Fenugreek

[Metal Spice]

Ok, so I have Fenugreek in my spice rack & I have absolutely no idea what to use this in. Can anybody give me some ideas? Thanks!

[Milagai]

Ok, so I have Fenugreek in my spice rack & I have absolutely no idea what to use this in. Can anybody give me some ideas? Thanks! 

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tons of indian recipes use fenugreek.

if you go to the indian board right now there is

a discussion of vindaloo, which uses fenugreek.

fenugreek seeds and fresh leaves are not

interchangeable. the latter are used like spinach,

i.e. a green leafy veg.

the former is a spice that is pleasantly aromatic when

handled right, and nasty bitter when handled wrong.

milagai

[Eden]

It's also used in persian cooking.

[anzu]

It makes a wonderful Indian chutney, called halba.

Soak about 1 tablespoonful in water till soft (overnight or comparable length of time). It will swell up, which is not surprising as it is actually a legume even though cooked as a spice. The soaking water will turn rather yellow - this is normal.

Drain, discarding the water. Now add fresh green chillies (the quantity depends on your personal heat tolerance), salt, lime juice, a generous bunch of coriander, and about one teaspoon of peeled fresh ginger. Grind the whole lot in a food processor.

It will take on a slightly pasty texture - this too is normal. It has a sharp, somewhat bitter taste. Don't make this chutney if you don't like bitterness.

Lasts about four days in the fridge (though never stayed around that long in my house )

I first came across this in Indian-Jewish Cooking by Mavis Hyman. Lots of really good recipes in this book.

This is an adaption of a yemenite dish (called hilba) which is similar to the above. The Yemeni version is without the ginger, green chillies, and coriander, and instead has garlic, tomatoes, black pepper, caraway seed and cardamom, and as much chilli powder as you can stand.

Incidentally, fenugreek seeds that have been soaked in this way are meant to be helpful in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. This has been a home remedy in India for a long time. People soak a few seeds in water overnight and simply eat them in the morning. There has been research into the subject quite recently and apparently - unlike many folk remedies for diabetes - it has actually turned out to be effective. They're still not entirely sure why, whether it is due to the fenugreek actually being a legume and therefore being beneficial to the blood sugar as other legumes are, or whether there is more to it.

I also quite recently learnt a dish from Rajasthan where soaked fenugreek is cooked as if it were a dal rather than being treated as a spice. More on this later if you're interested.

Eden, what is done with fenugreek in Persian cooking?? As is clear from this post, I love fenugreek and would love to know more ways of cooking with it!

[Metal Spice]

Thanks for the quick replies! And anzu, yes I would love to hear about the dish you just learned. And thanks for the Type 2 Diabetes info - my uncle has it so this is definietly good information. Thank you all so much for your help!

[Eden]

I also quite recently learnt a dish from Rajasthan where soaked fenugreek is cooked as if it were a dal rather than being treated as a spice. More on this later if you're interested.

Eden, what is done with fenugreek in Persian cooking?? As is clear from this post, I love fenugreek and would love to know more ways of cooking with it!

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The last dish I made with it was a kuku sabzi (herbed egg dish). If this isn't the exact version I used, it's very close. I warn you that, thanks to the fenugreek, this is not a standard tasting "omelette" at all & while my friends & I really enjoyed it, I would NOT serve it to food weenies.

Fenugreek is also used in sabzi polau (herbed rice), Ash (persian noodle soup), and Koresh-e qormeh sabzi (herbed lamb stew). I think it's popular in fish dishes as well. Pretty much anything labled sabzi - which I think means herbs - is likely to contain fenugreek. Sort of amusing now that you tell us fenugreek is actually a legume.

I'm fascinated by the idea of treating it as a dal. Please do post more about that.

[anzu]

Ahah!

Eden, you must surely be using the green vegetable part of it while I have been talking about the seeds.

There are also many Indian recipes where the leaves of fenugreek, both fresh and dried, are used. Any Google search with methi as a key word should bring up a lot of hits.

For the Rajasthani recipe, a note first. Rajasthani food is VERY hot. When my neighbour cooked this for me, the entire dish was red from the powdered chilli. I have reduced it here, although you can of course increase it again if you like hot food. As you can see, it's not being cooked in quite the same manner as a standard dal preparation, but it's certainly not being used as a spice either!

Half cup (unsoaked) fenugreek seeds

1 and a half tablespoons oil

1 onion, finely chopped

4 to 5 cloves garlic

Half teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

Half teaspoon turmeric

1 and a half teaspoons coriander powder

Bring water to a boil, add the fenugreek seeds. Boil 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside 10-15 minutes to soften. Drain.

Heat the oil, add the onions and cook till beginning to turn golden. Meanwhile, mash the garlic to a paste with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, and add all powdered spices to the mashed garlic.

Once the onions have started to turn golden, add the garlic and spice mix. Keep cooking, stirring frequently, until all the liquid has dried up. The garlic and spices will fry together with the onion.

This second frying stage usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Add a SMALL amount of water to the dish any time it looks as if it will burn, although essentially you want to fry and not boil.

