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Fenugreek

Seeds

Fenugreek

Trigonella foenum-graecum

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

Also called: methi, methi seeds, çemen, shamballeh

  • Warm & sweet
  • Nutty & toasty
  • Earthy
  • No heat
Buying & storing56 recipes

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

Flavour and aroma

bitter, maple-like, nutty when fried, celery-like. Bitter raw; nutty and maple-like when toasted.

Heat
No heat
Forms
whole, ground

How to use it

  • bloom in fat · Tadka (tempering) technique

    Fry in hot oil for 10–20 seconds, only until reddish-brown. Dark brown seeds are unpleasantly bitter.

  • dry roast · Spice roasting (dry-roasting) technique

    For sambar powder and pickles, roast over low heat for 2–3 minutes until golden and nutty, then grind.

  • soak

    For idli and dosa, soak a teaspoon or so with the urad dal for 4–6 hours and grind together; it softens and makes the batter fluffier.

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

Identifying good quality

Hard, angular, mustard-yellow to amber seeds 3–5 mm long, with a groove across one side. Very hard; good seeds are evenly coloured with no dust.

  • Not to be confused with Dried fenugreek leaves: Kasuri methi is the dried leaf of the same plant; it is used differently.

Origin and history

Origin: The eastern Mediterranean and western Asia.. Grown and used: India is the world's largest producer, mainly Rajasthan; also grown in Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt, Ethiopia and Turkey..

Fenugreek is an ancient crop of the Near East and India. In South India the seeds go into idli and dosa batter, sambar powder and pickles; in Bengal they are one of the five seeds of panch phoron.

Well documented

In masalas, pastes and sauces

Recipes with fenugreek

40 more