Cardamom Substitute: Best Swaps and How Much

Out of cardamom? For baking, mix equal parts ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon; for a curry, reach for cinnamon and ginger or a little garam masala. For coffee or tea, nothing really comes close. Cardamom here means green cardamom, with a cool, camphor-like, floral smell that no other common spice copies, so every substitute is a compromise. And if you’ve got pods but the recipe says ground, about 12 of them make a teaspoon.

Quick answer

What cardamom is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part cardamom	Treatment
Sweet spice in baking (buns, cakes, cookies)	Equal parts ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, mixed	1 part of the mix	Attributed
Warmth in curries, rice and meat dishes	Cinnamon plus ginger	1/2 part each, or 1 part each	Disputed
One spice in a savory blend	Garam masala	1 part	Attributed
Scent in coffee, tea or a syrup	Nothing close; a pinch of coriander or citrus zest with cinnamon	A small pinch	Method
Pods in place of ground, or ground for pods	Ground cardamom	1 teaspoon ground for about 12 pods	Computed

How the ratios on this page are labeled

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.

What the substitutes can and can’t copy

Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg bring warmth and sweetness. None of them brings cardamom’s cool, camphor-and-flower lift, so a blend of several usually gets closer than any one on its own.

The Spice House lists cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and apple pie spice as good pantry substitutes,¹ and most of its recommendations below are mixes of them.

If cardamom is a sweet spice in baking

Cardamom is popular in Scandinavian pastries as well as South Asian dishes. In a cardamom bun or cake it’s often the main flavor, so people will notice a substitute.

1. Ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon in equal parts

Ratio (Attributed): For baking, The Spice House says to “use equal parts of ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon,” and to start with a 1:1 swap when you’re using a blended substitute.¹ That’s 1 teaspoon of the mix for each teaspoon of ground cardamom.

Cloves make up a quarter of this mix, and they’re very strong. If it comes out too clove-heavy, the same source suggests cutting back on strong spices like cloves.

2. Apple pie spice or another sweet blend

Apple pie spice is on The Spice House’s list of pantry substitutes. Brand blends are mostly cinnamon; see apple pie spice.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House’s general rule is to start with a 1:1 swap when you’re using a blended substitute.¹

3. One spice alone

Ratio (Attributed for cloves): For a single strong spice like cloves, The Spice House says to “cut the amount to half or three quarters because cloves can overpower a dish.”¹ For cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice on its own, start with half to three quarters of the cardamom amount and taste.

If cardamom is warmth in curries, rice and meat dishes

Cardamom is an important ingredient in curries and plays a big role in spiced rice, vegetable and meat dishes. Here it’s usually one spice among several, and a substitute is easier to hide.

1. Cinnamon and ginger

Ratio (Disputed): The Spice House recommends cinnamon and ginger for curry, but its page gives two different amounts for the same swap.

Where on the page	What it says	Works out to, per 1 teaspoon cardamom
Body text	2 teaspoons cardamom: use 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon ginger¹	1/2 teaspoon each
FAQ	Swap 1 teaspoon cardamom for 1 teaspoon cinnamon plus 1 teaspoon ginger, then adjust¹	1 teaspoon each

Those two figures are a factor of two apart, and we couldn’t find a second credible source to settle it. Start low: 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon and ginger per teaspoon of cardamom. Taste once the dish has simmered, and add more if the warmth isn’t there.

2. Garam masala

Cardamom is a common garam masala ingredient. Great British Chefs lists it among the usual spices, and Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe in Saveur uses a quarter cup of cardamom seeds.² The Spice House says garam masala works well in savory Indian dishes because it often has cardamom notes.¹ It’ll also bring cloves, cinnamon, pepper and other spices, so check what else the recipe already has in it.

Ratio (Attributed): Start 1:1, per The Spice House’s rule for blended substitutes.¹

3. Black cardamom

Black cardamom is a different plant. India’s Indian Institute of Spices Research describes it as strong, smoky and slightly camphoraceous, and it shares one of green cardamom’s main aroma compounds, a camphor-like one.³ That’s a real link. The smoke is the catch. The Spice House says black cardamom is smoke-dried and better suited to braised meats and savory recipes than green.⁴ Keep it to savory dishes.

Sources disagree on which one is stronger. The Spice House calls black cardamom stronger than green;⁴ Tasting Table says green is “much more intense” than black.⁵ Neither gives a measurement.

Ratio (Method): Try one black pod in place of two or three green pods, crack it, and taste before you add more. See black cardamom.

If cardamom is the scent in coffee, tea or a syrup

Cardamom is used to flavor coffee and tea. In a drink it’s the whole point, and nothing here will pass for it.

Ratio (Method): The Spice House suggests a small pinch of ground coriander, or a little lemon or orange zest, to bring back cardamom’s lemony note.¹ Coriander adds a floral, citrusy brightness without the camphor note. A good starting point is a small pinch of coriander with a little cinnamon, steeped with the coffee or tea. Or just make a different spiced drink; see chai spices.

If you have pods and need ground, or the reverse

Ratio (Computed): McCormick’s conversion is about 12 pods, dehusked, for 1 teaspoon ground cardamom.⁶ That’s a volume conversion, not a measure of strength.

Freshness matters here. The Spice House says grinding green pods fresh gives the best aroma and flavor,¹ and a 2025 study found the whole fruit was of better quality than the powder.⁷ If your ground cardamom is old, you may need a little more. See cardamom pods vs. seeds.

What isn’t known

The Spice House gives two amounts for its cinnamon-and-ginger swap, and we found no second credible source to settle it.
Sources disagree on whether black or green cardamom is stronger.
We didn’t find anyone who publishes how much cardamom a given brand of garam masala or apple pie spice contains.

Cardamom Substitute, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Garam Masala, recipe from Madhur Jaffrey, Saveur. saveur.com · Publication ↩
Large cardamom, ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research. spices.res.in · Regulator ↩
Black Cardamom Pods, product page, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Natasha Bailey, How Are Green And Black Cardamom Different?, Tasting Table, 2022. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩
How to Grind Your Own Spices, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩
Blažeković et al., Content and Chemical Composition of Essential Oil from Cardamom, Croatica Chemica Acta, 2025. hrcak.srce.hr · Peer-reviewed ↩

Also drawn on

Elettaria cardamomum (PROSEA), T.H. Wardini & A. Thomas, Plant Resources of South-East Asia, via Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org
Cardamom (Gregory Lewis McNamee, updated 20 Aug 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
1,8-Cineole (CID 2758), Odor (from the Hazardous Substances Data Bank), PubChem, U.S. National Library of Medicine. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
How to make garam masala (GBC Kitchen, updated 14 Feb 2025), Great British Chefs. greatbritishchefs.com

Cardamom Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Cardamom Is Doing