Roasting cumin

Roasting your own cumin seeds is an easy great way to add a kick to dishes, giving them an extra earthy and slightly smoky flavour. Roasted cumin is great in a spiced yoghurt and other uses include adding the toasted and crushed cumin seeds to main course curry dishes as well as starter dishes which use cumin powder.

The process is quite easy. Put the cumin seeds into a hot frying pan or tawa (medium heat), you do not need to add any oil at all. Keep shaking the cumin seeds to fully toast them until they darken slightly and the earthy aroma wafts through the kitchen. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Remove the cumin seeds from the pan and use as desired. If you are crushing them to use for a curry, then do so using a pestle and mortar as soon as you can whilst they are hot. This will stop them cooking. If you do not have a pestle and mortar, put the seeds into a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. You will find once the cumin seeds are roasted, it is easy to crush them, even using your hands.