All Purpose Seasoning Substitute: Best Swaps

Recipe calls for “all-purpose seasoning”? First figure out which one it means, because that’s a label, not a recipe. The same words show up on salt-free blends of onion, garlic, pepper and herbs, on salt-led garlic blends like Goya’s adobo, and, in everyday speech, on soy-based liquids. Salt is the big difference: a salt-free blend such as Dash Original lists 0 mg of sodium per quarter teaspoon, while Goya’s all-purpose adobo lists 520 mg.¹² Get that wrong and a straight swap can oversalt the dish, or leave it flat.

Quick answer

What the all-purpose seasoning is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part blend	Treatment
Salt-free savory base (onion, garlic, herbs)	Homemade mix led by onion powder	1 part	Method
Salted savory base (adobo-style)	Another salt-led blend: adobo, seasoned salt or Creole seasoning	1 part, then adjust salt using the table below	Computed (salt)
Recipe written for a salt-free blend, but you only have a salted one	The salted blend, with the recipe’s other salt cut	1 part, minus up to 7/8 part salt elsewhere	Computed (salt)
Liquid aminos	Soy sauce	1 part by volume	Computed (sodium)

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

Every Computed figure here is about salt only, worked out from the sodium on Nutrition Facts labels. None of it measures flavor.

Which kind of all-purpose seasoning is in your recipe?

US labels list ingredients in descending order of weight,³ so the first ingredient tells you what the blend mostly is.

Product	First ingredients	Sodium per 1/4 tsp	Source
Dash Salt Free Original	Dried onion, then spices (black pepper, parsley, celery seed, basil, bay, marjoram, oregano and more)	0 mg	¹
Simply Organic All Purpose	Onion, black pepper, garlic, parsley, celery seed, tomato powder, herbs	Not listed; no salt in the ingredients	⁴
Goya Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning with Pepper	Salt, garlic, anticaking agent, black pepper, oregano, turmeric	520 mg	²
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt	Salt, sugar, spices (including paprika, celery seed, turmeric), onion	380 mg	⁵
Tony Chachere’s Original Creole	Salt, red pepper, black pepper, chili powder, garlic	340 mg	⁶
Slap Ya Mama Original Blend Cajun	Salt, black pepper, red pepper, granulated garlic	310 mg	⁷
McCormick Signature Cajun	Salt, then paprika, red pepper, thyme, black pepper, celery seed, garlic, onion	160 mg	⁸
Morton Iodized Table Salt, for comparison	Salt	590 mg	⁹

Salt-free blends lead with onion. Salted ones lead with salt. These figures are for the products named, not every jar on the shelf.

If the blend is salt-free

Dash Original and Simply Organic both start with onion, then black pepper, garlic or both, then parsley, celery seed and a long list of dried herbs.⁴¹ The USDA’s purchasing specification for a salt-free seasoning with herbs and citrus reads much the same: onion, black pepper, parsley, celery seed, basil, bay leaves, marjoram, oregano, savory, thyme and more, plus garlic, carrot, citrus peel, tomato and citric acid.¹⁰

1. Make your own

Ratio (Method): Onion comes first on both salt-free labels,⁴¹ so make onion powder your biggest ingredient. A good starting point: 2 parts onion powder, 1 part garlic powder, 1/2 part black pepper and 1/2 part dried parsley, with a pinch each of celery seed, thyme and oregano. Use it 1:1 for the blend the recipe calls for. It’s our own starting mix, not a copy of any brand. Dash also lists orange peel, lemon juice powder, citric acid and oil of lemon,¹ so a little grated lemon zest makes sense too.

2. A salted blend, if that’s all you have

This is where a straight swap goes wrong. A recipe written for a salt-free blend expects you to add salt separately, or not at all.

Ratio (Computed, salt only): A teaspoon of Goya’s adobo carries about 2,080 mg of sodium (4 servings × 520 mg).² That’s about the same as 7/8 teaspoon of Morton table salt, which lists 590 mg per quarter teaspoon.⁹ So if you use adobo in place of a salt-free blend, cut up to 7/8 teaspoon of salt from the rest of the recipe for every teaspoon of adobo, and taste before adding any back. For scale, FDA’s Daily Value for sodium is less than 2,300 mg a day.¹¹ Lawry’s, at 380 mg per quarter teaspoon, stands in for about 5/8 teaspoon of table salt per teaspoon.⁵⁹

If the blend is salted

If your recipe means a salted all-purpose blend like Goya’s adobo, which Goya itself calls “All-Purpose Seasoning,”² reach for another salt-led blend. Adobo seasoning substitutes covers that swap in detail.

