All about turmeric, how cooks use it and a recipe that makes the most of the spice

A key ingredient in Indian cuisine, dried turmeric adds complexity and subtle bitterness to dishes. It is also used in Vietnamese food

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Turmeric is used in Indian spice mixtures, giving dishes a distinct, slightly bitter flavour. The spice also has a range of health benefits. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 3:15pm, 6 Jun 2025

Turmeric is, to my palate, indelibly associated with Indian cuisine, which is why, when I taste it in non-Indian dishes, it comes as a bit of a surprise.

I remember tasting it once at a cheap Spanish restaurant in Hong Kong, where the cooks substituted it for the much more expensive saffron – only the colours are similar; the flavours are a world apart.

I also tasted it at Cha Ca La Vong, in Hanoi, Vietnam, where the spice was a key part of the restaurant’s signature dish of fish with rice noodles, vegetables, peanuts, fish sauce, chillies and lots of fresh herbs, including dill.

Turmeric is mostly sold as a dried, ground spice, but it starts off as a rhizome that you can buy fresh at shops specialising in Indian and Southeast Asian ingredients.

Turmeric looks like ginger on the outside, but inside the flesh is vivid yellow-orange. Photo: Shutterstock

The fresh rhizome looks rather like ginger root, but when you slice through the papery skin, you will see the flesh is a vivid yellow-orange, instead of ginger’s pale tan. After being dried and ground, the bright colour is usually an indication of its freshness, because it fades with age.

Dried turmeric often makes up a large portion of Indian spice mixtures, where it contributes not just colour but also a distinctive, slightly bitter flavour.

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