg, sichuan pepper and ginger (the name five-spice is symbolic rather than literal). Keep it on hand for making Vietnamese as well as Chinese dishes.
A crowd-pleasing easy chicken curry, packed with the Chinese flavours you'd expect from the takeaway version, but still keeping the calories low and the protein high. The sauce freezes well and is really easy to make using two popular spice blends: curry powder and five-spice.
Each serving provides 487 kcal, 37g protein, 66g carbohydrates (of which 10.5g sugars), 7g fat (of which 1.5g saturates), 4.5g fibre and 2g salt.
More five-spice powder recipes
Buyer's guide
Five-spice powder is available from Chinese grocers, and is becoming more widely available in supermarkets too. A good blend should be fragrant and spicy but also slightly sweet.
