Ground cardamom is one of the key ingredients of garam masala. It is widely employed in Indian, Swedish, Arabic and Middle Eastern recipes. Most of the meat and vegetable dishes contain a pinch of ground cardamom, cloves and nutmeg. It is available at stores in the form of whole pods, ground or seeds.
Scientifically, it belongs to the species Elettaria cardamom of the ginger family. It is the third most expensive spice after saffron and vanilla. The ground cardamom spice can be made from green or black cardamom; both come from the same family but have different genera. Black ones are used in spicy salty dishes, not often in confectionaries or teas.