Fenugreek Seeds (Helba)

Fenugreek is the seed Egyptians call helba, and this pouch holds it whole. The seeds are small, hard and angular, amber to mustard-yellow, each with a deep groove along one side, and they come from the pods of a clover-like plant of the pea and bean family. Its Latin name means Greek hay, because the plant was long used as animal fodder as well as for its seed. Ours is Egyptian, sold by our supplier as helba hasa baladi: whole seed from the local crop.

Raw, the seed is bitter and smells of very little. Heat and water change it. Toasted for a minute in a dry pan it turns a shade darker, the bitterness softens into something nutty, and a smell of maple syrup and caramel comes up; simmered in water it gives off the same smell, which many people know as the smell of curry. Fenugreek is in fact what gives imitation maple syrup its flavour. Toast it gently: taken too far, it turns dark brown and the bitterness comes back harsher than before.

In Egypt its best-known form is a drink. Helba is the hot glass served in cafes and homes through the winter: the seeds simmered in water, sometimes with milk, and sweetened with sugar or honey, with the seeds left in the glass or strained out as the drinker likes. Ground fenugreek is also the base of the red paste that coats basterma, the air-dried beef sold in Egyptian delis, and in southern Egypt it goes into aish merahrah, a flatbread made with corn flour.

Beyond Egypt it is one of the five seeds in Bengali panch phoron, next to nigella, cumin, mustard seed and fennel, and a usual part of Indian curry powders and of Ethiopian berbere. In Indian kitchens the seeds go into hot oil at the start of a dal or a pickle. In Yemen the soaked seed is whipped into hulba, a pale, bitter froth spooned over stews and eaten with flatbread.

For the drink, simmer a heaped teaspoon of seeds in a glass of water for about ten minutes, add milk if you like, and sweeten to taste. For cooking, toast the seeds lightly or fry them for a few seconds in hot oil before anything else goes into the pan. For a spice blend, toast them first and grind them once they are cool. Soaked overnight, they swell, soften and turn slippery, and can go into stews, curries and bread dough.

In cooking, use it with a light hand. The bitterness builds quickly, and half a teaspoon is often enough for a family pot of lentils. The drink is the exception: there the seed is the whole point. The smell is powerful and stays in the kitchen, on the pan and on your fingers for some time after cooking.

Its history in Egypt is long: dried fenugreek seeds were among the items recovered from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Fenugreek is widely marketed with a long list of claimed effects, and this listing deliberately does not repeat any of them. It is sold here as food: the seed for a glass of helba, a spice blend or a loaf, and nothing here is a health claim or medical advice.

Buy it whole and grind it as you need it. The whole seeds are hard and keep their smell for a long time, while ground fenugreek fades and goes stale in the jar. A spice grinder handles them easily; a mortar takes some work, and they break more easily after a light toasting.