Add the boiled, drained fenugreek, fry together with the onion mixture for 1-2 minutes then add a few tablespoons of water. The exact amount is a matter of taste, but the dish should be quite dry.

If boiling the fenugreek and frying the onion simultaneously, the dish takes about 35 minutes start to finish.

This will serve 4, if served with other dishes.

Re the word sabzi in Persian. Yes, it's derived from sabz, meaning green, and is used to refer to herbs. If used in the plural, though, it's used to refer to vegetables in general (at least this is my understanding). Sabzi has also been taken into Hindi as a loan word from Persian, and is used generically to mean vegetable - including those which are not green.

And while on the subject of words and their meanings, I believe hilba and halba, both referred to above, are variant pronunciations of the Arabic for fenugreek.

And the English name is derived from Latin, and means 'Greek hay.'

Someone stop me! A veritable goldmine of worthless trivia...

[Milagai]

Ahah!

Eden, you must surely be using the green vegetable part of it while I have been talking about the seeds.

There are also many Indian recipes where the leaves of fenugreek, both fresh and dried, are used. Any Google search with methi as a key word should bring up a lot of hits.

For the Rajasthani recipe, a note first. Rajasthani food is VERY hot. When my neighbour cooked this for me, the entire dish was red from the powdered chilli. I have reduced it here, although you can of course increase it again if you like hot food.    As you can see, it's not being cooked in quite the same manner as a standard dal preparation, but it's certainly not being used as a spice either!

Half cup (unsoaked) fenugreek seeds

1 and a half tablespoons oil

1 onion, finely chopped

4 to 5 cloves garlic

Half teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

Half teaspoon turmeric

1 and a half teaspoons coriander powder

Bring water to a boil, add the fenugreek seeds. Boil 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside 10-15 minutes to soften. Drain.

Heat the oil, add the onions and cook till beginning to turn golden. Meanwhile, mash the garlic to a paste with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, and add all powdered spices to the mashed garlic.

Once the onions have started to turn golden, add the garlic and spice mix. Keep cooking, stirring frequently, until all the liquid has dried up. The garlic and spices will fry together with the onion.

This second frying stage usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Add a SMALL amount of water to the dish any time it looks as if it will burn, although essentially you want to fry and not boil.

Add the boiled, drained fenugreek, fry together with the onion mixture for 1-2 minutes then add a few tablespoons of water. The exact amount is a matter of taste, but the dish should be quite dry.

If boiling the fenugreek and frying the onion simultaneously, the dish takes about 35 minutes start to finish.

This will serve 4, if served with other dishes.

Re the word sabzi in Persian. Yes, it's derived from sabz, meaning green, and is used to refer to herbs. If used in the plural, though, it's used to refer to vegetables in general (at least this is my understanding). Sabzi has also been taken into Hindi as a loan word from Persian, and is used generically to mean vegetable - including those which are not green.

And while on the subject of words and their meanings, I believe hilba and halba, both referred to above, are variant pronunciations of the Arabic for fenugreek.

And the English name is derived from Latin, and means 'Greek hay.'

Someone stop me! A veritable goldmine of worthless trivia...

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your post is super fascinating!

another snippet: i believe people in the west use fenugreek

(not sure in what form, or how prepared) to promote milk flow

in nursing moms.....

do indian or persian moms use it this way too?

anzu: what is the rajasthani dal recipe you mention called?

"methi dal" or some more specific name?

i'll definitely make it this weekend...

i also have somewhere a recipe for sprouted methi jam which

is totally yum, and if you like the chutney you described you'll

love that.....

i'll dig it out one of these days and post it.

milagai

[Eden]

Ahah!

Eden, you must surely be using the green vegetable part of it while I have been talking about the seeds.

Actually not. my recipes all specify fenugreek seeds. (I'd never heard of the greens before today.)

And per Alan Davidson, Fenugreek is a relative of Clover. he specifies that fenugreek seeds "need slow heating to bring out the full flavor, but overheating makes them bitter" Apparently it's also a common ingedient in commercial curry powders.

[anzu]

My Rajasthani neighbour simply called this dish 'Methi ki sabzi'. As a (not very good) but relatively literal translation of that, I'd call it 'Fenugreek as a vegetable'.

I had really been expecting a dish with the green leaves when she first told me about it and had called it by this name.

Incidentally, Tarla Dalal has a book on Rajasthani cooking (called Rajasthani Cookbook ) in which she also has a recipe with cooked soaked fenugreek seeds. She's called it 'methi ki launji', and it contains a LOT of sugar and jaggery in addition to the seeds. It's very much sweet and sour, also containing cumin, asafoetida, amchur (unripe mango dried and powdered), dates, sultanas, turmeric, chilli, and coriander. I haven't actually tried this dish.

As a variation on the Methi ki sabzi above , the seeds can be allowed to sprout, and are then cooked in the same way (I'd forgotten that till you mentioned sprouted methi, Milagai).

Indian sprouted dals are usually cooked while still quite short, a lot shorter than Chinese mung bean sprouts. In this case, about half an inch or even less is the stage at which you would cook them for this dish.