1. Adobo seasoning

TASTE describes most adobo blends as garlic, pepper, salt and oregano,¹² and Goya’s label matches.² It’s the closest match for a salted all-purpose blend that leans on garlic.

Ratio (Computed, salt only): Adobo is one of the saltiest blends in the table above. If the blend you’re replacing has less sodium per quarter teaspoon, use less adobo than the recipe says. To match Tony Chachere’s 340 mg, for example, use about two thirds as much Goya adobo (340 ÷ 520 = 0.65).⁶²

2. Creole seasoning

Tony Chachere’s Original Creole lists salt first, then red pepper, black pepper, chili powder and garlic.⁶ The USDA’s purchasing specification for Creole seasoning lists salt, paprika, garlic, cayenne, black pepper, mustard and lemon peel as its minimum.¹⁰ Expect more pepper and chile than most all-purpose blends.

Ratio (Computed, salt only): Swapping Tony Chachere’s 1:1 for Goya’s adobo gives you about 65 percent of the sodium; add about 1/3 teaspoon of table salt per teaspoon to match.⁶²⁹ Against Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, 1:1 gives about 89 percent, close enough to leave alone.⁵

3. Cajun seasoning

Cajun is often called the spicier of the two Louisiana blends: Tasting Table, citing MasterClass, calls Cajun spicier and Creole more earthy.¹³ Salt varies a lot by label. Slap Ya Mama’s Original Blend lists 310 mg per quarter teaspoon and McCormick’s Signature Cajun 160 mg.⁷⁸

Ratio (Computed, salt only): Against Goya’s adobo, a 1:1 swap gives 60 percent of the sodium with Slap Ya Mama and 31 percent with McCormick Signature.⁷⁸² Make up the difference with table salt, not more blend, or the heat climbs along with it.

4. Fajita seasoning, for Tex-Mex dishes only

This is a Tex-Mex blend, not a Latin American one. The USDA’s purchasing specification lists salt, black pepper, cumin, oregano, garlic, onion, red pepper and natural lime flavor;¹⁰ McCormick’s mix lists chili pepper, cumin, paprika, garlic, salt, sugar, onion, corn starch, citric acid and lime juice concentrate.¹⁴ The cumin and lime set it apart from any all-purpose blend.

Ratio (Method): Start with half the amount of all-purpose seasoning called for, taste, and salt separately.

If “all-purpose seasoning” means liquid aminos

Bragg Liquid Aminos is made from soybeans and water, and Bragg sells it as a soy sauce alternative.¹⁵

Soy sauce

Ratio (Computed, sodium): Bragg lists 310 mg of sodium per teaspoon.¹⁵ Kikkoman soy sauce lists 960 mg per tablespoon, which works out to about 320 mg per teaspoon.¹⁶ That’s close, so swap 1:1 by volume. A reduced-sodium soy sauce will carry less; check its label, and expect to need a little more of it, or a pinch of salt.

Bragg markets its product as a gluten-free stand-in for soy sauce.¹⁵ If gluten is why you use liquid aminos, read the soy sauce label before you swap.

What isn’t known

The salt figures above are label math; the flavor side is a judgment call.
Brands don’t publish their spice proportions, so the homemade salt-free mix is a starting point, not a copy.
Sodium figures cover only the products named. Several blends come in reduced-sodium versions, so read your own label.

Dash Salt Free Original Seasoning Blend, ingredients and nutrition label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Goya Foods, “Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning with Pepper”, trade product page. trade.goya.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
21 CFR 101.4, Food; designation of ingredients. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩
Simply Organic All Purpose Seasoning, ingredients, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, ingredients and nutrition label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³
Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning, ingredients and nutrition label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Slap Ya Mama Original Blend Cajun Seasoning, ingredients and nutrition label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³
McCormick Signature Seasonings Cajun, ingredients and nutrition label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³
Morton Iodized Table Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³
“Sodium in Your Diet”, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov · Regulator ↩
Alicia Kennedy, article on adobo seasoning, TASTE, 2018. tastecooking.com · Publication ↩
Stephanie Friedman, Is It Possible To Substitute Creole Seasoning For Cajun Seasoning?, Tasting Table, 2023. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩
McCormick Fajita Seasoning Mix, product page, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩
Bragg, “Liquid Aminos”, product page. bragg.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³
Kikkoman Soy Sauce, Nutrition Facts, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩

All-Purpose Seasoning Substitutes: First, Find Out Whether Yours Has Salt