Fenugreek, leaves or seeds?

[Morning Glory]

Leaves have a much stronger smell and of the spices used in Indian cookery have the most characteristic ‘curryish’ scent IMHO. I have taken to not using the leaves myself as the aroma can hang around for a long time. Doesn’t affect the dish’s taste to omit it that much.

That's odd because I've found the dried leaves don't seem to impart much flavour compared to seeds. Maybe I had old leaves.

Fresh leaves I use towards the end of cooking. Its well worth growing in a pot (or ground) if you have an outdoor space. My local Asian shop sells fresh leaves from time to time but I can't rely on them to have them.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I use both. Leaves are harder to come by, but i have them. Seeds are readily available in the supermarket here....
I have to say that neither are my favourite, but certain recipes on mine address just not the same without them. Never grown it though.

 

[vernplum]

...yes - that's what I meant - while the leaves smell strong, they don't affect the taste as much as seeds, so I leave them off.

 

[Morning Glory]

Never grown it though.

If you are not keen on it that maybe its not worth you growing it. It grows fast, though. You could always pop a few of the seeds in a pot to see what happens.

 

[Herbie]

If you are not keen on it that maybe its not worth you growing it. It grows fast, though. You could always pop a few of the seeds in a pot to see what happens.

I'm going to give that a go this year. Thanks for the tip. When should I sow them? May?

 

[Morning Glory]

I'm going to give that a go this year. Thanks for the tip. When should I sow them? May?

I don't know. I think I sowed two lots - once in April and again in July or August. In fact, I did buy seeds on-line from a garden centre specifically for growing but unless your store bought spice seeds are old, it should work. I also grew coriander very successfully for the first time.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

but unless your store bought spice seeds are old, it should work. I

They may not work because a lot of things such as seeds and the likes are rendered inert to "prevent" decade and as a side effect prevent germination - handy when you sell the seeds of something easily grown. Usually things are irradiated, that way they don't try to germinate in transport or storage.

It is something I see very frequently with chook food. You can't germinate or sprout purchased feed because it has been irradiated (?) to prevent just such a thing. If you want to sprout seeds, you need to purchase seed specifically for sprouting at twice the price.

Beans and pulses are the same as I found out last summer when I tried sprouting various ones. Some did to a degree but most just went bad with only a few seeds sprouting. It took a while to track down supplies of different beans & peas that would sprout. usually it was the organic, most expensive option, but not always.