How to Actually Cook With Perilla Seeds (The Khasi Chutney, and Five Easier Things)

The first problem with perilla seeds, for most people who buy them, is that they're not entirely sure what to do with them. They aren't a spice you reach for daily by reflex. They aren't a baking ingredient. The packet sits in the cupboard, and once a week you remember you have them, and then you forget again.

So here's a practical note. One traditional Khasi recipe — the one perilla was eaten with for generations in Meghalaya before the wellness industry discovered it — and five easier things you can do with them on a Tuesday evening.

What perilla seeds taste like

Worth knowing before you start cooking. Raw, they're slightly grassy with a faint sesame note. Dry-roasted, the flavour deepens — nutty, warm, with a hint of mint at the back (perilla is in the mint family, botanically). The texture is small and crunchy, like a smaller sesame seed.

Roasting changes the whole picture. Eat one raw, eat one roasted, and you'll understand why every traditional preparation involves dry-roasting them first.

The Khasi chutney (nei lieh)

This is the traditional preparation. Earthier and quieter than the chutneys you might know from elsewhere in India.

• 2 tablespoons perilla seeds
• 1 dried red chilli (or fresh green, if you want it lighter)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Optional: a small clove of garlic, a few coriander leaves

Dry-roast the perilla seeds in a heavy pan over medium-low heat for 3–4 minutes, stirring constantly. They're done when they're fragrant, slightly darker, and starting to pop a little. Don't walk away from the pan — they go from fragrant to burnt in about 20 seconds.

Tip them into a mortar with the chilli (also briefly dry-roasted), the salt, and the garlic if you're using it. Pound to a coarse paste — you want it to hold together but still have visible seed bits, not turn into a powder. Stir in the coriander at the end.

Eat with rice, with dal, with grilled meat, with a flatbread. It keeps for about three days in the fridge but it's better the same day it's made.

Five easier things

1. Sprinkled on rice. The simplest possible use. Dry-roast a small batch of perilla seeds (4–5 minutes in a pan), cool, store in a jar. Sprinkle a teaspoon over plain steamed rice with a drop of ghee or sesame oil. The grain takes on a nutty, slightly meaty depth.

2. On scrambled eggs or a fried egg. Same idea. Toasted perilla seeds over a soft scramble or on top of a fried egg with a piece of toast. They add the salt-and-crunch element that you'd otherwise get from furikake or za'atar.

3. In a salad dressing. Roast a tablespoon of seeds and grind them into a paste with olive oil, a splash of lime, salt, and a touch of honey. Use as a dressing for a green salad, particularly one with sturdy leaves (kale, romaine, cabbage). Quietly excellent.

4. Folded into granola or muesli. Add a tablespoon of toasted perilla to your morning granola. Or stir it into a bowl of curd with a spoon of honey and a chopped banana. The omega-3 contribution is real even at this dose.

5. Mixed into bread dough. Half a teaspoon of toasted perilla seeds in a homemade flatbread dough — roti, paratha, or a Western flatbread — changes the bread's flavour subtly without adding any visible specks if you grind them. Try it once with a small batch.

One thing not to do

Don't add raw perilla seeds directly to a hot tempering (tadka) the way you would with cumin or mustard seeds. They're too oily and burn quickly — you'll end up with a bitter, harsh flavour rather than the gentle nutty one. Either dry-roast them separately and add at the end, or use them ground into a paste in the masala.

And don't put them into anything that will be on heat for more than ~10 minutes. Their oil is delicate and starts breaking down quickly with prolonged cooking. The whole reason they're prized is that ALA (the omega-3 fatty acid they're rich in) is heat-sensitive — prolonged cooking destroys some of it.

Storage

Perilla seeds, like flax and chia, are high-fat and will go rancid faster than dry spices. Store them in an airtight jar away from sunlight; ideally in the fridge once opened. They'll keep their flavour for about 4–6 months refrigerated, less than 2 months at room temperature.

If your seeds smell anything other than nutty and fresh — if there's a sharp or sour note — they've gone off. Throw them.

How we source them

The Adviah perilla seeds come from small Khasi family farms around Shillong, sun-dried, cleaned, and packed within a few months of harvest. ₹299 for 100g.

For more on the nutrition side — what the omega-3 claim actually delivers and what it doesn't — the longer note is here. For broader context on the Meghalaya food traditions perilla comes from, the primer is here.