Fennel

In the tradition

There is an old confusion in the names. Śatapuṣpā in the texts is most often read as dill (suā), and Miśreyā or Madhurikā — "the sweet one" — as fennel; the two are close relatives and look alike.

What is not in doubt is the habit: a pinch of saunf after a meal, often with sugar crystals (mishri) or coated in sugar, is as Indian as it gets.

How Ayurveda reads it

Fennel is sweet, with pungent and bitter notes, light and unctuous, and is usually described as cooling, with a sweet after-digestion effect. It is described as settling Vata and Pitta and not raising Kapha much at all — one of the gentlest seeds in the kitchen.

It is classed as dīpana — kindling agni — without heating, which is unusual.

In the Indian kitchen

Saunf goes into panch phoron in Bengal, into Kashmiri cooking ground with dry ginger, into pickles, and into thandai in summer. Saunf ka sharbat is a summer drink in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

How we use it

We use whole and crushed fennel seed in our teas and churnas — for its sweetness, and to round off blends with sharper spices in them.