Epazote Substitutes for Beans and Mexican Cooking

Epazote is hard to imitate. Pati Jinich writes that she doesn’t know of a substitute for it.¹ What you can do is keep the dish working: dried epazote if you can get it, summer savory in beans, Mexican oregano or tarragon elsewhere, or just leave it out. Its fragrance is strong but hard to describe, with a flavor some compare to anise or licorice, and its oil is rich in ascaridole,² a compound rarely found in plants used as spices.³ Whatever you use, keep it small: most recipes call for only a leaf or a sprig or two.

Quick answer

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.

Only the dried-for-fresh swap has published figures, and they disagree.

How much epazote a dish uses

Very little. Tasting Table suggests starting with a single leaf.⁴ Rick Bayless’s pressure-cooker black beans call for 1 or 2 sprigs.⁵ Jinich says you only need a very small amount.¹ Keep any substitute at that scale.

If epazote is simmered in beans

This is its best-known job, and Mexican refried beans are the most common epazote-flavored food. Cooks often add it to make beans less gassy. The U.S. Botanic Garden’s education sheet says it can stop gas from forming,⁶ but we found no clinical study testing that, and none of the substitutes below is known to do the same.

1. Dried epazote

Dried epazote is easier to find than fresh. Katzer notes that fresh can be hard to track down and that dried is considered inferior, though in his view not as bad as most sources say.⁷ Tasting Table says dried is less aromatic,⁴ and Jinich says it’s much milder.¹

Ratio (Disputed): The sources disagree on how much dried epazote replaces fresh.

Jinich’s figure is specific to epazote. The extension figures are general herb rules and don’t mention it. Jinich’s works out to about two thirds as much dried as fresh, the extension rule to about a third. We don’t average them. Epazote is strong and easy to overdo, so start at the extension rule’s smaller amount, taste the beans after 15 minutes of simmering, and add more toward Jinich’s amount if they need it.

2. Summer savory

In German, summer savory is Bohnenkraut, “bean herb”, and Duden defines it as a seasoning used especially for bean dishes.¹⁰ Savory’s flavor is delicate, sweet and spicy. It’s milder than epazote and tastes different. Its oil shares one of epazote’s key compounds, but savory has no ascaridole, so the overlap only goes so far.

Ratio (Method): Start with about half the epazote amount, since a little savory goes a long way, and taste near the end of cooking.

3. Katzer’s mix

When fresh epazote isn’t available, Katzer suggests a mix of savory, oregano and boldo leaves.⁷ Boldo is the interesting part: Katzer says boldo leaf oil is characterized by its ascaridole content, the compound that defines epazote. He also calls boldo leaves rather strong and says to use a bit less.³ As with epazote, concentrated oils high in ascaridole are the documented hazard. TRAMIL reports that a single oral dose of 5 ml of epazote oil has killed adults.¹¹ Use the dried leaf in cooking amounts only, never the oil.

Ratio (Method): Use a pinch each of savory and oregano, plus a small piece of boldo leaf if you have it, in place of 1 sprig of epazote.

If epazote is a fresh herb in other dishes

Tasting Table lists quesadillas, pozole, moles, bean-filled sopes and corn salad,⁴ and Katzer adds soups, salads and meat dishes made with the fresh herb.⁷

1. Mexican oregano

Mexican oregano is an important spice in Mexico and Central America, and it’s stronger, sharper and more pungent than true oregano. It shares no main compound with epazote, but it’s from the same cuisine and gives a dish a bold herbal note. Tasting Table names oregano as one of two herbs you can use as a substitute, while adding that epazote’s distinct flavor is hard to replicate.⁴

Ratio (Method): Start with about half the epazote amount, fresh or dried, and taste.

2. Tarragon

Tasting Table’s other pick is tarragon. Tarragon’s scent is sweet and anise-like, which matches the anise side of epazote that Tasting Table describes,⁴ but not the rest of it.

Ratio (Method): Start with about half the epazote amount and add it near the end.

If nothing above is on hand

Leave the epazote out. A pot of beans with onion, garlic, chile and salt is a complete dish without it, and that beats forcing in an herb that pulls the flavor somewhere else.

What isn’t known

• Dried-for-fresh figures disagree. Only Jinich’s is specific to epazote, and she gave it in a reply to a reader, not in a recipe.
• We found no clinical study showing that epazote reduces gas from beans, or that any substitute does.
• Cilantro, fennel and lemon verbena sometimes get suggested as epazote substitutes. No source we reviewed supports them, and none shares epazote’s main compounds.

Related

• Epazote
• Mexican oregano, Mexican oregano vs. oregano and Mexican oregano substitutes
• Summer savory, oregano and tarragon
• Tortilla soup spices