Khmeli Suneli: Georgia’s Blend of Blue Fenugreek, Marigold and Herbs

One Georgian chef calls khmeli suneli “the walnut’s best friend.”¹ It’s Georgia’s everyday spice blend, a ground mix of dried herbs and spices that goes into stews, sauces and the walnut dishes the cuisine is known for. The signature ingredients are blue fenugreek, a close relative of ordinary fenugreek, and dried marigold petals, sometimes sold as “Imeretian saffron” though they aren’t saffron at all. Coriander and herbs like savory and dill usually join them, and recipes vary by cook and by merchant.

At a glance

What is in it

There’s no single recipe. Benjamin Kemper, writing in Saveur, quotes Sean Fredericks, co-founder of a Portland, Oregon spice distributor, calling dried marigold, blue fenugreek and coriander “the backbone of khmeli suneli.” Kemper notes that the taste varies with each spice merchant’s formula.¹

Two ingredients need explaining:

Blue fenugreek (Trigonella caerulea, bean family) isn’t the fenugreek of Indian cooking. Katzer notes that people sometimes confuse the two, especially when it comes to Georgian cuisine.⁴ In Georgia the dried seeds of blue fenugreek are widely used as a spice, called utskho suneli, “foreign spice,” and ground blue fenugreek seeds are part of khmeli suneli.²

Imeretian saffron isn’t saffron. Katzer says the yellow flowers in Georgian cooking usually come from marigold (Tagetes erecta), sold dry and ground as “yellow flower” or “Imeretian saffron,” and that they often turn up in khmeli suneli.⁵

Kemper calls the coriander a native strain called k’indzi.¹ None of the botanical sources we checked describes a distinct Georgian coriander, so that’s his description.

Name and history

Kemper translates khmeli suneli as “dried spices,” and Katzer gives “dried herbs.”¹² Either way, it’s a mix of dried aromatics, not fresh ones.

Saveur quotes Mako Kavtaradze, of a Tbilisi spice company, on the blend’s origins. Mixtures like khmeli suneli were a boon to Silk Road traders, Kavtaradze says, made shipping easier for merchants, and cost ordinary cooks less than buying lots of separate spices.¹ That’s one person’s account, and we didn’t find a documented history of the blend.

Flavor and the compounds behind it

Khmeli suneli tastes herbal, nutty and slightly sweet, with a gentle bitterness and a warm yellow color. Here’s what the sources say about the parts:

We didn’t find an aroma analysis of blue fenugreek or of khmeli suneli as a whole. Ordinary fenugreek’s sotolone chemistry is on the fenugreek page, but don’t assume it applies to the blue species.

How khmeli suneli is used

Katzer writes that khmeli suneli goes into various Georgian meat and vegetable stews and into the many sauces Georgian cuisine is famous for. It’s also an ingredient in ajika, another Georgian seasoning.² Saveur names pkhali, a spinach-and-walnut pâté, and badrijani nigzvit, eggplant rolls stuffed with walnut paste.³ Kemper quotes chef Sopo Gorgadze calling the blend “the walnut’s best friend.”¹

Katzer gives satsivi, a sauce of ground walnuts and herbs for cold boiled chicken, as a well-known Georgian example,² but none of the sources we checked lists khmeli suneli in it specifically.

Kemper also uses it in stews, on vegetables and grilled meats, in chicken salad, on popcorn and deviled eggs, and mixed with olive oil, garlic and pomegranate molasses as a rub for poultry and lamb.¹

Buying and making it

Kemper quoted $8 for a two-ounce sachet in 2017.¹ Katzer says safflower flowers can stand in for marigold, though they have even less flavor.⁵

Storage

Saveur’s editors say to keep it in a jar with a tight-fitting lid somewhere cool and dry, and use it within 3 months.³ That’s their guidance, not a measured shelf life.

Safety

The regulator sources we checked had no safety findings specific to khmeli suneli, blue fenugreek or culinary marigold. As with ground spices in general, a New York City review of 1,496 spice samples collected from 2008 to 2017 found detectable lead in more than half.⁶ The abstract doesn’t break results out by product.

Health claims

You’ll see claims that khmeli suneli helps prevent cataracts, macular degeneration or cancer. We couldn’t trace any of them to a regulator or a systematic review of the blend, and we don’t make them.

Substitutes and comparisons

• Khmeli suneli substitutes
• Its ingredients: fenugreek, coriander, summer savory, dill, basil, marjoram, hyssop, black pepper, paprika
• Marigold’s stand-in: safflower; not to be confused with saffron
• Other regional blends often compared with it: garam masala, ras el hanout