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Resins and other aromatics

Asafoetida

Ferula assa-foetida

Pungent dried resin (hing) used by the pinch in hot oil to give dals and vegetables an onion-garlic savouriness.

Also called: hing, heeng

  • Pungent & sulphurous
  • No heat
Buying & storing78 recipes

Flavour and aroma

sulphurous raw, onion-garlic-like when fried, savoury.

Heat
No heat
Forms
powder

How to use it

  • bloom in fat · Tadka (tempering) technique

    Add a pinch to hot oil for only 2–5 seconds, just after the mustard or cumin, then add the next ingredient at once. It burns very fast.

  • soak

    Dissolve a pea-sized piece of lump hing in 1 tbsp warm water and add the water to dal or sambar.

  • Tadka for dals, sambar and rasam
  • Vegetable and lentil dishes
  • Pickles
  • Pakora and papad doughs

Identifying good quality

Pure hing is a hard, amber to brown resin lump with an overpowering sulphurous smell. Most hing sold is compounded: resin mixed with wheat or rice flour and gum arabic into a yellow or off-white powder. Turmeric-yellow powder is the mildest type.

Origin and history

Origin: Iran and Afghanistan.. Grown and used: Mostly imported into India from Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan; trial cultivation began in Himachal Pradesh in 2020..

Asafoetida (hing) is the dried resin from the roots of Ferula plants. India is the largest consumer, especially in Jain and many Hindu Brahmin kitchens that avoid onion and garlic, where it gives a similar savoury depth.

Well documented

In masalas, pastes and sauces

Recipes with asafoetida

64 more