a pinch in daal is delish! daal really doesn't taste the same without it. the smell of raw asafoetida is not pleasant...

i use it in Indian dishes mainly, like this Lemon Rasam. i think it'd be good in other dishes as well, but haven't experimented.

If you are looking for this spice, it is also known as hing powder. Definitely a crucial ingredient in so many recipes, especially if you practice Jainism and thus do not eat onions or garlic! My favourite online cook who uses hing is Manjula Jain, she is WONDERFUL! Please check out her website with fabulous recipes (and instructional videos!) http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/

I'm hardly a cook, but sometimes I cook stuff that reminds me of my childhood days at home when mom/grandma cooked and the smell of food wafted through the house. That's really something else, as most of you will agree. (nostalgia/comfort that comes from smells reminiscent of childhood) Having said that - this spice is something unlike any other spice! There is none like it! Period! And therefore it is also used unlike any other spice. Especially used in what we call "popu". In Rasam/daal, or any veggies that take "popu" a kind of garnish. "Popu" in (Telugu) is made as follows: heat oil in a small dish, while heating, toss mustard seeds, they start sputtering. Toss cumin, some other daal and dreid red chillies, curry leaves, and this asafoetida. Every one of those ingredients in popu make a difference, causing the aroma. It's actually pretty good. I'm sure google will give you some results as to exactly what to put in a good "popu" and in what order the ingredients go in. ANyway, while the poil is still sputtering, you plunge the whole thing into daal/rasam. That causes even more wonderful aroma. You can put popu in steamed veggies seasoned with some salt too. That's one way we ate our veggies when we didn't want fried stuff, because fried stuff is unhealthy in general. And popu doesn't take a lot of oil.

Actually - it's not especially used that way in popu. I cannot think of any other way to use it. So that's the ONLY way we use it. And I've tried to use it otherwise too because I didn't know better. It never worked out for me. So, if anyone knows of other uses for it, please share!

I use a healthy pinch of it in most of my Indian dishes. The smell is pretty funktastic on its own - akin to citrus feet. But dishes aren't the same without it.

I think I recall reading--a few times--that you need to fry/cook it in oil to get the most flavor out of it. Used it once--with trepidation!--as it's quite smelly. But, upon frying, it mellows significantly.

I don't eat eggs, and I use asafeotida in any savory dishes that normally call for eggs because it lends a vague sulfury taste. I have also used it to replace an oniony or garlicky taste in a variety of sauces and stews when I was out of them. I've gotten a lot of compliments on dishes in which I used it because it adds a neat depth of flavor that most people can't name.

For those who haven't used it before, a little goes a really long way! It's very flavorful. The tiniest of pinches or shakes from the bottle will do even for a very large recipe.

FYI- most asafoetida powder in the US has wheat flour in it, and is not gluten free. The Frontier brand in the picture is the only gluten free brand (using rice flour) that I know of.

this stuff rsmells bad! Like others have said you need just a little pinch so I split the jar with a friend, and it absolutely reeked in my kitchen from dumping a little into another container. I ended up double bagging the jar with 2 zip locks to make sure the smell doesn't get out!

It does make a difference in dishes tho.

My husband is from Chennai and his mother taught me how to cook. There is a typical south Indian seasoning used in everything from vegetables to dal to meat dishes that consists of mustard seeds, ulundu (split urad dal), curry leaves, hing, and maybe a dried red chili or two. The smell of these roasting in oil just before you fry the onions is one of the most amazing aromas for a kitchen! The horrible smell changes immensely when it's roasted. Also, asafoetida is supposed to have anti-gas properties, which is why it's so often pared with lentils.

It's a staple of South Indian cooking, for two reasons:
-Many Brahmins don't eat garlic or onions, and so it gives an umami flavor that you can't get without garlic especially.
-It cuts down on gas.

But you gotta try it; it does smell awful, but as soon as you fry it with curry leaves the smell you get is fantastic.

The smell of asafetida is hideous. I am still trying to find a way for my husband to store it so I don't get a face-full every time I walk past the spice cupboard.

@EMNemastil - i store mine, in the plastic tube it comes in, inside a ziploc bag, inside a glass jar, inside the spice box. then finally but slowly that smell went away from my kitchen.
i too, find the smell very offensive, but irreplaceable in a recipe.

I have a friend with an allium allergy, I recommended it to him... that has to be the saddest allergy in the world...

I've cooked with it. I found out that the hubster HATES it so no more cooking with it (and the rest got tossed since he also hated the smell).

Over the past few months, I've developed that sad sad issue that virtualjess mentioned, allium intolerance (so far just onions, shallots, scallions, not yet there with the garlic), and I've been trying to dig through this Indian cookbook that seems to do that asafoetida-for-onions substitution. I'd be really excited to learn about other onion work-arounds. Oh lord, do I miss onions.

I am allergic to both onions and garlic, and I use asafoetida to give dishes that taste of onions/garlic.

I had a roommate who was allergic to onions and garlic; she would sometimes use a little drizzle of white truffle powder, and somtimes asfoetida. I could always tell when it was the asfoetida's turn, because the kitchen would smell like rancid socks. It did taste good, though.