Spice assessed and softened by soaking (9)
I believe the answer is:
macerated
'softened by soaking' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'spice assessed' is the wordplay.
'spice' becomes 'mace' (mace is a kind of spice).
'assessed' becomes 'rated' (rating is a kind of assessing).
'mace'+'rated'='MACERATED'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for macerated that I've seen before include "softened by soaking" , "Wet" .)