Next time you make popcorn, treat yourself to some flavor. I insist. Make a big bowl of the crunchy stuff and sprinkle your favorite popcorn seasoning on top. I’m not talking about that stupid powder that comes in a bottle at the grocery store. Why buy overpriced popcorn salt when you can make endless flavors at home? It’s so easy and quick that there’s really no reason not to try it. Let’s get popping.

Unless you have dietary restrictions, eating plain popcorn is like forcing yourself to eat packaging (you really should use packaging). You don’t need tons of butter or oil to add flavor, all you need is salt and spices that have been ground into a fine powder. The superfine particles get caught in the irregular hooks, crevices, and grooves of each popped kernel, creating a well-balanced flavor in every handful. Here are two ways to do it.

This is my favorite tool because you can use the mortar and pestle to make a single batch or a whole lot at once. I always add the largest ingredients first. Salt is probably one of them, and you may only be sprinkling salt, so go ahead and add that to the mortar bowl. In my recipe below, I use sea salt and nutritional yeast flakes. Those are the two largest ingredients, so they go in first. If you are using dried herbs, add them in this step.

Use the pestle to grind the ingredients in a circular motion around the bowl with firm pressure. I probably did this about 15-20 times until I was happy with how fine the salt and flakes were. It took maybe the same number of seconds to do this. If you’re not sure how fine the powder is, look at the powder at an angle under a light. You’ll see that the light will pick up some of the salt crystals. If they’re too big, or there are a lot of them, give it another round of grinding.