Indian Name: Methi
Scientific Name: Trigonella foenum-graecum
Fam: Leguminosae

Other Names

Bird’s Foot, Foenugreek, Goat’s Horn

French: fenugrec Sénegré, trigonelle
German: Bockshornklee, Griechisches Heu
Italian: fieno greco
Spanish: alholva, fenogreco
Indian: mayti, methe, methi
Tamil: venthium
Malay: alba
Sinhalese; uluhaal

Fenugreek is a native to India and southern Europe. For centuries it has grown wild in India, the Mediterranean and North Africa. where it is mainly cultivated. A limited crop grows in France. It was used by the ancient Egyptians to combat fever and grown in classical times as cattle fodder.

Commercially, it is used in the preparation of mango chutneys and as a base for imitation maple syrup. In India, it is used medicinally and as a yellow dyestuff. It is also an oriental cattle fodder and is planted as a soil renovator.

Fenugreek is the small stony seeds from the pod of a bean-like plant. The seeds are hard, yellowish brown and angular. Some are oblong, some rhombic, other virtually cubic, with a side of about 3mm (1/8”). A deep furrow all but splits them in two. They are available whole and dried, or as a dull yellow powder, ground from the roasted seeds.
Bouquet: Warm and penetrating, becoming more pronounced when the seeds are roasted. Ground, they give off a ‘spicy’ smell, pungent, like an inferior curry powder which would probably contain too much fenugreek.
Flavour: Powerful, aromatic and bittersweet, like burnt sugar. There is a bitter aftertaste, similar to celery or lovage.
Hotness Scale: 2

Fenugreek can be used both as a herb and a spice — the flavour is similar in both. The leaves are available fresh, frozen, or dried. Fresh leaves are used as leafy greens in curries, especially with potatoes, or folded into fry-breads. When dried, the leaves retain most of their flavour and make excellent last-minute additions to sauces, curries, and soup. The seeds benefit from longer cooking to infuse with other flavours so start with the seeds and finish with the leaves. This two-stage approach “refreshes” the spice, giving you the best of long-cooked flavour and barely-heated aromas.

The major use of fenugreek seeds is in curry powders, figuring in many mixtures, especially vindaloo and the hot curries of Sri Lanka. It is an ingredient of Panch phoron, the Indian five-spice mixture. In home-made powders, the amount used can be controlled, but in cheap bought powders it often overpowers. When fish is curried, particularly strong-tasting fish such as tuna and mackerel, fenugreek is frequently included in the spice mixture. Give the seeds a pan roast to reduce their bitterness, then add to pickle brines, homemade curry powders, or your next batch of niter kibbeh, an Ethiopian spiced butter (Ethiopian cuisine loves fenugreek). Many chutneys and pickles incorporate it and it gives a tangy aroma to vegetables. The seeds are an ingredient of the Middle Eastern confection halva.