Skip to content
FriendsPantry

Punjabi · Indian · Pakistani

Punjabi garam masala

Vegetarian

गरम मसाला · garam masālā

The everyday North Indian garam masala: coriander and cumin as the body, with black pepper, green and black cardamom, cloves, cassia, fennel, bay leaf, mace and nutmeg, each roasted until fragrant and ground to a fine, warm, dark-brown powder.

Punjabi garam masala is a Punjabi condiment from India, ready in about 27 minutes and made with coriander seeds, cumin seeds and cardamom. It serves 50 and is rated easy to cook.

Start cooking

No licensed photograph of this dish yet.

Prep
5 min
Cook
12 min
Rest
10 min
Total
27 min
Serves
50
Level
Easy
Calories
7

Ingredients

50 teaspoons (about 2 g each)

Equipment

Method

  1. Step 1

    Heat a heavy dry pan over medium-low heat. Roast the coriander seeds (opens in a new tab) alone, stirring constantly, for 3–4 minutes until they smell citrusy-warm and turn a shade darker. Tip onto a plate.

    Roast the big, light seeds separately: they need longer than the small dense ones.

  2. Step 2

    Roast the cumin seeds (opens in a new tab) the same way, 2–3 minutes, until they darken slightly and a few begin to pop. Add to the plate.

    • 3 min
    • medium-low heat

  3. Step 3

    Roast the peppercorns (opens in a new tab), green and black cardamom (opens in a new tab), cloves (opens in a new tab) and cassia together for 2 minutes, until the cloves swell and the cardamom pods (opens in a new tab) smell sweet. Add the fennel and bay leaves (opens in a new tab) for the last minute and the mace (opens in a new tab) for the last 30 seconds, then tip out.

    • 3 min
    • medium-low heat

    If anything smokes or turns black, discard it; burnt spices make the whole batch bitter.

  4. Step 4

    Tip everything onto a wide plate in a single layer and cool completely, about 10 minutes. Warm spices release oil and steam in the grinder and turn pasty and clumpy. Crack open the black cardamom (opens in a new tab) and keep only the seeds if you want a smoother powder.

    • 10 min

  5. Step 5

    Grind in a spice grinder in two batches, pulsing in short bursts and shaking the grinder between pulses, with the nutmeg (opens in a new tab) grated in, to a fine powder. Sift through a fine sieve and regrind the coarse bits.

    Food safety: Roast in a dry pan, never one with water droplets; and grind in short bursts — chilli dust from the grinder lid stings eyes and throat, so let it settle before opening.

    Spices being ground in a mortar and pestle
    How it looks · Photo: https://kaboompics.com/ on Pexels

  6. Step 6

    Spoon into a clean, completely dry glass jar or spice tin, label with the date and keep away from the stove, light and steam. Always use a dry spoon.

About this dish

Origin
Punjab, India · Commonly attributedEvery Punjabi household has its own proportions; this is a typical home ratio in which coriander and cumin dominate and the sweet spices are kept in check. Not a single documented recipe.Also popular in Pakistan, United KingdomMore food from India
Dish
Lunch · Dinner · Condiments, chutneys & relishes
Cooking method
Toasted
Taste
aromatic / warmly spiced, earthy, peppery
Diet
Vegan · No gluten ingredients · Dairy-free · No nut ingredients · Low-carb
All labelsVegan · Plant-based · Vegetarian (lacto-ovo) · Eggetarian · Lacto-vegetarian · Ovo-vegetarian · Pescatarian · Flexitarian-friendly · Whole-food focused · Paleo-style · No gluten ingredients · Dairy-free · Egg-free · No nut ingredients · No added sugar · Alcohol-free · Pork-free · Beef-free · Low-carb · Low-sodium
Worked out from the ingredients. How labels work
Good for
Make-ahead · Batch cooking · Budget-friendly
Cook more with
Coriander seeds · Cumin seeds · Cardamom · Black peppercorns · Black cardamom · Cloves
Techniques
Toasting · Spice roasting (dry-roasting) · Dry grinding

Allergens

None of the 14 major allergens appear in the listed ingredients.

Based on typical versions of these ingredients and not verified allergen-free. Brands differ and cross-contact happens, so always check labels. For severe allergies, follow your clinician’s advice.

