Nigella Seed

Description

Ingredients: Nigella Seed.

Description: Nigella is a botanical name of love-in-a-mist, the pretty garden plant with pale blue flowers and feathery foliage. The species grown for its seed is a close but less decorative relative, native to western Asia and southern Europe, where it grows wild and in cultivation.

Nigella is sprinkled on flatbread, rolls, and savory pastries, alone or with sesame or cumin. Cooks in Bengal combine it with mustard seeds, cumin, fennel, and fenugreek in the local spice mixture, panch phoron, which gives a distinctive taste to legume and vegetable dishes. In India, nigella is used in pilafs, kormas, and curries, and in pickles. In Iran, it is a popular pickling spice used for fruit and vegetables. It is good with roasted potatoes and other root vegetables. Ground with coriander and cumin, it adds depth to a Middle-Eastern potato or mixed vegetable omelet.

Recipe: Easy Naan Bread, Shuli's Whole-Wheat Flatbread With Nigella Seeds