This easy homemade everything bagel seasoning blend takes less than 5-minutes to make. All you need are sesame and poppy seeds and dried, minced garlic and onion.
Homemade everything bagel seasoning stores well for a long time and is so good on my popular homemade everything bagels, sprinkled on eggs, on top of smashed avocado toast, and it can be used to make so many fun snacks like these everything bagel Goldfish crackers!
DIY Everything Bagel Seasoning Blend
After so many years of using store bought everything bagel seasoning blends, I've finally begun making my own. While I know many of you will continue using store-bought blends, I did want to share my easy everything bagel seasoning recipe here for anyone who is interested.
Making your own everything bagel seasoning at home is a great way to save a bit of money. Yes, you have to buy the ingredients in larger quantities, but you can make a lot more everything bagel seasoning for your dollar than if you buy it pre-made.
DIY everything bagel seasoning is your opportunity to control the ratios for just the right amount of garlic and onion flavor and crunch from the sesame and poppy seeds.
Most importantly, when you make DIY everything bagel seasoning, you can choose whether or not to include salt.
Why I Don't Include Salt in My Everything Bagel Seasoning
Most store bought everything bagel seasoning blends include salt. This is great if you're planning to sprinkle it over eggs, avocado toast, soups, snack dips, etc. Salt adds a ton of flavor and just tastes good.
My base recipe for homemade everything bagel seasoning is made without salt, not because salt is scary or bad (it's not, it's delicious and we love it), but because I want to choose how much and what type of salt to add to it on a recipe-by-recipe basis.
In baking, salt does more than just add flavor. It can change the way yeast behaves in dough. And when you use it as a topping for breads and doughs, the salt will draw moisture out of the dough causing it to go stale faster.
There are so many different types of salt you may want to include, depending on how you plan to use your everything bagel topping. And remember: you can always add more salt but you can't take salt out!
If you're making everything bagel pretzel bites, add pretzel salt. If you're sprinkling everything bagel topping on avocado toast, you might prefer flaky sea salt. If you're making classic everything bagels, I recommend leaving the salt out altogether because there's already salt in the dough and salt on top will draw moisture out of the bagels.
Since I usually make a big jar to keep on hand whenever I need it, keeping my everything bagel seasoning salt-free makes it so much more versatile!
TIP: When buying pre-made everything bagel seasoning, you can check salt content by looking at the ingredients list. The earlier on the ingredients list salt appears, the more salt is in the mix. Spiceology makes a salt-free everything bagel seasoning. I also like King Arthur Baking Company's Everything Bagel Topping, which features salt last on the ingredient list. Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel Topping, in comparison, includes salt second on the ingredient list.
What Goes In Everything Bagel Seasoning
Have you ever wondered what is in everything bagel seasoning? You only need four key ingredients: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried minced garlic, and dried minced onion. See recipe card for quantities.
Other everything bagel seasoning ingredients that you can include or substitute: black sesame seeds or tri-color sesame seeds. Two non-traditional additions that I've seen sometimes included are caraway seeds (typical of rye bread) and fennel seeds.
Making everything bagel seasoning is so easy, it hardly needs a recipe. You'll basically combine all of the ingredients in a bowl or jar and give them a really good stir or shake to make sure they're evenly combined.
Because the ingredients have different weights and shapes, you'll notice that by just shaking them together, some have a tendency to sink to the bottom or rise to the top.
To get an even distribution of garlic, onion, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds when you use your blend, I recommend giving it a good stir or shake before you use it.
The Perfect Everything Bagel Seasoning Ratio
The best part of making your own DIY everything bagel topping is that you can control the ratio of ingredients.
I tested a few different ratios before landing on my perfect combination — 1 part garlic, 1 part onion, 2 parts poppy seeds, 2 parts sesame seeds. That's ⅛ cup each of dried minced garlic and dried minced onion and ¼ cup each poppy seeds and sesame seeds. This recipe will make about ¾ cups of everything bagel blend.
Play around with it and taste as you go. Maybe start with ⅛ cup of each and then add more sesame or more poppy seeds 1 tablespoon at a time. (⅛ cup = 2 tablespoons). I found that when I used equal parts of everything, the garlic and onion flavors were way too strong. But you may prefer it that way!
TIP: To taste test your blend, spread a bit of cream cheese or butter on a cracker and sprinkle with everything bagel topping.
This is also when you can decide if you want to add salt to your base everything bagel seasoning blend or not.
Ways to Use Everything Bagel Seasoning
The uses for DIY everything bagel seasoning are endless. Here are some of my favorites:
- Everything Bagels. I use this salt-free everything bagel seasoning in my easy everything bagel dough AND on top of the bagels. It helps give the dough a great garlic and onion flavor to really emphasize the everything bagel flavors I love.
