Lemongrass Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Lemongrass Is Doing

Out of lemongrass? For soups, curries and pastes, dried lemongrass is the closest swap, and America’s Test Kitchen found it an acceptable stand-in at half the amount of fresh. Without any lemongrass at all, lemon zest is your best bet, with a makrut lime leaf if you have one. Just keep the dried stuff out of a stir-fry, where ATK found it “retained the texture of hay.”¹

Quick answer

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.

Stalks vary in size, so “one stalk” means an ordinary supermarket stalk, trimmed to its pale lower part.

If lemongrass is simmered or pounded into a paste

This is lemongrass’s main job. The fibrous stalks are usually steeped, in oil or with other spices, and then removed, while the tender center can be chopped and eaten. In a soup, curry or braise there’s liquid and time to draw the flavor out, and that’s where the substitutes below work best.

1. Dried lemongrass

Cooks outside Southeast Asia often rely on lemongrass powder and dried stalks. America’s Test Kitchen compared fresh and dried lemongrass in a curry paste, a Thai chicken soup and a stir-fry. Fresh had “a bright mix of citrus, floral, and minty notes,” while dried tasted woodsier and less complex. Dried was “an acceptable substitute for fresh in the paste and the soup.”¹

Ratio (Attributed): ATK used “half as much dried lemon grass as fresh in each recipe.” Only use dried where there’s “enough liquid for the herb to hydrate and soften,” in ATK’s words. In the stir-fry, the dried pieces “retained the texture of hay.”¹

2. Lemon zest

Zest gives a clear lemon aroma, and like lemongrass it adds no sourness. What it’s missing is the grassy, tea-like side PROSEA describes in lemongrass oil.² You’ll often read that the zest of one lemon equals two stalks of lemongrass. We couldn’t find a source for that. NDSU Extension counts 1 to 2 teaspoons of rind from one medium lemon,³ so that rule would mean roughly 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of zest per stalk.

Ratio (Method): Start at the low end, 1/2 teaspoon of finely grated zest per stalk, then taste and add more. Too much zest can turn bitter, and adding it toward the end of cooking keeps it fresher.

3. Makrut lime leaves, with lemon zest

Makrut lime leaves are lemongrass’s usual partner in Thai curry pastes, not a copy of it. Their oil is dominated by citronellal, while lemongrass oil is dominated by citral.⁴² Both come across as citrus, but they smell different, so a leaf works best alongside zest, not instead of it. SBS Food reports that one Sydney restaurateur bruises the leaves for coconut and tom yum soups and juliennes them into curry pastes.⁵

Ratio (Method): For each stalk of lemongrass, start with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest and one makrut lime leaf, torn or bruised. Take whole leaves out before serving if they’re tough.

4. Lemon myrtle

Lemon myrtle leaf is packed with citral.⁶ Gernot Katzer groups it with lemongrass, lemon verbena and lemon balm as the herbs with the purest lemon scent, and notes that Australian cooks use it in place of makrut lime leaves in Southeast Asian recipes. He also warns that it doesn’t go so well with pungent fish pastes,⁷ which plenty of Southeast Asian curry pastes contain.

Ratio (Method): Start with a small pinch of ground dried leaf per stalk, then taste.

5. Kroeung, in Cambodian cooking

Saveur describes kroeung as “an umbrella Khmer term” for a family of spice and herb pastes. Its yellow kroeung recipe combines 6 stalks of lemongrass with makrut lime leaves, garlic, shallots, fresh galangal, fresh turmeric and prahok, and makes 1 1/4 cups.⁸ By that recipe’s math, about 3 tablespoons of paste carry one stalk of lemongrass. Store-bought pastes will differ.

Ratio (Method): If a Cambodian recipe calls for lemongrass plus garlic, shallot, galangal or turmeric, use about 3 tablespoons of kroeung per stalk of lemongrass and cut back on those other aromatics. Outside Cambodian dishes, its garlic, prahok and turmeric will be out of place.

If lemongrass is eaten raw or barely cooked

In salads, quick stir-fries and marinades, the tender center of the stalk gets chopped fine and eaten. Dried lemongrass doesn’t work here. In ATK’s stir-fry it never softened.¹

Lemon zest (Method): Use about 1/2 teaspoon of finely grated zest per stalk, added at the end. If the dish also needs sourness, add lime or lemon juice separately. Lemongrass itself has no acidity, so juice alone changes the balance of the dish.

If lemongrass is for tea or drinks

Lemongrass stems are widely used in teas and other drinks.

Lemon verbena (Method): Its oil is also led by the two forms of citral, geranial and neral,⁹ and Penn State Extension says it has “the brightest and most intense lemon scent and flavor” of the lemon herbs.¹⁰ Start with about 1 tablespoon of fresh leaves per stalk, steep, and taste.

Lemon balm (Method): Its leaf oil is mainly citral, neral and citronellal,¹¹ and it’s milder. Start with about 2 tablespoons of fresh leaves per stalk.

What isn’t known

• Lemon tree leaves sometimes get suggested in place of lemongrass. In one 2023 analysis, the major compound of lemon leaf oil was limonene, not citral,⁴ and we couldn’t find a culinary source for using them as a lemongrass substitute.
• Arugula sometimes gets recommended for lemongrass’s herbal note. We couldn’t find a source for this.
• We couldn’t open a maker’s page for ready-made lemongrass paste in tubes, so we have no published conversion for it. Check the label for added oil, salt or sugar.

Related

• Lemongrass, cooking with lemongrass and lemongrass uses
• Lemon verbena vs. lemongrass and lemon balm vs. lemongrass
• Makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, kaffir lime leaves substitutes, lemon myrtle, lemon verbena and lemon balm
• Galangal, galangal substitutes, turmeric and Thai spices
• Lemon verbena substitutes and lemon balm substitutes