the.com/nigella
A seed so beautiful botanists named it love-in-a-mist, then chefs put it on bread.
means Nigella is a small black seed (from the flower Nigella sativa, also called black cumin or kalonji) with a slightly bitter, oniony-peppery taste, scattered on breads and used in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking.
from From Latin nigellus, 'blackish,' a diminutive of niger, 'black' — the same root that gives us 'Negro' and 'denigrate.' The name points straight at the tiny jet-black seeds. Botanists later attached the genus name Nigella to the flower whose feathery foliage earned it the nickname 'love-in-a-mist.'
- flower name
- Called love-in-a-mist for its hazy foliage
- black seed
- Nigella sativa dusts naan and Turkish bread
- ancient cred
- Found in Tutankhamun's tomb
- not cumin
- Often confused with onion seed, it's neither
- folk pharmacy
- Touted as a cure for everything but death
nigella sativa — black cumin seed used in middle eastern and south asian cuisine for millennia
nigella lawson — british food writer and television presenter, born 1960