- Soft Pretzels. Use them to make these appetizer-ready everything bagel soft pretzel bites; you can even add it directly to your pretzel dough!
- Bialys. Replace the plain poppy seeds in easy homemade bialys with everything bagel seasoning!
- Eggs. Sprinkle a pinch over these perfectly fried eggs with a bit of salt and pepper to add crunch and flavor!
- Goat Cheese. Roll a log of goat cheese in everything bagel seasoning for parties, cheeseboards, or appetizers!
- Avocado Toast. Sprinkle over mashed avocado on toast with flaky salt and a few dashes of hot sauce. Instantly level up your avo toast without breaking the bank.
- Bread Topping. For crusty no knead breads or sourdough breads, sprinkle everything bagel blend into your brotform/banneton/proofing basket so that it sticks to the top of the bread during its final rise. For other bread loaves, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with everything bagel blend before baking. Also so good sprinkled over homemade focaccia bread!
- Vegetables. Cook your favorite roasted or steamed vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, carrots, green beans, or brussels sprouts with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then sprinkle on some everything bagel blend to finish.
Where to Buy Quality or Bulk Spices
When it comes to buying spices, seeds, and seasonings, it's really up to you how much money you want to spend for quality vs. buying in bulk. Spices and seasonings can expire and will lose their flavor and potency over time.
To save money, you can buy larger quantities of spices at places discount stores like Ocean State Job Lot or Ollie's ($1-2 per ~4 oz bottle). But those spices have probably already been sitting around for a while by the time you get them. I'll be honest — I used some of these while I was testing my everything bagel blend and they worked just fine! But you might notice your everything bagel topping loses its flavor faster.
For higher quality options, there are plenty of reputable brands like McCormick and Simply Organic, and reputable online spice retailers like Burlap & Barrel, Spiceology, and Spicewalla, where you can find everything you need.
At the grocery store, sesame seeds can often be found in larger quantities for a lower price in the International aisle — which is also where you're more likely to find black sesame seeds.
The Murky Origins of Everything Bagel Seasoning
It's hard to say exactly where the specific blend we know of as everything bagel seasoning first appeared. In a 2019 Gastro Obscura article, Dan Nosowitz noted everything bagel as "a very recent culinary tradition, barely 40 years old, with a slow rise to prominence. There probably wasn’t a single everything bagel in San Francisco until the 1990s."
It's no surprise how these particular flavors ended up being combined into a single bagel topping. "These particular toppings ended up in bagel shops, and eventually on the everything bagel because the bagel’s ancestor had used those toppings for thousands of years," Nosowitz wrote.
Several different people have taken credit for creating what we know of today as an "everything bagel" blend over the years. Some guy named Dave Gussin says he came up with the name "everything bagel" as a teenager working in a bagel shop in 1980, and his story is the one you'll see cited most often. But in a recent issue of Snack Stack newsletter, Doug Mack dug into the conflicting everything bagel origin stories and found a mention of an "everything bagel" at a different bagel shop in a news archive as early as 1977.
Unfortunately, we may never know who truly gave everything bagel seasoning its name — but we do know it tastes dang good on so much more than bagels!
📖 Recipe
5-Minute Everything Bagel Seasoning Blend
Recipe Notes
- To taste and adjust your homemade everything bagel seasoning, sprinkle some on a cracker spread with cream cheese or butter. This will help you decide if it needs more of any ingredient or what type of salt to include!
- Stir well before use — poppy seeds tend to settle in the middle or bottom of the jar, it can be hard to get even distribution by shaking it.
- You can replace up to half of the sesame seeds with black sesame seeds, or all of the sesame seeds with a tri-color sesame seed blend.
- Store homemade everything bagel seasoning in an airtight jar or container. It will stay good for at least 6 months when stored properly. Sesame seeds have oils in them that can go rancid and smell bad when not stored properly. While your DIY everything bagel blend can last longer than 6 months, after 6 months you may notice the quality and taste of the ingredients beginning to degrade. Always give your everything bagel blend a sniff test before use if you're not sure!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup sesame seeds (can replace up to half with black sesame seeds)
- ¼ cup poppy seeds
- ⅛ cup dried minced garlic (or garlic flakes)
- ⅛ cup dried minced onion (or onion flakes)
Instructions
- Combine sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried garlic, and dried onion in a bowl or jar. Stir or shake well to combine.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. When using, add salt as needed based on the recipe.
Cecile says
Wow! What a great deep dive into this subject! Thanks for putting it all together, not sure why it hadn't occurred to me to do this before. I love that you can customize this, I'm partial to caraway seeds!