Garam Masala Uses: Curries, Rubs, Roasted Squash and Even Cookies

Garam masala means “hot spices,” but it’s warming, not hot like chili peppers. Most blends riff on cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and peppercorn, and the jar does a lot more than season curry. Cook it into a stew, finish a vegetable dish with a pinch and a sliver of ghee, rub it on meat or vegetables before roasting, work it into flatbread dough, or bake it into oatmeal-raisin cookies. Recipes differ from region to region and home to home, so what your jar tastes like depends on what’s in it. For when to add it, whether to toast it, and how much to use, see cooking with garam masala.

At a glance

In curries and stews

This is garam masala’s home turf. Bong Eats uses the Bengali blend to flavor egg, chicken, mutton, lamb or beef curries,¹ and Saveur’s headnote for Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe says it lends potency to stews, curries and fried snacks like samosas.³

When it goes in early, it cooks with the base of the dish. Almost every North Indian curry or braise starts with spices fried in fat, and America’s Test Kitchen recommends cooking ground spices in fat instead of adding them straight to liquid, which can leave a bland, musty flavor.⁷ Details on cooking with garam masala.

As a finishing spice

Garam masala can also go in at the end of cooking to finish a dish. Bong Eats gets specific: a pinch, with a sliver of ghee, garnishes most ghontos and dalnas, khichuri and panchmishali torkari.¹

You’ll often read that the traditional way to use garam masala is to sprinkle it on at the table, and that this keeps its full pungency. We found no source for either part. The sources here describe finishing at the end of cooking, and also cooking it in from the start.

As a rub for roasting

Britannica calls garam masala ideal for rubs on meats and vegetables headed for the oven, where the high heat blooms the spices.² Use it alone or as one part of a longer rub. For a blend built specifically for yogurt marinades and the tandoor, see tandoori masala vs. garam masala.

In chicken tikka masala

Alfred Prasad’s chicken tikka masala on Great British Chefs, which the site calls a twist on murgh makhani, uses ½ teaspoon of garam masala alongside other spices, including ground kasoori methi.⁴ You’ll sometimes see it suggested that garam masala can replace all the ground spices in a tikka masala; we found no recipe that does that, and Prasad’s doesn’t. See tikka masala and tikka masala vs. garam masala.

With squash and pumpkin

Saveur’s roasted acorn squash soup with spiced oil uses 2 tablespoons of garam masala in all, tossing the vegetables with oil, 1 tablespoon of the blend, salt and pepper before roasting; the soup serves 10 to 12.⁵ Garam masala often gets suggested for pumpkin pie too, but we found no named pie recipe that uses it. For other spices that suit squash, see pumpkin soup spices.

In bread and dough

Britannica says you can work garam masala into the dough for flatbread and naan, where baking finishes melding the flavors.²

In sweets

Britannica notes that some Western chefs use garam masala in sweeter desserts like flan or chocolate torte.² NPR’s Kitchen Window column ran a garam masala oatmeal-raisin cookie, adapted from Terry Boyd, with 1½ teaspoons of garam masala for 2 dozen cookies.⁶ Whether your jar suits sweets depends on what’s in it. A blend close to Bong Eats’s basic Bengali mix of cardamom, cinnamon and cloves¹ is a natural fit for baking; one heavy on cumin and pepper, less so.

Claims that don’t hold up

• “Garam masala comes from northern India and spread south.” Britannica says only that it originated in India,² and Great British Chefs describes it as used across the subcontinent.⁸ We found no source for a northern origin or a southward spread.
• “Southern blends are spicier.” Not traced. Regional lists differ in which spices they include; Gulf News food writer Karishma Nandkeolyar notes, for example, that star anise isn’t part of the garam masala used in Hyderabad.⁹ No source compares heat.
• “Some blends have 30 or more ingredients.” Not traced.
• Health claims. Britannica mentions traditional beliefs that garam masala raises body temperature, treats colds and lowers blood sugar,² and Saveur ties the name to spices thought to warm the body in Ayurvedic medicine.³ We found no regulator or systematic review supporting any health claim, so we don’t make one.

If you overdo it

See too much garam masala. If you’ve run out, see garam masala substitutes.

Not yet measured

• How much garam masala a typical savory dish uses; published amounts run from a pinch to tablespoons.
• Whether a toasted or untoasted blend works better in sweets.

Related

• Garam masala and cooking with garam masala
• Garam masala substitutes and too much garam masala
• Garam masala vs. curry powder, garam masala vs. allspice and chaat masala vs. garam masala
• Ras el hanout vs. garam masala