Spice up your festive cooking with a hint of cardamom
Put a spotlight on this aromatic traveller spice—in your chai, ‘pulao’, syrup for cocktails, or ‘mithai’-flavoured cake. Just not all at once
On festival days, my grandmother was always multi-tasking in the kitchen, cooking the day’s meals while prepping ingredients for the festive goodies on the side. Those would be made in the afternoon, after the lunch spread was cleared away. One small job that was always assigned to me as a child, since it involved no sharp instruments or fire, was peeling and crushing green cardamom pods. The pods had to be split open, the seeds scooped out, and then pounded with granulated sugar in a mortar and pestle until the mix turned into a fragrant powder. The papery shells were never discarded; they were tucked into the sugar jar to perfume it with their lingering oils. For years, the scent of green cardamom meant festivals and indulgence.
As adults, we like to treat elaichi as a nuisance. Indian internet is full of memes about biting into an elaichi in a biryani and questioning its very existence. We love its flavour but wish it stayed invisible. I personally don’t mind biting into a green cardamom, but biting into a whole black cardamom is a food nightmare indeed. The best way to tame a whole spice like green cardamom, especially in biryani, is to tie it up with its partners in crime—cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf—in a small muslin pouch and simmer it in the rice water. Once the rice is cooked, the bundle can be lifted out easily. All the flavour and none of the tantrums on the dining table. The French call this a bouquet garni, making it sound all gourmet and glam at once.
Cardamom shows up in my everyday routines too. I like to change my tea with the seasons. Lemongrass or mint in summer, ginger through the monsoon, and green cardamom with black pepper in winter. Now that the chill has begun to creep in, here’s a small tip that has made my elaichi chai so much better. If you think that the tip is to boil the hell out of elaichi or use half-a-dozen pods for one cup of chai, you are in for a surprise. It is to add the crushed seeds and the shells too for just the last 2 minutes of the brewing process.
The essential oils in green cardamom are volatile, and boiling them for too long can cause significant flavour loss. Adding them late in the brewing timeline helps retain their aroma and flavour much more than adding them at the start with the water. One or two pods for two cups is plenty. A cold winter evening, the scent of elaichi chai, and Raag Yaman in the background—I have an incurable weakness for that mood.
Over time, I’ve learnt to use it more playfully beyond pulao and chai. A pinch of cardamom powder brings a smoky, tandoor-like note to dishes that would otherwise feel flat—malai broccoli, palak paneer, even a humble dal tadka.
For something as deeply Indian as elaichi, it’s remarkable how far this spice has travelled, farther than empires ever could. In Scandinavian baking, cardamom is very “front of house" flavour, especially in sweet breads and seasonal treats. In Norway, there’s kardemommeboller, soft cardamom buns; krydderkake, a spice cake scented with cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; and fyrstekake, the prince’s cake, which also features it prominently. A European spice market report from 2025 notes that Swedes consume nearly 18 times more cardamom per person than the average European. It’s a beautiful thought that the spice born in the Western Ghats, perfumes kitchens at the other end of the world.
This festive season, put a spotlight on this aromatic traveller spice—in your chai, pulao, syrup for cocktails, or mithai-flavoured cake. Just not all at once.
CARDAMOM BLONDIES
Makes 9 pieces
Ingredients
4 green cardamoms
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
One-third cup melted butter
1 egg, beaten
Half tsp almond essence
One and a quarter cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Half tsp baking powder
Quarter tsp baking soda
Half tsp salt
Half cup chopped nuts (mix of cashew, walnut, almonds)
Method
Peel the green cardamoms. Remove the seeds and crush them along with granulated sugar in a mortar pestle until you get a fine powder. Keep aside.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line and grease a 8 or 9 inch square pan.
Combine the brown sugar and melted butter in a bowl. Make sure this mixture is relatively cool before adding in the egg and almond essence.
Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cardamom powder (reserve a couple of pinches) in another bowl until well mixed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix gently until combined. Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the nuts and reserved cardamom sugar mix over the top. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for around 30 minutes.
Cool completely before cutting it into nine pieces or smaller bite-sized pieces.
PIYUSH
A sweet refreshing beverage
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
200g elaichi shrikhand*
Half cup yogurt
1 cup milk
Half tsp green cardamom powder (only seeds)
1 tsp edible rose water (optional)
Rose petals for garnish
Method
In a blender, combine shrikhand, yogurt, milk, cardamom powder and rosewater (if using). Thin it down with 2-3 tablespoons of water if need be and blend until thick and creamy. Serve chilled in shot glasses (or small portions) garnished with rose petals. This drink can also be served with the dessert course.
*You can use store bought shrikhand.
Double Tested is a fortnightly column on vegetarian cooking, highlighting a single ingredient prepared two ways. Nandita Iyer’s latest book is ‘The Great Indian Thali’. She posts @saffrontrail on Instagram and X.
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