Blue fenugreek: cultivation, benefits & uses

Blue fenugreek is a lesser known spice plant that is an integral part of Georgian cuisine. Find out everything you need to know about blue fenugreek and how to grow it yourself.

Blue fenugreek (Trigonella caerulea) belongs to the bread spices and can be grown in your own garden or on the balcony. Read on for tips on cultivating and harvesting blue fenugreek as well as suggestions on how to use it.

Blue fenugreek: origin and properties

Blue fenugreek belongs to the papilionaceous family of plants known as Fabaceae, and is closely related to fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum). The plant originates from the area of the eastern Mediterranean to Asia Minor and is thought to be the result of selectively breeding its wild relative Trigonella procumbens. But what exactly is blue fenugreek?

Blue fenugreek is a fine-leaved annual that can grow between 40 and 60cm high, in exceptional cases even around 100cm. As blue fenugreek is particularly popular in the Alpine region, it has been given the nickname South Tyrolean bread clover. Blue fenugreek plants form a deep taproot underground with fine secondary branches that form small round nodules in symbiosis with soil bacteria. The hollow, upright stems are covered with pale green, long-stalked, three-pinnate and lanceolate leaves with pointed toothed margins. Blue fenugreek’s bee-friendly flowers, which appear from June to September, sit together in terminal heads, are sky-blue in colour and have a strong fragrance. After pollination, numerous ochre to brown egg-shaped seeds form.

Difference between blue fenugreek and fenugreek: fenugreek and blue fenugreek are closely related species, the most significant difference being their appearance. The larger flowers of fenugreek are usually yellow in colour and the leaves are only very finely toothed to wavy. In addition, blue fenugreek tastes somewhat milder than fenugreek.

Growing blue fenugreek

Blue fenugreek prefers deep, fresh garden soil with a good water supply in sunny to semi-shady locations. Blue fenugreek can be grown in the garden as well as on the terrace and balcony. Sow blue fenugreek seeds from the end of April to July directly in the bed or in suitable planters with good water drainage. When sowing in a bed, remove weeds and loosen the soil well beforehand. Be careful not to apply fresh manure or compost to the bed before sowing blue fenugreek, as papilionaceous plants are sensitive to high levels of nutrients.

Sow the blue fenugreek seeds 1 to 2cm deep in rows 30 to 60cm apart. Sow around 2g of seeds per square metre. Blue fenugreek seeds germinate quite slowly, with the first plants usually appearing after 3 to 4 weeks. Remember to keep the soil well moist during this time, but avoid waterlogging. When the plants are about 5cm high, prick them out and plant them at a planting distance of about 10cm.

When growing blue fenugreek in pots, it is best to plant it straight into a high-quality potting soil that is rich in all the nutrients the plant needs, as it won’t be getting these from the ground. Our Plantura Organic All Purpose Compost is a well-balanced, pre-fertilised potting soil containing compost that meets the nutrient requirements of many plants, including blue fenugreek. It is also entirely peat-free, making it a more environmentally-friendly option than conventional potting soils, and contains no animal ingredients.

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Tip: blue fenugreek, like many legumes, should only be grown in the same area every 4 years. To understand a bit more about why certain plants cannot be grown in the same spot year after year, see our article on crop rotation.

Plant care

Blue fenugreek is extremely low-maintenance. The plants only need regular watering in dry summers, especially in the young plant phase and during flowering. If they grow very tall, you might need to offer them a support or tie them up so that they do not rest on the ground.

Like all papilionaceous plants, blue fenugreek naturally lives in a root symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing nodule bacteria, the so-called rhizobia. The soil bacteria provide blue fenugreek with this nitrogen in exchange for sugar from photosynthesis. Fertilisation is therefore not necessary except for when growing in pots, where no nodule bacteria are present. However, the minerals contained in nutrient-rich potting soil are usually enough to cover this annual’s needs.

Blue fenugreek is open-pollinated and can be propagated from its own seeds. To do this, allow a few plants to flower instead of harvesting the herb. Since the aromatic seeds ripen one after the other and fall out quickly if you wait too long, harvest the seed stalks continuously while still half-green and dry at room temperature for a few days. The ochre-coloured seeds fall out of the thin membranes and can be separated from each other by blowing on them. You can store blue fenugreek seeds in a dry and cool place for several years to sow at a later date.

Harvesting and using blue fenugreek

If using blue fenugreek as bread seasoning, harvest between July and September when the plants are in bloom, before the seeds can form properly and fall out. Cut the herb together with the flowers about 15cm above the ground. Chop them up and spread them out to air and dry in the shade. Since the plants recover and form fresh shoots when cut this high, you can harvest up to three times a year. Dried blue fenugreek herb and flowers can be finely ground for use as a spice. In some places, the seeds as well as the herb are ground into a blue fenugreek spice.

Blue fenugreek is a lesser known spice that is used in Swiss, Austrian and in particular Georgian cuisines. It has a robust, aromatic and slightly bitter flavour and goes particularly well in cheese dishes, and is used in Switzerland in cheese-making to make Schabzigerklee cheese. Ground blue fenugreek seeds are also added to bread dough, in spreads or in spicy seasoning mixtures such as curries.

Health benefits

Blue fenugreek is very good for you and contains numerous essential oils that give the dry herb its unique aroma. Tannins and bitter substances are responsible for the slightly bitter aftertaste. Blue fenugreek is said to have a digestive, appetite-stimulating and hematopoietic effect.