Asafoetida (Hing) Substitutes, Including Options Without Onion or Garlic

Asafoetida, or hing, is the dried resin of Ferula assa-foetida and related species, a plant of the carrot family.¹² Its essential oil is rich in sulfur compounds, and about half of it is a single one, (R)-2-butyl-1-propenyl disulfide.² Raw, Katzer says, it smells remotely like garlic that is not altogether fresh; fried quickly in hot oil, it turns into the savory background of many Indian dals.² The usual substitutes are onion and garlic, which owe their flavor to sulfur compounds too. But many cooks use asafoetida precisely because they don’t eat onion or garlic, so this page also covers what to do then.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one and do not average them.
• Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a cautious starting point, and say so.

The two published figures we found are a food blogger’s rule and a spice merchant’s rule. Neither says how it was arrived at. No study compares the strength of asafoetida with any substitute.

Which asafoetida your recipe means

Most hing sold is compounded. India’s food regulator defines compounded asafoetida as asafoetida combined with gum arabic, edible starches or edible cereal flour,³ and Katzer describes the common powder as more than half rice flour and gum arabic.² When a recipe says “a pinch of hing,” it almost always means this diluted powder. If you are converting from pure resin, our reasoning is that you would need less of it, but we found no figure for how much less.

If asafoetida is adding savory depth

Garlic powder and onion powder

This is the swap most cooks reach for. Food writer Meeta Arora of Piping Pot Curry says a blend of garlic and onion powder can replicate asafoetida’s flavor profile, and to “use them in equal measures.”⁴

Why it works: both are sulfur-driven flavors. Garlic’s allicin breaks down into a range of organosulfur compounds,⁵ and the flavor of fresh onion comes from thiosulfinates.⁶ Asafoetida’s smell comes from its own sulfur compounds, mainly a disulfide.² They are not the same molecules, so the match is approximate: in our judgment the blend tastes more plainly of garlic and onion and lacks hing’s rounder, slightly funky depth.

How to use it. Do not fry garlic powder in hot oil the way you would fry hing. America’s Test Kitchen found that garlic powder straight from the jar has not developed its full flavor,⁷ and that powder sautéed in butter before it was hydrated had almost no garlic flavor at all.⁸ Mix the powders with a little water first and stir them into the dish once there is some liquid in the pan.

Ratio (Attributed, then Method): Arora’s “equal measures” reads as equal parts garlic powder and onion powder; her page does not state a total amount against the asafoetida.⁴ As a starting point, use the same total volume of the mix as the recipe’s compounded hing, then taste and add more.

If asafoetida is fried first in a tadka

In a tadka, asafoetida goes into hot oil or ghee with whole spices, and Katzer stresses that the resin has to be fried quickly in hot oil to develop.² Powders scorch in that oil, so fresh aromatics are the better swap here.

Fresh garlic, with or without onion

Arora suggests a freshly made garlic and onion paste, sautéed in oil or ghee before use.⁴ Australian spice merchant The Spice People gives an amount, written from the other direction: how much asafoetida replaces garlic or onion.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice People says half a teaspoon of asafoetida powder can stand in for two minced garlic cloves or two thirds of a cup of minced onion.⁹ It is a merchant’s rule of thumb with no stated basis, and half a teaspoon is more hing than many recipes call for, so scale it to your recipe and taste.

Fry the garlic gently in the fat until it smells cooked but before it browns, then carry on with the recipe. Leeks or shallots, sweated in the same fat, are other options in our kitchen judgment; we found no published ratio for them.

If the dish must stay free of onion and garlic

Katzer notes that Brahmins who refuse onions and garlic often use asafoetida in their place.² The Spice People says the same of Jain and Brahmin cooks.⁹ For these dishes, onion and garlic are not substitutes at all. Nothing we found reproduces asafoetida’s sulfur note without them, so the honest options add a different kind of depth.

1. Fenugreek seeds

Arora suggests fenugreek seeds, which she says contribute a slightly bitter, nutty note akin to asafoetida.⁴ Britannica describes fenugreek’s flavor as strong, sweetish and somewhat bitter, reminiscent of burnt sugar.¹⁰ It is a different flavor, not a match, and it turns bitter quickly if overused.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Fry a small pinch of whole seeds in the tempering oil until they darken slightly, then continue. Too many make a dish bitter.

2. Cumin and coriander

Arora also lists a mix of cumin and coriander powder as an alternative.⁴ It adds warmth and body rather than anything sulfurous.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. If the recipe already contains cumin or coriander, increase it slightly. Otherwise, leave the asafoetida out, finish the dish, and taste before adding anything.

If you want a mild garlic-onion note at the end

Garlic chives

PROSEA describes garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) as having a mild garlic taste and smell.¹¹ They work stirred into a finished dal or sprinkled over a dish, where hing would have been fried in at the start. They will not give the cooked-in depth of asafoetida, and they are allium, so they do not suit onion-free and garlic-free cooking.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Add a small handful, chopped, at the end and taste.

What isn’t known

• No study compares the flavor strength of asafoetida with any substitute. The two published amounts here are rules of thumb.
• Arora’s “equal measures” does not say how much of the blend replaces how much hing.
• How much compounded hing equals a given amount of pure resin depends on the product; no published conversion was found.
• No published ratio was found for leeks, shallots, fenugreek, cumin, coriander or garlic chives in place of asafoetida.

Related

• Asafoetida
• Garlic, garlic powder and onion powder
• Garlic chives and chives
• Fenugreek, cumin and coriander
• Black salt and chaat masala
• Garlic powder substitutes and onion powder substitutes

Footnotes

1. Ferula assa-foetida L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩

2. Gernot Katzer, “Asafetida (Ferula assa-foetida)”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. FAQ on asafoetida and compounded asafoetida standards, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. fssai.gov.in · Regulator ↩

4. Meeta Arora, “Substitutes for Asafoetida”, Piping Pot Curry. pipingpotcurry.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. “Garlic”, Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center, Oregon State University. lpi.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩

6. Imai et al., “An onion enzyme that makes the eyes water”, Nature, 2002. nature.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

7. Carolyn Grillo, “For Great Garlic Bread, Hydrate Your Garlic Powder First”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2021. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

8. “Experiment: Bringing Out the Best in Garlic Powder”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

9. “Asafoetida: a flavourful substitute for garlic and onion”, The Spice People. thespicepeople.com.au · Merchant ↩ ↩²

10. “Fenugreek”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

11. van der Meer et al., Allium tuberosum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