have used cardamom to spice up my roasted beets, which is popular in Indian and middle eastern cooking and is a seed pod in the ginger family. There are two main varieties black and green, the difference apart from the colour is that the black are larger and have a smokier flavour. Cardamom has a wonderful aroma and complex flavours with herby, citrusy, mint-like notes. You will find cardamom seeds in an Indian specialty shop, or you can buy it online from Herbie’s in Australia, and either iHerb or Amazon in the US. If push comes to shove, you can always crack open the pods and remove the seeds, but this is quite time-consuming. As an alternative try it with fennel seed but trust me you are going to be really missing something special without the cardamom!