Nutrition

7 kcal per serving

Estimated

1 serving ≈ 2 g · recipe makes 50

Where the energy comes from

  • Protein 14%
  • Carbohydrate 55%
  • Fat 31%
Nutrition per serving and per 100 g
NutrientPer servingPer 100 g
Energy7 kcal345 kcal
Protein0.3 g13 g
Carbohydrate1.2 g61.4 g
Net carbohydrate0.6 g29.1 g
Sugars——
Added sugars0 g0 g
Fibre0.6 g32.3 g
Fat0.3 g16.1 g
Saturated fat0.1 g2.5 g
Trans fat——
Cholesterol0 mg0 mg
Sodium2 mg80 mg
Salt equivalent0 g0.2 g
Vitamins & minerals per serving
Potassium
27 mg
Calcium
16 mg
Iron
0.6 mg
Magnesium
6 mg
Vitamin A (RAE)
1 µg
Vitamin C
0 mg
Vitamin D
0 µg
Vitamin B12
0 µg
Folate (DFE)
—

How these numbers were made

  • Calculated from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) per-100 g values and the listed quantities.
  • Black cardamom: Green cardamom (FDC 170919) used as a stand-in; black cardamom is smoky and used whole in small amounts.
  • Mace: Nutmeg (FDC 171326) used as a stand-in; mace is the aril of the same seed.
  • “—” means the value isn’t known for enough of the ingredients; it is never zero by default.
  • Values are estimates for guidance, not for medical dosing. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. fdc.nal.usda.gov.

Good to know

Tips

  • Use it at the end of cooking — a pinch stirred into a finished curry or dal, then 1–2 minutes off the heat — to keep its aroma.
  • Grind small batches every 2–3 months rather than a year's worth.

Common mistakes

  • Roasting everything together: the cloves and cardamom scorch before the coriander is done.
  • Grinding while warm, which gives a damp, clumpy powder that goes stale quickly.
  • Too many cloves or too much cinnamon — they quickly dominate and make the masala medicinal.

Serve with

  • Finish chana masala, rajma, dal makhani and butter chicken.
  • Add to tandoori and tikka marinades and to biryani layers.

Food safety

  • Roast in a dry pan, never one with water droplets; and grind in short bursts — chilli dust from the grinder lid stings eyes and throat, so let it settle before opening.

Storage

  • Airtight in a cool, dark cupboard for 3 months; it is still usable for 6 but loses aroma steadily.

Variations

  • Mughlai / shahi garam masala: Fewer seeds, more green cardamom, mace, nutmeg and shahi jeera for kormas and biryani.
  • Bengali garam masala: Only green cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, barely warmed.
  • Kerala (Malabar) garam masala: Fennel and star anise lead, with very little coriander or cumin.

Original editorial recipe · FriendsPantry editorial · Not yet independently reviewed · Added · Updated

About this masala

Type
Dry spice blend
Texture
Fine powder
One batch makes
about 100 g
Keeps
about 3 months
Store
Airtight jar, cool dark cupboard
Recipe
Traditional

Punjab, North India. Makes Garam masala, the ingredient our dish recipes list. All masalas

Regional variations: Bengali garam masala, Biryani masala, Kerala (Malabar) garam masala, Mughlai (shahi) garam masala

Used in

Amounts are each dish’s own quantity, for the servings it is written for. “Make enough” opens this recipe scaled for that dish.

Recipe DNA

How this dish is built

Grouped by each ingredient’s role in the dish. Each band’s width is its share of the dish by weight. Choose a component to see what it does.

The spice and seasoning backbone

Spices, masalas & pastes

  • Coriander seeds, dry-roast until a shade darker and fragrant30 g
  • Cumin seeds, dry-roast until a shade darker and popping25 g
  • Black peppercorns, dry-roast with the cardamoms10 g
  • Cardamom, dry-roast whole (about 40 green pods)8 g
  • Black cardamom, dry-roast whole (about 4 pods), then crack open6 g
  • Cloves, dry-roast just until they swell (about 50)5 g
  • Cinnamon stick, lightly roast, broken into pieces (cassia bark, three 7 cm sticks)8 g
  • Fennel seeds, dry-roast briefly; it scorches fast8 g
  • Bay leaves, lightly roast until crisp (about 6 Indian bay leaves / tej patta), torn2 g
  • Mace, lightly roast for the last 30 seconds (2 blades)2 g
  • Nutmeg, raw, grated into the grinder (about half a nutmeg)3 g
Used in steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Reviews & corrections

Reviews come from signed-in cooks and appear after a moderator checks them. We never show made-up ratings.

You might also like