My mom uses goda—which means sweet in Marathi—masala in almost all the sabzis. It adds amazing flavor to the sabzis and as the name suggests is not spicy (teekha). Devansh likes sabzis made using mom’s style of cooking and so I simply can not do without goda masala. Most of mom’s sabzis are sweet, and are made by just adding sabzis in the tadka, along with a few simple ingredients like chili powder and jaggery. She rarely uses khada masala, onions, or garam masala; this goda masala adds all the flavor needed.
I started adding this masala in Devansh’s food pretty early. A couple of months after he started eating solids, I added a pinch of goda masala to his moong daal khichdi, dalia, and vegetable poha. Devansh liked this less bland version of his food. The decision to introduce spices in baby’s diet varies from parent to parent but I had read articles such as this which convinced me to start adding spices in Devansh’s food fairly early.
This has been my most challenging recipe…writing-wise. :p I didn’t make this masala, mom did. She has the ingredients written down, so noting down the ingredients was the easy part. The steps seem simple, roast the ingredients and then grind them. But some need to be dry roasted and some with a bit of oil. Also, mom follows a particular sequence for roasting and grinding these ingredients. She learned this recipe from my daadi and has been making the masala for many years now. So she’s got the sequence etched in her mind. Once in the kitchen she almost makes this on autopilot, but when she had to detail it out to me we kept going in circles. Finally, all the confusion was sorted out and we had the recipe in place. :-) Mom makes this masala in bulk, and it lasts us for 5-6 months. If you haven’t used this masala before, you may want to scale down the ingredients to try it out first. Give it a try, I’m sure you will like it. Recipes that use this masala to follow soon. ;-)

Goda Masala Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 grams coriander seeds approx. 1 bowl
- 100 grams dry coconut grated
- 50 grams cumin seeds approx. half a bowl
- 50 grams sesame seeds approx. half a bowl
- 10 grams caraway seeds shahi jeera
- 10 grams bay leaves
- 10 grams black cardamom badi elaichi (extract the seeds)
- 10 grams stone flower dagad phool
- 1 tsp fenugreek methi seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 10 grams cinnamon
- 10-12 cloves
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp asafoetida hing
- 1 tsp salt
- Please note that the ingredients in the image below are kept for representation purpose and are not as per measure. Refer to the Ingredients list above to know the exact quantity of each ingredient.
Instructions
- Dry roast cumin seeds, sesame seeds, and grated coconut separately till each turns golden brown in color.
- Add a little oil (approx. 3/4th tsp) in a pan and roast methi seeds till the seeds turn light brown in color and then remove them from the pan. (Don’t roast them till they turn dark otherwise they’ll cause the masala to be bitter.)
- Add cloves, black peppercorns, bay leaves, stone flowers, black cardamom seeds, and cinnamon. (You need little bit oil to roast these ingredients. After removing the methi seeds some oil will remain in the pan, roast all these ingredients together in the same oil.) Roast these ingredients for 2-3 minutes and then remove them from the pan.
- Add little oil in the pan and roast coriander seeds for a minute or two, add shahi jeera and roast for a minute, turn off heat, and then add haldi, hing, and salt. Stir these ingredients for a minute.
- Use a mixer to grind roasted methi seeds, cloves, black peppercorns, bay leaves, stone flowers, black cardamom seeds, and cinnamon. Grind these ingredients coarsely. (Ingredients used in steps 2 and 3)
- Add roasted coriander seeds, shahi jeera, haldi, hing, and salt in the same mixer jar and grind the ingredients to make a coarse powder. (Ingredients used in step 4)
- Use a small mixer jar to grind roasted cumin seeds, sesame seeds, and grated dry coconut. Grind each of these separately to make a coarse powder.
- Combine both the powders and grind them in the big mixer jar till you get masala-like texture.
- Keep excess masala in the freezer. It can get spoiled if it’s kept at room temperature for more than a month.