Curry powder, five-spice, paprika
With care — Allowed by some hospitals and not others, or allowed only prepared a particular way.
In one line: Use small quantities, finely ground, and leave it out if your team says so.
Curry powder, garam masala, five-spice and paprika are blends of ground dried spice. At the quantities used in home cooking they are a powder rather than a set of pieces, and they dissolve into a sauce. On texture alone they would be a weak case for restriction.
There are two other things going on, though, and they are worth separating.
Where hospitals differ
St George's allows dried spices. Leeds allows them at stage three of its obstruction diet. The leaflet this book follows lists spices under foods to avoid. This book follows the leaflet, so no recipe here uses a spice blend of any kind.
The second issue is not about fibre at all. Chilli heat and heavily spiced food are commonly restricted in advice about urgency, diarrhoea and a sore or inflamed gut, which is a separate axis from obstruction. A blend containing chilli therefore raises a question that plain nutmeg does not, and that question can still be live even where your team is relaxed about ground spice generally.
Whole spices are a different matter again and are restricted much more consistently. Cumin seed, mustard seed and cardamom pods keep a tough husk right through cooking and should not be left in a dish. If you are allowed spice at all, ground is the form to use, or a whole spice infused into a liquid and strained out.
If your team says a little is fine
Start small, use it in something with fat in it, which carries spice flavour better, and keep chilli separate from the question of mild ground spice. See herbs and spices.
Swaps
- Instead of Chilli flakes or fresh chilli, use A little ground smoked paprika
- Chilli seeds are the specific problem, not spice generally, so a little ground smoked paprika gives warmth without any seeds at all.