Panch Phoran Substitutes: Rebuild It From the Seeds You Have

Panch phoran’s name means “five spices,” and the best substitute for it is homemade: a mix of whichever of its five whole seeds you’ve got. In most recipes, its job is to flavor hot fat at the start of cooking. Katzer writes that it’s always fried in oil before use, and that Bengali cooks almost always use mustard oil.¹ Another spice blend won’t do that job the same way. Missing radhuni, the seed specific to Bengali cooking? Cumin, black mustard or celery seed can take its place.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The only published proportions we found are for the blend itself: equal parts of each seed.

What the five seeds do

The sources agree on whole seeds in equal amounts, but not on which five. Katzer gives the version you’ll see printed most: nigella, fenugreek, cumin, black mustard and fennel. He notes that in Bengal cooks use a local seed, radhuni, which gets replaced by black mustard elsewhere.¹ Bong Eats uses radhuni and leaves out cumin.² Down To Earth says that in West Bengal radhuni replaces the mustard seeds.³

Each seed brings something different, so leaving one out changes the balance, not just the strength. Fenugreek’s bitterness is the note most likely to take over if you overdo it, which fits Katzer’s description of it as bitter.⁴

If panch phoran is whole seeds fried in oil

1. Make it yourself, in equal parts

Ratio (Attributed proportions): Katzer describes the blend as equal parts of the five seeds,¹ and Bong Eats uses a tablespoon of each.² Use your mix one for one in place of store-bought panch phoran. Bong Eats says to keep it in an airtight container.²

2. If a seed is missing, use equal parts of the rest

Ratio (Method): Keep the parts equal and keep the total the same. One tablespoon of five seeds is 3/5 teaspoon of each. With four seeds it’s 3/4 teaspoon each, and with three it’s 1 teaspoon each. That keeps the same amount of seed in the oil but makes each remaining seed stronger. So if fenugreek is one of your three, try holding it at 3/5 teaspoon and splitting the difference between the others.

Fennel, cumin and black or brown mustard seed are the easiest of the five to find at a regular grocery store. On mustard, Katzer calls black and brown mustard equally useful in the kitchen, and says Indian brown mustard is probably the type most commonly sold in the West.⁶

Missing fenugreek? Tasting Table suggests a mix of fennel and mustard seeds as a fenugreek substitute, one for one.⁹ Both are already in panch phoran, so in practice that just means making the blend without fenugreek. It’ll be sweeter and less bitter.

3. If radhuni is the missing seed

Radhuni is specific to Bengali cooking,³ so outside Bengal this is the usual situation. Three stand-ins are documented:

• Cumin. Bong Eats says cumin seeds make an acceptable substitute if you can’t get radhuni.²
• Black mustard. Katzer says black mustard replaces radhuni outside Bengal.¹
• Celery seed. Katzer calls celery seed a working substitute for radhuni in panch phoran.¹⁰ Down To Earth gives radhuni’s English name as wild celery.³

Ratio (Method): Every seed in the blend is used in equal parts,¹² so give the stand-in the same one part radhuni would have had. Celery seed is strongly aromatic, so go a little lighter with it if the dish is delicate.

If the seeds won’t be fried whole

Sometimes panch phoran goes into a dish late, or you’re using it ground in a rub. Here a ground blend can work.

Curry powder

The USDA’s purchasing spec for curry powder lists turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom as minimum ingredients,¹¹ so it shares fenugreek and cumin with panch phoran. It also says curry powder must have a fragrant aroma and a warm, bitter taste.¹¹ There’s no nigella or fennel unless the brand adds them. The turmeric will turn the dish yellow.

Don’t use it the way you’d use whole panch phoran. America’s Test Kitchen warns that ground spices burn fairly quickly in hot fat and taste scorched.¹² Add curry powder after the onions or other vegetables are in the pan, or stir it into a little oil over moderate heat for no longer than the 30 seconds to several minutes ATK gives for blooming.¹²

Ratio (Method): Curry powder brings several spices panch phoran doesn’t, so start with half the panch phoran amount and taste before adding more.

Berbere, only where chile heat suits the dish

Berbere is a chile-spice blend. Katzer lists fenugreek among the spices added to its chiles.¹³ So it shares one of panch phoran’s seeds, but chile is the main event, and it’ll make the dish red and hot. Saveur’s recipe also includes dried onion flakes.¹⁴

Ratio (Method): If you use it, start with a quarter of the panch phoran amount, added with the other ground spices, not to hot oil.

What isn’t known

• No source we found says how much fenugreek a typical curry powder contains. The USDA spec lists ingredients, not proportions.¹¹
• Oregano sometimes gets suggested in place of nigella. Katzer notes that ground nigella smells vaguely of oregano,¹ but we found no source that recommends the swap, and dried leaves don’t behave like seeds in hot oil.

Related

• Panch phoran
• The seeds: nigella seeds, fenugreek, cumin, black mustard seeds, brown mustard seeds, fennel seed, celery seeds
• Seed swaps: nigella seeds substitute, fenugreek substitutes, black mustard seed substitutes, cumin substitutes, fennel seed substitutes
• Comparisons and fixes: fenugreek vs. fennel seed, fennel seeds vs. cumin seeds, too much fenugreek, too much cumin
• Ground blends: curry powder, berbere seasoning, Indian spices