🌼 Kusuma Nune - The Forgotten Oil Making Its Return

Kusuma safflower has been cultivated across the Deccan plateau for centuries. Its oil was a staple in Telugu kitchens long before refined sunflower and palm oils took over the market. Today, most people have either forgotten it entirely or never knew it existed. We press it the old way raw safflower seeds through our Eddhu Ganuga bull churned wooden press and the result is a deep golden oil with a clean, light flavour that is unlike anything most modern kitchens have seen.

Safflower is a thistle like plant that thrives in the dry, hot conditions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The seeds are small, white, and dense packed with natural oil. Our safflower seeds are sourced from local farmers who have been growing this crop for generations, keeping the tradition alive in a region where it has always belonged. The oil that comes out of the ganuga is a rich, deep golden yellow that colour is completely natural and is itself a sign that nothing has been bleached or refined away.

Raw safflower seeds are loaded into our traditional wooden ganuga. A bull walks in slow, steady circles, turning the wooden pestle that crushes the seeds gently at room temperature. The deep golden oil flows out naturally, is filtered, and bottled. No heat is generated. No chemicals are used. No refining happens. What you see in the bottle is exactly what came out of the seed.

Kusuma Nune is a versatile everyday cooking oil. Its light, clean flavour means it does not overpower dishes  making it ideal for cooking where you want the ingredients to shine rather than the oil. It handles heat well, making it suitable for most Indian cooking methods.

It works beautifully for tempering mustard seeds, curry leaves and dried chillies, for shallow frying snacks and vegetables, for sautéing gravies and masalas, and as a base oil for rice dishes. Traditionally it was also used for hair oiling and as a body massage oil in the colder months.

1 Litre  |  2 Litres  |  5 Litres  |  10 Litres  |  15 Litres

A traditional oil from Deccan soil rediscovered, cold pressed, and ready for your kitchen.