Written by Impu Irani. He is the cookbook author and spice specialist behind Leena Spices. With more than 20 years of experience developing custom spice blends inspired by cuisines from around the world, he is passionate about helping home cooks create delicious meals from scratch using quality herbs, spices, and time-tested techniques. Through easy-to-follow recipes, practical cooking guides, and expert spice knowledge, Impu makes it simple for anyone to master homemade seasonings and enjoy fresher, more flavourful cooking with everyday ingredients. Download his free Leena Spices recipes eBook and discover how easy it is to create your own dishes with confidence at home.
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I started cooking without onion and garlic for a specific reason, and it took me more than a few fairly bad batches of dal before hing stopped tasting like a substitute and started tasting like an ingredient in its own right. Everything in this guide comes from that trial and error. The ratios, techniques, and little adjustments that finally worked in my own kitchen, not just theory.
One honest note before we get into it: hing can get surprisingly close to the savory depth that onion and garlic provide, but it won’t replicate them perfectly. It doesn’t bring the sweetness of caramelized onions to a dish, and nothing really replaces the sharp bite of raw garlic in something like a chutney. What hing does exceptionally well is rebuild the savory backbone that’s often missing when alliums are off the menu. The goal of this guide isn’t to create an identical substitute but to help you achieve the closest practical alternative that consistently tastes good.
How Much Hing Replaces One Clove of Garlic or One Onion
Pro Tip from the Leena Spices Kitchen:
In my own kitchen, I use 1/8 teaspoon of compounded hing to replace one garlic clove and 1/4 teaspoon to replace one small onion. Those ratios weren’t something I found in a cookbook. They came from a lot of trial and error, cooking the same recipes repeatedly and adjusting the amount until the flavor felt balanced.
I found that using much more than this makes the hing dominate the dish with a harsh, slightly bitter edge, while using less doesn’t quite rebuild the savory depth you are trying to replace. These measurements won’t recreate onion or garlic exactly, but they have consistently given me the closest balance across dals, curries, sabzis, and other everyday dishes.
Why Hing Actually Works as a Substitute
Onion and garlic owe much of their savory flavor to sulfur compounds that are released when they are cut or crushed. Hing also contains sulfur compounds, which is why it can recreate some of that same savory depth, even though the flavor isn’t identical.
The key difference is how those compounds are activated. With onion and garlic, cutting or crushing starts the process. With hing, heat does the work instead. That is why it should always be added to hot oil or ghee at the very beginning of cooking, where it blooms for a few seconds before the other ingredients go into the pan. Added later, it won’t develop the same rounded, savory flavor and can end up tasting raw or overpowering.
The Mistake Most People Make (Including Me, the First Time)
The first time I cooked with hing, I treated it like another ground spice instead of an ingredient that needed to be bloomed. I added it before the oil was properly hot, and the finished dish tasted flat, with a slightly harsh aftertaste instead of the savory depth I was expecting.
What I do now is wait until the oil or ghee is fully heated, add the hing, let it sizzle for just a few seconds until fragrant, and only then add the next ingredients. That tiny change makes a surprisingly big difference.
If your dish tastes flat or oddly bitter after using hing, it is almost always because of one of two things: the oil wasn’t hot enough to bloom it properly, or the type of hing wasn’t accounted for when measuring it. Pure resin is far more potent than compounded hing, so using the same amount for both can easily overwhelm an entire pot.
The Hing I Use (and Why It Matters)
I typically use compounded hing because is easy to find locally, has a balanced flavor, or is clearly labeled gluten-free. The brand itself is not as important as knowing whether you are using compounded hing or pure asafoetida resin, because they are much more potent at different strengths.
Pure asafoetida resin is several times stronger than the compounded powder most home cooks use. If you are cooking with resin instead of compounded hing, start with less than half the amount suggested in this guide and adjust to taste.
If you are cooking gluten-free, check the ingredient list carefully. Pure asafoetida resin is naturally gluten-free, but many compounded hing powders use wheat flour as the carrier. Some brands use rice flour or other gluten-free starches instead, so look for a product that’s specifically labeled gluten-free if that is important for your diet.
A Quick Word on Safety
Asafoetida is generally used in very small amounts in cooking, but it is still worth keeping a few precautions in mind. Because it belongs to the same plant family as celery, carrot, and fennel, people with allergies to plants in this family may also react to asafoetida. Allergic reactions are uncommon but can happen.
If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking blood-thinning medication, or have a bleeding disorder, check with your healthcare provider before using asafoetida regularly or in larger-than-culinary amounts. While it’s been used for centuries in traditional medicine as a digestive aid—particularly to help reduce gas and bloating from legume-rich meals—the evidence for these uses is still limited, and medicinal doses may not be appropriate for everyone.
For more detailed safety information, refer to the WebMd Asafoetida – Uses, Side Effects, and More
How to Use Hing in Cooking (Step by Step)
- Heat the oil or ghee until it shimmers. This step matters more than the exact amount of hing you use. If the fat isn’t hot enough, the hing won’t bloom properly.
- Add the hing first. Let it sizzle for 5–10 seconds, just until it becomes fragrant and loses its raw, pungent smell. Then add your whole spices, such as mustard seeds or cumin, and continue with the recipe.
- Add the remaining aromatics and cook as usual. Once the hing has bloomed, proceed with the rest of the recipe exactly as you normally would.
- Taste the finished dish before assuming you need more hing. If the flavor seems flat, the issue is usually technique rather than quantity. In my experience, hing added too late—or added to oil that wasn’t hot enough—never develops the same rounded, savory depth, no matter how much you add afterward.
One small technical note: different regional tempering methods vary. Many cooks add mustard seeds or cumin first, then add hing immediately after the seeds crackle so it blooms in the already-hot fat without scorching. Others add hing first for a few seconds before the whole spices. Both methods work, but the critical rule is that hing should bloom in hot fat for just a few seconds early in the cooking process, not be stirred into liquid later.
Impu Irani is a cookbook author behind Leena Spices, where he shares practical, easy-to-follow guides on homemade spice blends, herbs, and natural cooking. His work helps home cooks create fresh, flavorful meals using simple ingredients and traditional methods. Download his free Spice Blending eBook and start your journey to cleaner cooking today!
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