Fenugreek Powder
Product Description:
Fenugreek is a plant whose leaves are used as an herb and its seeds as a spice. It is common in South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines, where its leaves and seeds are used to flavor stews and curries.
Fenugreek is a clover-like plant from the botanical family Fabaceae, which also includes alfalfa, chickpeas, and peanuts. Its dried or fresh leaves can be used as an herb, and its seeds are used as a spice. Both its seeds and leaves impart a flavor and aroma similar to maple syrup, as well as slight bitterness. It is also used as a flavoring agent in foods, drinks, and tobacco.
Biting into raw fenugreek seeds or leaves will produce an overpowering bitterness. But when added to dishes and cooked, fenugreek imparts a sweet, slightly nutty, maple-syrup-like flavor reminiscent of burnt sugar.
In the U.S., where fenugreek isn’t widely grown, it’s the seeds that are most readily available. And the first thing to know about cooking with fenugreek seeds is that the seeds themselves are highly bitter and extremely hard.
With some spices, like peppercorns, cumin seed, and coriander seed, toasting can help balance out the bitterness by activating other essential oils in the spice. But with fenugreek, toasting won’t get rid of the bitterness. You need to soak the seeds overnight. The bitterness won’t entirely go away, but it’ll be diminished, while also softening the seeds so that they won’t break anyone’s teeth.
If you can obtain fenugreek leaves, you can use them to finish sauces, curries, vegetable dishes, and soups, particularly ones with a fatty base, such as yogurt, butter, or cream. The dried leaves also work well in marinades for fish and seafood.
The seeds can be used whole, in which case soak them first, or ground and used in spice blends or dry rubs. Garam masala is one common spice blend that features fenugreek. When cooking with fenugreek, it can help to balance out the bitterness by adding a squeeze of lemon juice at the end of cooking.
