Shawarma Spice: Ingredients and How to Use It

Shawarma spice is a ready-mixed blend for seasoning shawarma, the spit-roasted meat of the Middle East, and it works as a general rub for chicken, beef, lamb and vegetables.¹ There is no fixed recipe. The two named versions on this page share a warm core of cumin, coriander, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, paprika and turmeric, and differ on the rest.²¹

At a glance


What it is	A ground spice blend for shawarma and other roasted or grilled meat²¹
Shared core in the recipes checked	Cumin, coriander, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, paprika, turmeric²¹
Where they differ	Cayenne and garlic powder (Whelan); sumac (Ibrahim)²¹
Amount to use	1 tablespoon per 2 pounds of meat (Ibrahim)¹
Keeps	Up to 6 months, airtight, in a cool, dry place (Leite)²
Related dishes	Döner, gyros, tacos al pastor³

Two named versions side by side

Spice	Christine Sahadi Whelan, Flavors of the Sun (2021), via Leite’s Culinaria²	Amira Ibrahim, Amira’s Pantry (2025)¹
Allspice	1 tbsp	1 tsp
Cumin	1 tsp	1 tbsp
Coriander	1 tsp	1 tbsp
Paprika	1/2 tsp	1 tbsp
Ginger	1/2 tsp	1 tbsp
Cloves	1/2 tsp	1 tbsp
Black pepper	1/2 tsp	1 tbsp
Cinnamon	1/2 tsp	1/2 tsp
Cardamom	1/2 tsp	1/2 tsp
Turmeric	1/4 tsp	1/2 tsp
Cayenne	1 tsp	none
Garlic powder	1/2 tsp	none
Sumac	none	1 tsp

The two recipes use almost the same spices in very different proportions. Whelan’s is led by allspice, with cayenne for heat. Ibrahim’s gives equal weight to cumin, coriander, paprika, ginger, cloves and black pepper, with a little sumac; she describes the result as rich and smoky with slightly tangy notes.²¹ Neither is “the” shawarma spice.

What each spice does

Allspice and cloves carry the warm, sweet-pungent note. Allspice oil is 50 to 80% eugenol.⁴
Cumin gives an earthy depth; its aroma comes mostly from cuminaldehyde, 20 to 72% of the oil depending on the study.⁵
Coriander, cinnamon and cardamom round out the warmth.
Paprika and turmeric add color; cayenne adds heat.
Sumac adds a sour note. Gernot Katzer notes that Turkish döner is sometimes flavored with sumac powder, and describes sumac as tart and sour.⁶

Where shawarma comes from

Roasting meat on a spit is ancient, but centuries ago cooks in the Ottoman Empire developed a different, more specialized technique, according to a 2026 CNN report.³ The report cites the researcher Işın, who found 15th-century texts describing spit-roasted meats as çevirme kebabı, “turned kebabs.” The term çevirme later entered Arabic and English as shawarma.³ Ottoman-style spit-roasted meat spread across the Middle East and Europe, and the Greek gyro also takes its name from the verb “to turn.”³

The same report traces tacos al pastor to immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, many from the region that became Lebanon, who brought shawarma to Mexico. In Puebla, which has a large Lebanese community, restaurants served tacos árabes in the 1930s; Pilcher, quoted in the report, calls tacos al pastor as known today a product of the 1960s, with a Mexican marinade of pineapple, achiote and chiles.³

A widely repeated story places the invention of the vertical spit in the city of Bursa in the 17th century. The report we checked does not mention Bursa, and we found no source for that date.

How to use it

As a rub. Rub it into chicken, beef or lamb before roasting or grilling.²¹ Ibrahim suggests 1 tablespoon per 2 pounds of meat.¹
In a marinade. One option is to stir it into yogurt or oil with lemon and garlic for chicken.
On vegetables. Both recipe writers suggest it for potatoes and other vegetables.²¹
In soups and stews. Ibrahim also uses it in soups and stews.¹

Leite’s Culinaria suggests storing the blend airtight in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months and starting with spices bought within the last three months.² Neither recipe includes salt, so season the meat separately.²¹

Health

Claims that shawarma spice fights cancer or food poisoning are not supported by any source we found. For one of its ingredients, NCCIH says research doesn’t clearly support using cinnamon for any health condition.⁷

Amira Ibrahim, Shawarma Spice Blend, Amira’s Pantry, 2025. amiraspantry.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³
Shawarma Spice Blend, Leite’s Culinaria, adapted from Christine Sahadi Whelan, Flavors of the Sun. leitesculinaria.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹
“How roasted meats went spinning all the way around the world,” CNN, via CP24, 2026. cp24.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Pimenta dioica, PROSEA. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Cuminum cyminum, PROSEA. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Sumac, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩
Cinnamon: Usefulness and Safety, NCCIH. nccih.nih.gov · Regulator ↩

Shawarma Spice: What Goes Into It and How Two Recipes Compare