Being a kitchen witch is a popular path, but you don’t have to identify as one to work magick with some mixing bowls and your oven. Even if you’re not known for your mastery of herbs and spices, you can still cast a few tricks over holiday dinner — or whenever, we all have to eat — to bring positive energy to yourself, friends, and family.
Much of the advice for using magick with cooking relies on making specific recipes. Although that method can introduce someone to a range of yummy meals to try, due to different cultures, tastes and accessibility, it may be hard to work specific recipes into everyday life. So in this article, I’ll be discussing different herbs and foods that you can use for protection, peace, and luck.
This article just gives some suggestions for using these different foods, but however you use them, adding them to your food with intent will infuse the dish with the energy you want. Also, if you are preparing the dish for others, be sure it is something everyone will eat! Be mindful of allergies and food aversions.
Protection baked right in
Protection is one of the basic tenants of magical work. Blocking and clearing negative energy are both popular spell types. It makes sense that they would also be used in kitchen-based magick, and we’re starting with one of the simplest protective spices: salt.
Salt
Forming a salt circle a well-known method of making a protective barrier, but you don’t need that that much to work a little protection into your meal. Adding a pinch of salt with a quick blessing will share that power with your food. This is a great place to start as most recipes call for at least a little bit of salt. Even just boiling your pasta with salt is enough. Just remember to take a moment to focus on your intent while you’re mixing it in.
Basil
Another popular seasoning for protection (and increasing happiness in the home) is basil. The best thing about basil is that it’s great for warm weather! It can be used to make pesto sauce for pasta, sprinkled over tomatoes for a salad or added to hot dishes as a seasoning.1
Rosemary
Rosemary is another strong herb for protection and it can be found easily. It’s great for warding off evil and, as a bonus while you’re cooking, this herb is so fragrant it almost acts as a sort of incense to smudge the home a bit. Like basil, it has a variety of uses and the cooking options are endless.2
Lemons
If it’s too hot to cook, there’s nothing like an ice-cold glass of lemonade. I am speaking of the drink that is created from lemons, sugar, and water, not Sprite. As a bonus, lemons have protective and cleansing properties. Even adding a slice to your coke or some to your tea can brings some magical protection to your beverage.
For peace inside and out
Red onion
A peaceful home and a peaceful self are both important for a healthy life. If you’re feeling a little unsettled, why not cook something with onion? Red onion to be exact. This may seem like a strange food for peace, it has a strong smell and is a bit tough, but added to food it can help promote peace in your life, as well as prosperity and healing. Plus, you can use it in a ton of things, both cooked and raw.3
Lavender
Another peaceful herb is lavender. You’ve probably have heard or even use the smell of lavender in your home to promote a nice, restful environment. Lavender can also be used directly in cooking. This herb promotes peaceful feelings, love, and joy so if you want your food to imbue those feelings in whoever eats it, this is the perfect choice. Lavender can be used in both savoury and sweet things, but it must be prepared correctly so your food doesn’t taste like soap.4
Honey
If you don’t want to get fancy with your cooking, but you still want to do some magick for peace, all sweet things like sugar and honey, can be used to promote this sort of energy. Even if you’re just scooping up a bowl of premade ice-cream, taking the time to say a small blessing or invocation can pass that energy to whoever eats it.
Everyday luck
Ginger
Everybody likes to be lucky, so there’s no reason not to work that magick into what you eat. If you’re about to head out to a game night, eat something with some ginger in it. This spice isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (and would make terrible tea) but it can help the energy that gives you a winning spin at games of chance. It’s a bit spicy, but ginger can be used in everything from chicken to cookies.5
Chamomile
If spicy isn’t really your thing, then chamomile may be more your pace. This herb is usually reserved for tea and although brewing and drinking a cup while focusing on what you hope to “win” at is a good idea, you can do more with this hidden luck herb. You can make tasty sweet treats and even popsicles.6
Thyme
For something savourier, give your food a sprinkle of thyme. This herb helps increase money, and tastes really great with a variety of savoury, filling foods. Thyme is also known to help with stress. It is usually kept in its dry form and works as a seasoning in a variety of recipes.7
Cook with intent
This piece is by no means an exhaustive resource of magical herbs and spices to help give you a deliciously enchanted summer. In fact this is just the tip of the iceberg. The recipes provided in the footnotes are just to give an idea of how to use these herbs, but feel free to experiment!
Mix and match some of the herbs and spices here for your own unique spice blends and flavours, substitute and experiment! The most important thing is that while you are preparing your food, you do so with the intent. Focus on the protection, peace, or luck you wish to grant yourself or your loved ones.
If you’re interested in learning more about herbs and such that you can add to your food for their magickal properties, an accessible place start is with Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.8
This is only a beginning, and even if you don’t become a kitchen witch, you can still practice a bit of magick while you’re preparing your everyday food. Kitchen witchery is just one more way to infuse magick into our everyday lives!
Image credits: Jilles Gurp, Mark Bonica, Dark Dwarf, and Faber_32
- Some recipe ideas can be found here: Alison Spiegel, “34 Super Fresh Basil Recipes to Carry You Through the Rest of Summer,” The Huffington Post, 2012. [↩]
- Some recipe ideas can be found here: Rachel Sanders, “39 Delicious Things To Do With Rosemary,” BuzzFeed, 2013. [↩]
- Some recipe ideas can be found here: “Best Red Onion Recipe On Pinterest,” Pinterest, 2017. [↩]
- Some recipe ideas can be found here: “15 Lovely Lavender Recipes,” Boulder Locavore, 2017. [↩]
- For recipe ideas look here: Rachel Sanders, “29 Ginger Recipes That Will Spice Up Your Life,” Buzzfeed, 2014. [↩]
- “Chamomile Recipes,” Pinterest, 2017. [↩]
- “Thyme Recipes,” Allrecipes, 2017. [↩]
- Scott Cunningham, Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 2000). [↩]
