Saffron

Saffron is a spice from a flower with a green, grassy aroma. Cooks use it to season food, and it is sold whole or as a powder.

Category: Herbs & spices
Part used: Flower
Cooked most in: Asia, Europe
Top country: India
Dishes: 5 in the catalogue
Energy: 310 kcal per 100 g

Photo: Hubertl · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use saffron

Typical ways to cook or use it

Season

If you don’t have saffron

safflower · Works in a pinch
annatto · Works in a pinch
turmeric · Works in a pinch

Flavour

Taste and texture

Aroma

Green grassy

Shopping

Choosing and storing saffron

Sold as: Powder, Whole

Nutrition

What 100 g of saffron holds

Per 100 g. Averages from USDA; real values vary by variety, season and growing conditions.

Protein 14%Fat 7%Carbohydrate 79%of the macronutrients by weight

Nutrition per 100 g of saffron
Energy	310 kcal · 1,298 kJ
Protein	11 g
Fat	5.9 g
of which saturated	1.6 g
Carbohydrate	65 g
Fibre	3.9 g
Sodium	148 mg
Cholesterol	0 mg

Nutrition per 100 g of saffron: minerals and vitamins
Potassium	1,724 mg
Calcium	111 mg
Iron	11 mg
Magnesium	264 mg
Zinc	1.1 mg
Vitamin C	81 mg
Vitamin A (RAE)	27 µg
Folate	93 µg

Source: USDA FoodData Central (food 170934), public domain. Minerals and vitamins are listed only where USDA measured a non-zero amount.

Around the world

Where saffron is cooked

5 dishes in the catalogue use saffron. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Asia2
Europe2

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list saffron among their ingredients.

Origins

The 600s · Greece
In seventh-century Crete, saffron was used to season a pasta-like dish.
1730 · United States
By 1730, the Pennsylvania Dutch were growing saffron across eastern Pennsylvania.

On the table

Dishes made with saffron

4 of the 5 catalogued dishes that use it, spread across the countries they come from.

Arròs al forn
Spain
Saffron pancake
Sweden
Sholezard
Iran
Zarda
India

Dish lists come from Wikidata; a dish counts when its recorded ingredients include saffron.

Around the world

What saffron is called

Names in 96 languages, from Wikidata.

Spanish
azafrán · Azafranal · Azafranado · Azafranero
French
safran · Safran cultivé
Italian
zafferano
Portuguese
açafrão
German
Safran
Dutch
saffraan · Safraan
Greek
σαφράνι · σαφράν
Turkish
Safran
Russian
шафран
Polish
szafran · Szafran
Arabic
زعفران · الزعفران
Persian
زعفران · زعفران خوراکی

Show all 96 languages

Afrikaans
Saffraan
Albanian
Safrani
Angika
केसरी
Aragonese
Zafrán
Armenian
Զաֆրան (համեմունք)
Asturian
azafrán · Crocus sativa · Crocus sativus
Azerbaijani
زافران
Balinese
Pacah
Bangla
জাফরান
Basque
azafran · azafrai
Belarusian (Taraskievica orthography)
шафран
Betawi
Separang
Bhojpuri
केसर · ज़ाफ़रान · जाफरान
Bosnian
Šafran · jesenji šafran · Crocus sativus · C. sativus
Breton
Safron
Bulgarian
шафран · E164 · шафранов минзухар
Burmese
ကုံကုမံ · Saffron
Cantonese
藏紅花
Catalan
safrà
Chinese
番紅花 · 藏红花 · 蕃紅花 · 西紅花
Croatian
Šafran · jesenji šafran · Crocus sativus · C. sativus
Czech
šafrán
Danish
safran
Divehi
ކުކުން
Egyptian Arabic
زعفران
Esperanto
safrano
Estonian
Safran
Filipino
Biri · Safron · Asafran · Saffron
Finnish
sahrami
Galician
Azafrán
Hebrew
זעפרן
Hindi
केसर
hyw
Սաֆրան
Icelandic
Saffran
Ido
Safrano
Indonesian
kuma-kuma · Safron · Saffron
Irish
cróch
Japanese
サフラン · 番紅花 · バンコウカ
Javanese
kumkuma
Kabyle
Azɣer
Kannada
ಕೇಸರಿ · ಕೇಸರ
Kashmiri
کۄنٛگ
Korean
사프란 · 샤프란 · 사프론
Kurdish
zeferan
Kurdish (Latin)
zeferan
Ladino
Alsafran
Latin
Safranum
Latvian
safrāns
Lithuanian
šafranas · šafronas
Lombard
Zafran
Luxembourgish
Safran
Macedonian
шафран
Malay
Safron · Koma-koma
Malayalam
കുങ്കുമം · Saffron · കുങ്കുമച്ചെടി
Marathi
केशर
mnw
ကုံကမာန်
Nepali
केशर
Norwegian Bokmål
safran
Norwegian Nynorsk
safran
Occitan
Safran
Pashto
ګنګو
Pennsylvania German
Safron
Punjabi
ਕੇਸਰ
Romanian
șofran
Sanskrit
केसरम्
Sardinian
Zafferano
Serbian
шафран · сављица · јесењи шафран · шафран-крокус
Serbian (Latin)
Šafran
Sindhi
زعفران
Sinhala
කුංකුම
Slovenian
žafran
Sundanese
Sapron
Swahili
Wali wa zafarani
Swedish
saffran
Tamil
குங்குமப்பூ · குங்குமப்பூச் செடி
Telugu
కుంకుమ పువ్వు
Thai
หญ้าฝรั่น
Ukrainian
шафран
Urdu
زعفران · کیسر
Vietnamese
Saffron
Welsh
saffrwm
Western Panjabi
کیسر
Wu Chinese
番红花
Yiddish
זאפרען
Zaza
Esparıkê kutıkan

Sources and credits

Data

GlobeCooks editorial: descriptions, kitchen notes and classification, written by GlobeCooks from checked sources
USDA FoodData Central (Foundation, SR Legacy): nutrition values (Public domain (US government work, CC0))
Wikidata: names, classification and dishes (CC0 1.0)
Wikimedia Commons: photos
Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wikidata item: Q25434

Photos