The Jain Ahimsa Initiative

Ready to Use Spice Mix

Avoiding ingredients like ginger, garlic, green chili, etc., makes it difficult to add flavors to dals, and this spice mix is a life saver. All you need to do is boil the lentils and add 1 or 2 spoons of this mix!

Recipe by Priyanka N Jain

Ready to Use Spice Mix
Prep
10 min
Cook
5 min
Cuisine
Indian

Ingredients

Whole spices, to be roasted

  • 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
  • 2 tsp coriander seeds (sabut dhaniya)
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
  • 1 tsp whole pepper (sabut kali mirch)
  • 2 dry red chilies, broken into pieces and seeds removed (sukhi sabut lal mirch)
  • 4 cloves (laung)

Powdered spice, to be lightly roasted

  • 1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi powder)

To be powdered

  • 4 green cardamom, skin removed

Powdered spices

  • 2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
  • 1 tsp dry ginger powder (soonth)
  • ⅛ tsp cinnamon powder (dalchini)
  • 1 tsp salt

Method

  1. Dry roast all the whole spices.
  2. Switch off the stove and move them to another container to let them cool.
  3. While the pan is still hot (stove is off), add turmeric powder to heat it mildly.
  4. Add this to the roasted spices and let them all cool.
  5. Once cool, transfer this to the small spice grinding jar and blend to form a fine powder.
  6. Add powdered spices and cardamom to this and blend again.
  7. Your lentil masala/powder is ready.

Notes

The recipe of this powder/masala is pretty simple. If you don’t have any ingredient, you can skip it, but try to add as many as you can as each one adds a new dimension to the dish.

Personal Note: This spice mix is very useful, and I keep it handy throughout the year. Whenever I am feeling lazy and want to make something quick and simple, I simply boil the lentils and add this.

More condiments & masalas