Cumin in Iberian cooking: the Moorish inheritance

Al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula, Moorish introduction)

Cumin (comino in Spanish, cominhos in Portuguese) is the most diagnostic spice of Moorish influence in Iberian cooking — appearing in dishes that otherwise have no obvious Islamic connection. Espinacas con garbanzos, gazpacho manchego, fideos al comino (cumin noodles), mojo verde canario (Canary Islands sauce), cozido à portuguesa, and the lamb and pork preparations of the Alentejo all carry cumin as a structural flavour component. Cumin arrived in Iberia with the Islamic conquests and was central to the medical-culinary system of Al-Andalus — considered a digestive aid and a warming spice appropriate to the heavy protein-and-legume diet of the region. Its presence in a Spanish or Portuguese dish is almost always a direct line to the 8th-15th century Islamic culinary legacy.

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