Indian Spices: Cumin, Turmeric, Cardamom, Mustard Seed, Chiles and the Rest of the Masala Box

Plenty of Indian dishes start the same way: whole spices sizzling in hot fat until the mustard seeds pop. That’s tempering, and it’s the signature move of a big spice box that runs from cumin and coriander to curry leaves and asafoetida. India grows a lot of what goes in it, too. By tonnage, chile is second only to garlic among its spice crops. Here are the spices Indian kitchens lean on most, how they’re used, and links to our full profiles.

At a glance

How Indian cooks use whole spices: tempering

The signature move is frying whole spices in hot fat. Katzer writes that almost every North Indian curry or braise starts with spices fried in fat, often with onion, and that cumin seeds get fried or toasted before use.¹ Frying whole mustard seeds in fat is, in his words, a typical South Indian technique. Mustard seeds are always fried in fat or dry-toasted first, and after frying they’re no longer pungent but nutty and smoky.⁴ A Saveur rasam recipe shows how it goes: mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and dried chiles cooked in fat until the seeds pop.⁷ In Bengal, the five-seed blend panch phoron goes in the same way; Bong Eats says the name literally means five spices, used in tempering.⁸ Asafoetida resin, Katzer says, has to be fried quickly in hot oil.⁹

What India grows

India’s Spices Board publishes area and production by spice. Its 2024-25 final figures (subject to revision) include:⁵

These are national totals, not shares of world production. We didn’t find comparable world figures for most of them.

Cumin

Cumin is the dried fruit of Cuminum cyminum. It’s native from Iraq to Afghanistan, with India in its introduced range. Its flavor is strong, warm, pungent and persistent, and it’s essential to many mixed spices, chutneys, and chili and curry powders. Since the seeds usually get fried or toasted first, whole and ground cumin play different roles. See cumin, cumin seeds vs. ground cumin, coriander vs. cumin and too much cumin.

Coriander seed

Coriander seed comes from Coriandrum sativum, native from the eastern Mediterranean to western Pakistan. It tastes mild, sweet, warm and aromatic. It’s one of the oldest spices on record. PROSEA cites remains dated to 6000 BC found in Israel, and says curry powder can be up to 40% coriander.² See coriander, cooking with coriander and coriander substitutes.

Turmeric

Turmeric is the rhizome of Curcuma longa, a ginger-family plant that Kew treats as a cultigen from southwest India. It’s more than a coloring. It tastes bitter, slightly acrid yet sweet, and it gives curry its distinctive yellow color and flavor. You’ll see plenty of health claims for turmeric, but the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says there isn’t enough evidence to conclude that turmeric or curcumin helps any health condition.¹⁰ Lead is a documented problem: a study of 503 samples from eastern India found 30% above India’s lead limit of 10 µg/g.¹¹ See turmeric, cooking with turmeric and turmeric vs. curry powder.

Mustard seeds

Indian cooking uses the dark mustard seeds: black (Brassica nigra) and the brown Indian mustard (B. juncea). Katzer documents black mustard in South Indian tempering and in Bengal’s panch phoron, and says black is slightly more pungent than brown.⁴ White mustard seeds, the kind behind mild Western yellow mustard, are less intensely flavored than brown. See black mustard seeds, brown mustard seeds, yellow vs. black mustard seeds and panch phoran.

Green cardamom

Green cardamom is the fruit of Elettaria cardamomum, native to southwest India, where it grows wild in the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats. The pods are picked by hand while still green, one at a time, because they ripen unevenly. Its oil is mostly 1,8-cineole (20 to 60%) and α-terpinyl acetate (20 to 53%).¹² That 1,8-cineole has a camphor-like smell,¹³ which accounts for the eucalyptus-like edge many cooks notice. Cardamom is an important ingredient in curries and spiced rice, vegetable and meat dishes, and it goes into coffee and tea too. See cardamom, black vs. green cardamom and cardamom pods vs. seeds.

Chiles

By tonnage, India grows more chile than any other spice except garlic in the Spices Board figures above.⁵ The McCormick Science Institute lists Indian cooking among red pepper’s uses.¹⁴ Heat varies enormously by type. At the far end is Bhut Jolokia, a Capsicum chinense chile from Assam that a 2007 HortScience study measured at 1,001,304 Scoville heat units.¹⁵ Kashmiri chile is widely described as mild and deeply red, prized for color more than heat, though we didn’t find a measurement to back that up. See cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and paprika vs. cayenne.

Cinnamon

The cinnamon used in India may be true (Ceylon) cinnamon or cassia, and the sources don’t say which dominates. Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) is native to Sri Lanka, and it’s also grown on a smaller scale in southern India. Cassia is the type most often sold in North America. Cinnamon is a key ingredient in Indian dishes such as garam masala and masala chai. See cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon and Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon.

Saffron

Saffron is the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus, three per flower, and Britannica still calls it the most expensive spice in the world. It takes about 75,000 blossoms to make a pound.¹⁶ Its color comes from crocin, and saffron has a strong smell and a bitter taste. India is a minor producer next to Iran; a 2022 American Herbal Products Association article puts India’s production at about 22 tonnes.¹⁷ See saffron, why saffron is so expensive and saffron vs. turmeric.

Blends and the rest of the box

There’s no single garam masala recipe. Great British Chefs lists cloves, bay leaf, fennel, cinnamon and cardamom among the spices commonly used,¹⁸ while Madhur Jaffrey’s version in Saveur leads with a quarter cup of cardamom seeds.¹⁹ See garam masala, garam masala vs. curry powder and chaat masala.

Other spices that matter:

• Curry leaves are used extensively in Indian cooking. They get fried in hot oil until crisp and translucent. See curry leaves.
• Asafoetida (hing) is, per Katzer, even more popular in the Dravidian South.⁹ See asafoetida.
• Fenugreek is a characteristic ingredient in some curries and chutneys. See fenugreek.
• Nutmeg, cloves and mace are grown in India in small amounts (table above). See nutmeg, cloves and mace.

Related pages

• Curry powder and Madras curry powder
• Tandoori masala and tikka masala
• The master list of herbs and spices