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Fenugreek

Spices & seasonings · Whole spices

Fenugreek

Hard, yellow-brown, squarish seeds with a bitter, maple-like flavour, used sparingly in tempering and masalas.

Also called: methi, methi seeds, çemen, shamballeh

A kind of spices

56 recipes with it

Read the full spice guide: flavour, history and how to use it

Photo: Thamizhpparithi Maari, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

What it is

Fenugreek seeds (methi dana) are small, hard, angular seeds, mustard-yellow to brown. Raw they are very bitter; fried briefly in oil or roasted they turn nutty and smell of maple syrup. They are used in small amounts: in South Indian tempering, panch phoron, pickles and sambar powder, and soaked in idli and dosa batter. The dried leaves (kasuri methi) are a separate ingredient.

Trigonella foenum-graecum

How it’s used

  • Tadka for sambar, kadhi and pickles
  • Panch phoron
  • Soaked into idli and dosa batters
  • Sambar and curry powders
  • Ethiopian berbere and Yemeni hilbeh

Characteristics

Taste
Bitter raw; nutty and maple-like when toasted.
When cooked
Fry only until a shade darker: burnt seeds are acrid.
Sold as
whole, ground
Cooking uses
Used for tempering (tadka), Mainly a seasoning

Storage

Cool, dry and dark. Airtight jar; whole seeds keep for a long time.

Diet, allergens and safety

No major allergens in typical versions.

  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan
  • Dairy-free
  • Egg-free
  • Gluten-free
  • Nut-free
  • Soy-free
  • Caffeine-free
  • Fenugreek is a legume; people with peanut or chickpea allergy are sometimes sensitive to it.

Nutrition per 100 g

Energy
323 kcal
Protein
23 g
Carbohydrate
58.35 g
Fat
6.41 g
Fibre
24.6 g
Sugars
— g

USDA FoodData Central: Spices, fenugreek seed.

Substitutes

Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.

  • Mustard seeds — For tempering, though without fenugreek's bitter-sweet note; a little maple syrup can hint at it.

Related ingredients

Recipes with fenugreek

See all 56

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