Westerners unfamiliar with fenugreek sometimes find its flavour unpleasantly “goaty.” Fenugreek seeds are most commonly used in Indian, Yemeni, and Ethiopian cookery. In Yemen and Ethiopia, they are soaked and ground for their flavour and their thickening powers to make the thick, soup-like hilbeh, a national dish in Yemen. Fenugreek leaves appear in the Georgian spice mixture khmeli-suneli. In India, the leaves are eaten like spinach or dried and used as a flavouring, and in southern India, the dried leaves flavour potato curries. Fenugreek leaves, along with dried limes, are used in _ghormeh sabzi], a thick Iranian vegetable sauce.

Other Names

Fenugreek: Abish (Amharic); alfarva or feno-grego (Portuguese); alholva or fenogreco (Spanish); bockshornklee (German); fenugrec, sénegré, or trigonelle (French); fieno greco (Italian); kelabet (Indonesian); hilbeh (Arabic, Hebrew); hu lu ba (Chinese); methi (Hindi); moschositaro or trigonella (Greek); shanbalile (Farsi); uwatu (Swahili)

Storage

Store ground fenugreek in the refrigerator; ground fenugreek loses its fragrance rather quickly, so check the quality before you use it. Whole fenugreek seeds will keep quite well up to 2 years unrefrigerated.

Preparation

Fenugreek seeds tend to have a hard shell, so crush them in a mortar and pestle or with a hammer, or soak them to soften before mashing.

Culinary Uses

• Add a pinch of ground fenugreek to Indian-style curries, lamb, or beef dishes, especially those using ground meat.

• Add ground fenugreek to chickpeas, falafel mix, and Indian potato dishes and naan.

• Add blue fenugreek to cottage cheese spreads.

Food Affinities