Safflower Substitutes: Matching the Color Without Adding Flavor

Need a safflower substitute? You’re really looking for something that colors food yellow, because safflower petals are a coloring, not a flavoring. Gernot Katzer calls their flavor very weak and herbaceous and rates their value as a spice nearly nil, though their staining power earns them a place in the kitchen.¹ Turmeric is the easiest swap, saffron is the obvious one if safflower (often called “false saffron”) was filling in for it, and annatto works if orange is fine. Every option adds some flavor safflower doesn’t, so go lighter than you would with safflower.

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.

Safflower brings so little flavor, and its color is described as “rather pale”,¹ so every amount here starts small and builds up by eye.

How safflower is used

Katzer says safflower is quite common in Azerbaijani cooking, where it improves the color of broths, soups and stews. In the soup piti it goes in toward the end and turns the liquid yellowish.¹ He also notes some use as a poor imitation of saffron in Middle Eastern cooking.¹ PROSEA says the florets are commonly mixed with rice, bread and pickles.²

If safflower is coloring a dish yellow

1. Turmeric

Turmeric is widely used in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking and gives curry its yellow color. It’s also the easiest of these to find.

Where it falls short is flavor. One reference describes turmeric’s taste as bitter, slightly acrid, yet sweet.³ Safflower has almost no taste, so too much turmeric changes the dish in a way safflower wouldn’t.

Ratio (Method): Food Republic suggests half a teaspoon of turmeric for every large pinch of saffron,⁴ but that’s a saffron swap, and we didn’t chain it into a safflower figure. Start with a small pinch, about 1/8 teaspoon, for a pot of rice or soup, and add more only if you want more color.

2. Curry powder

Curry powder turns food yellow because it contains turmeric. The USDA’s federal purchasing specification lists turmeric first, followed by coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom.⁵ All of those add flavor safflower doesn’t, so only use curry powder where a curry flavor suits the dish.

Ratio (Method): Start with a small pinch and taste.

If safflower is standing in for saffron

Saffron

If safflower was itself filling in for saffron, the obvious answer is saffron. Unlike safflower, saffron brings a strong aroma and a bitter taste,⁶ so it changes the dish instead of just coloring it.

Ratio (Method): Food Republic treats safflower and saffron as an equal swap,⁴ but only in the saffron-to-safflower direction, and since safflower has next to no flavor, an equal amount of saffron is far stronger. Start with a few threads steeped in a spoonful of warm liquid, and add more if the color’s too pale.

If safflower is giving a warm color with little taste

Annatto

Annatto seeds have a weak, perfumed smell, according to Katzer.⁷ PROSEA says you can extract the dye by soaking the seeds in water and squeezing them,⁸ and Katzer notes the seeds are usually fried in fat to release their color.⁷ Food Republic warns that annatto dyes food more red than yellow,⁴ so expect orange, not safflower’s yellow.

Ratio (Method): Warm a pinch of seeds in the cooking oil or water until it colors, then strain them out.

If you need petals

Calendula

Calendula petals look the most like dried safflower florets. The New York Botanical Garden’s librarian lists calendula, also called English marigold, as an edible flower with a sharp taste resembling saffron.⁹

Names matter here. The same NYBG list describes African marigold (Tagetes erecta) as strongly pungent,⁹ which isn’t what you want in place of a near-flavorless spice. Katzer adds that the yellow flowers in Georgian cooking usually come from marigold, which has even less flavor than safflower.¹ Buy petals sold for food. The NYBG warns against eating flowers from florists or nurseries.⁹

Ratio (Method): Start 1:1 by volume and adjust by eye.

What isn’t known

• No source measures how much color safflower gives compared with turmeric, saffron, annatto or calendula.
• You’ll sometimes read that safflower is a common spice in Latin American and Eastern European cooking. Our sources document its use in Azerbaijan and as a saffron imitation in the Middle East, and note that it’s sold as “saffron” to tourists in Hungary and North Africa.¹

Related

• Safflower, safflower uses and safflower vs saffron
• Saffron, saffron substitutes and saffron vs turmeric
• Turmeric and turmeric substitutes
• Annatto seeds and annatto seed substitutes
• Curry powder