Fenugreek starts sprouting very quickly, so sprouting is not that time-consuming a task. I can't remember how much time it actually takes - I never paid attention, but simply did it.

Milagai: sprouted methi jam?? Please do dig out the recipe!

Eden: this is a new one for me! I had only come across the green leaves being used in qorme sabzi. Are you using the seeds whole or do you powder them after heating them first, and then add them to the dish?

Fenugreek is not just there in quite large quanties in commercial curry powders, but the seeds are also apparently used in the manufacture of artifical maple syrup flavoring.

I came across powdered fenugreek seeds sold in LARGE packets in Paris in shops catering to the Maghrebi community. Can anyone tell me how it is being used by them? I did actually buy some out of curiosity, but found it went stale very quickly as it was already ground.

[Milagai]

Milagai: sprouted methi jam??   Please do dig out the recipe!

Anzu: here you go:

Methi sprouts pickled in tamarind sauce (sprouted fenugreek)

300g - fenugreek sprouts (obtained from 100g seeds)

1 tsp - mustard seeds: for seasoning

150g - cleaned tamarind (size of a medium orange), obtain thick extract using water

3 tsp - jaggery, grated

5 tbsp - chilli powder

1/4 tsp - asafoetida, roast in oil and powder

7 tbsp - salt

150ml - oil (1 cup approx.) gingelly or sunflower.

To sprout fenugreek:

Soak the fenugreek seeds in sufficient water overnight. Drain away the water the next day and tie the soaked seeds in a clean cloth. Hang the bundle in a warm place for a day or two, keeping it moist. Ensure that the sprouts are medium in size. Longer sprouting tends to make the pickle bitter. Stir-fry the fenugreek sprouts over low heat for exactly two minutes and set it aside. Longer frying makes the sprouts bitter.

In the same pan heat some more oil, add the mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Stir in the tamarind extract, jaggery, salt and bring it to a boil. Allow it to thicken over a high flame. Lower the heat, stir in the chilli, turmeric, asafoetida powders, the remaining oil and continue cooking for about 45 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Add the fried sprouts and cook for 15 more minutes or until the mixture becomes jam-like and the oil separates.

The pickle is ready for use. It lasts from six months to a year.

[webhill]

Someone asked how fenugreek is used by nursing moms. Speaking as a nursing mom and lay breastfeeding counselor, I can tell you that (in the USA) lots of moms take herbal supplements, such as Motherlove's "More Milk Plus" blend, which contains (among other things) 130 mg/capsule of "certified organic herb extract of fenugreek seed." There are a large number of similar galactagogue blends on the market, I just happened to mention this one because it is sitting next to my keyboard right now. This particular blend also contains blessed thistle, nettle leaf and fennel seed.

Nursing moms also certainly use fenugreek in their cooking if they have the time or inclination to cook :) Fennel seed, too. Oatmeal is also a galactagogue, so if there is a nursing mom in your life, hey - make her some oatmeal cookies! :)

I have heard that the Sumatran 'Torbangun' plant is used there as a soup for postpartum women, and published data prove that plant is also a galactagogue. I have no idea of that plant is available in the west, though.

[anzu]

There were, by the way, threads on fenugreek in the India forum some time back. See here.

I am fairly sure that Suvir Saran also wrote SOMEWHERE in Egullet about fenugreek seeds being a good match with savoury Indian pumpkin dishes. I just spent about 15 minutes searching and could not find the reference though.

[loki]

Ahah!

Eden, you must surely be using the green vegetable part of it while I have been talking about the seeds.

Actually not. my recipes all specify fenugreek seeds. (I'd never heard of the greens before today.)

And per Alan Davidson, Fenugreek is a relative of Clover. he specifies that fenugreek seeds "need slow heating to bring out the full flavor, but overheating makes them bitter" Apparently it's also a common ingedient in commercial curry powders.

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Sorry to say, but you have been reading the recipes incorrectly. These recipes don't use the seeds which are a spice, they use the leaves which are the herb. Hence the word sabzi! It's like corriander and cilantro. I've heard of people messing this one up too - especially between british and american recipes. The British english use the word corriander - and it can mean either the seeds or greens, though they are NOT interchangeable so you have to know to what they refer. In the US cilantro has been adopted from mexican cuisine to mean the leaves, while corriander is almost always used to refer to the seeds.

I suspect that you read fenugreek and thought it meant the seeds, when it actually was refering to the leaves.

Now having said that there are Persian dishes that do use the seeds - but the quanities used are very different.

[melamed]

Sorry to say, but you have been reading the recipes incorrectly. These recipes don't use the seeds which are a spice, they use the leaves which are the herb. Hence the word sabzi! It's like corriander and cilantro. I've heard of people messing this one up too - especially between british and american recipes. The British english use the word corriander - and it can mean either the seeds or greens, though they are NOT interchangeable so you have to know to what they refer. In the US cilantro has been adopted from mexican cuisine to mean the leaves, while corriander is almost always used to refer to the seeds.

I suspect that you read fenugreek and thought it meant the seeds, when it actually was refering to the leaves.

Now having said that there are Persian dishes that do use the seeds - but the quanities used are very different.

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