Curry Leaf Substitutes: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why

Nothing tastes quite like curry leaves, so your best substitute is curry leaves in another form: frozen, or dried at twice the amount. Failing that, a finely shredded makrut lime leaf covers the citrus side, and a bay leaf can stand in when the leaves simmer in a sauce. What won’t work is curry powder, which despite the name rarely contains curry leaves at all. And if your tempering already has mustard seeds, cumin and chiles, leaving the leaves out is often the better call.

Curry leaves are used extensively in Indian cooking. Nik Sharma describes their smell as a mix of citrusy, grassy and burnt, sulfur-like aromas that get stronger when the leaves are fried.¹ America’s Test Kitchen calls the aroma faintly lemony and the flavor complex.²

Quick answer

Curry powder isn’t on the list. Despite the name, it’s a different thing entirely (see below).

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.

Why nothing matches exactly

Not many analyses of curry leaf oil are published, and none of the substitutes below is known to share the profile of the one we found.³ Each can echo the citrus or herbal side of curry leaves, but not the whole thing.

If curry leaves are fried in oil for a tempering

This is the classic use. Sharma describes frying the leaves in hot oil until crisp and translucent, then using the oil to flavor dal, grains, seafood or meat.¹ ATK explains why the fat matters: heating in fat helps pull out flavor compounds that are mostly oil-soluble.² In Smita Chandra’s rasam, published by Saveur, mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and dried chiles go into hot oil together until the seeds pop.⁴

1. Frozen curry leaves

ATK says to freeze fresh leaves in a zipper-lock bag for up to a month to keep their flavor.² If you can get fresh leaves now and then, this is the most faithful substitute.

Ratio (Method): Use the same number of leaves the recipe calls for fresh.

2. Dried curry leaves

Sharma recommends fresh whenever you can get them, because dried leaves are less intense.¹

Ratio (Attributed): Nik Sharma says that if you have to use dried leaves, he finds doubling the amount safer.¹

3. Makrut lime leaf

Makrut lime leaves are used to season food, and they bring a strong, clean citrus note that overlaps with the lemony side of curry leaves but has none of their grassy, sulfurous depth. Pull out the tough center rib and slice the leaf very thin so it fries evenly.

Ratio (Method): A makrut lime leaf is a lot bigger than a curry leaf, and strong, so start with one leaf for every eight to 10 curry leaves.

4. Leave them out

If the tempering also has mustard seeds, cumin, chiles or asafoetida, the dish will still taste complete without curry leaves, just less aromatic. That’s often a better call than a substitute that pulls the flavor somewhere else.

If curry leaves are simmered in a sauce or stew

When the leaves go into a liquid, a whole leaf you can fish out later is an easy stand-in.

1. Makrut lime leaf

Use it whole and take it out before serving.

Ratio (Method): One leaf for every eight to 10 curry leaves, as above.

2. Bay leaf

Mediterranean bay leaf (Laurus nobilis) tastes completely different. Atlas Obscura describes it as herbal, bitter and slightly piney.⁵ It adds a savory background note, not curry leaves’ citrus.

The Indian bay leaf, or tejpatta, is a different leaf again. It’s not a curry leaf substitute either.

Ratio (Method): Start with one bay leaf for every eight to 10 curry leaves and remove it before serving.

If you want a citrus lift

1. Lime zest

ATK describes curry leaves’ aroma as faintly lemony.² A little lime zest at the end of cooking can echo that one note. It won’t replace anything else.

Ratio (Method): Start with a small pinch of finely grated zest per dish and add more to taste.

2. Lemon balm

Lemon balm is a mint-family herb with lemon-scented leaves. Like lime zest, it gives you lemon and nothing more.

Ratio (Method): Add a few torn leaves at the end and taste.

Why curry powder is not a substitute

The two share a name and nothing else. ATK says curry leaves are unrelated to curry powder, only rarely found in it, and definitely not a curry powder substitute.² The USDA’s purchasing specification lists turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom as curry powder ingredients, with no curry leaves.⁶ Use curry powder in their place and you change the color and the whole spice balance of the dish.

How many leaves to use

Recipes vary. ATK found it needed eight to 10 leaves, not the three or four some recipes call for.² Saveur’s rasam uses 15 fresh or frozen leaves.⁴ Keep that range in mind when you scale any substitute.

What isn’t known

• No source we found says how long frozen leaves keep beyond ATK’s month.
• We only opened one analysis of curry leaf oil, so the chemistry comparisons rest on a single sample.
• You’ll sometimes read that lemon balm or basil smells like curry leaves. No source we reviewed supports that.

Related

• Curry leaves, cooking with curry leaves and curry leaf uses
• Curry leaves vs. bay leaves, bay leaves and bay leaf substitutes
• Makrut lime leaves and makrut lime leaf substitutes
• Lemon balm, curry powder and Indian spices

Footnotes

1. Nik Sharma, A Guide to Curry Leaves, Nik Sharma Cooks, 2022. niksharmacooks.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Fresh Curry Leaves, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Chowdhury, Bhuiyan and Yusuf, Chemical composition of the leaf essential oils of Murraya koenigii and Murraya paniculata, Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology, 2008. bdpsjournal.org · Peer-reviewed ↩

4. Smita Chandra’s Rasam (Spicy Tamarind Soup), Saveur, 2015. saveur.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

5. Andrew Coletti, What Is a Bay Leaf, Exactly?, Atlas Obscura, 2023. atlasobscura.com · Publication ↩

6. Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

• Curry tree (Frannie Comstock), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• Phytochemical Composition, Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Activities of Citrus hystrix, Citrus limon, Citrus pyriformis, and Citrus microcarpa Leaf Essential Oils against Human Cervical Cancer Cell Line (Al Othman et al., Plants 12(1):134, 2023), Plants (MDPI). mdpi.com
• Citrus hystrix (PROSEA), P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen and T.G. van Lingen, Plant Resources of South-East Asia, via Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org
• Laurus nobilis: Composition of Essential Oil and Its Biological Activities (Caputo et al., Molecules 22(6):930, 2017), Molecules (MDPI). mdpi.com
• Lemon balm (Melissa Petruzzello), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• Assessment report on Melissa officinalis L., folium (final), European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. ema.europa.eu