Spices Indian Cooking Ingredients

Asafoetida (Hing)

This is a dried, powdered resin that comes from the sap of a giant fennel like plant, which is indigenous to Iran.

Using Asafoetida in Indian Cooking

It has a quite a bitter, acrid flavour and smell really awful when it's raw, but once fried it gives a wonderful aroma and flavours are of an onion and garlic nature. It should only be used in tiny amounts as it is very pungent.

It's treated as a whole spice and used by adding it to hot oil at the start of the cooking process.

This tends to be used in lentil and vegetable dishes to give the pungency of onions when they are not present in the recipe and used a lot in Kashmiri, Maharashtrian and South Indian cooking. It's health benefits include its anti-flatulence properties and is known to be very good for soothing any digestive issues.