Mustard Seeds (rai) have a pungent and slightly tangy flavor. Mustard seeds are used extensively in Indian cooking to flavor many dishes. 

There are 3 types of mustard seeds – white, brown and black. I use the black variety, the smallest and the most flavorful. Brown mustard seeds can be used instead. However, they don’t have as much of the pungent bite as the smaller black seeds.

Black mustard seeds primarily used in Asian cooking tend to lend a good bite to the food. These dark little orbs are mostly used as a tempering spice either at the very beginning or the at the very last stage in the cooking process.

After it’s been tempered the soft but pungent mustardy flavor mingles with the food and imparts a smokiness to the dish. This mighty flavorful seed is almost always paired with either cumin, fenugreek or fresh curry leaves when tempered.

Brown Mustard Seeds Besides being widely used to cook with, this brown variety is the mustard seed of choice when used to make dijon mustard.

Its lighter counterpart, the White Mustard Seed (pictured below) is used to make yellow American mustard that we typically see doused onto hotdogs and burgers. I do enjoy drizzling this yellow condiment onto fresh hot philly pretzels too, super yum.

Split Mustard Seeds (rai kuria) are the kernels of the skinned mustard seeds. These seeds are lightly crushed to split the seeds. Then the dark skin is removed, leaving behind silky and oily looking yellow discs.

The most common indian recipe I make using this silky daffodil-yellow seed is Raito, a green chillie pickle. Raito is a great accompaniment to any India main course or chopped up into a fresh salad to give it a good bite. I particularly love it tucked into a turkey sandwich dotted with cranberry sauce.

So there you have it. I’ve just skimmed the surface of the pungent spice. There’s so much more to it. I’ve heard my mum talk about the healing properties of it to much extent. She did mention that if we heated some oil and then made a paste with mustard powder it was great for inflamed bones. It’s also claimed to be great for coughs too. A post for a diffrent time. Hope you enjoy this post and found it helpful.