Candlenut substitute

Best substitute

Macadamia nuts

Use the same amount by count or weight, so 4 macadamias for 4 candlenuts as the candlenut you are replacing

Best for rendang and other spice pastes

Close match

Macadamia nuts are the standard swap and work 1:1, because they have almost the same waxy, high-fat texture and grind to the same rich paste. Raw cashews are the next best at 1:1, soaked in hot water for fifteen minutes first, and they are far easier to find. Blanched almonds work too if you grind them very fine. Candlenut has very little flavour of its own, and its actual job in a rendang, laksa or opor spice paste is thickening and richness, so what you are matching is oiliness and body rather than taste. Important: candlenuts must be cooked and are not eaten raw.

Other candlenut substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Raw cashews
Close match
Use the same amount by count, soaked 15 to 20 minutes in hot water
Almost as good as macadamia and much cheaper and easier to buy.
What changes
Best for
rendang and beef curries, laksa paste, coconut-based braises, any pounded or blitzed spice paste
Soaking matters. Dry cashews grind into a slightly gritty meal, whereas soaked ones puree completely smooth. Cashews are starchier than candlenuts as well as sweeter, so they thicken a fraction more, and a rendang made with cashew tastes a touch rounder and gentler, with the chili and galangal reading slightly softer. If that bothers you, add an extra quarter teaspoon of salt and a small squeeze of lime at the end to sharpen it back up. Roasted salted cashews will make the paste taste distinctly of roasted nuts and will throw the seasoning off, so use raw.
3Blanched almonds
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by count, ground very fine
Workable, but the least oily of the nut options so the paste will be leaner.
What changes
Best for
curry pastes, coconut braises, satay sauce, thickening a sauce that has split
Use blanched almonds with the skins off, or the paste will be flecked brown and slightly bitter. Almonds carry less fat than candlenuts, so the finished sauce will be a little thinner and less silky, and there is a faint almond aroma that leans marzipan if you use a lot. Grind them with a spoonful of the recipe's coconut milk or oil rather than dry, and keep going until there is no grit at all, because almond fragments stay noticeably sandy in a way cashew fragments do not.
4Brazil nuts
Different taste
Use the same amount by count, halved if they are very large
Surprisingly close on oiliness, with a flavour that occasionally shows through.
What changes
Best for
rendang and rich braises, curry pastes, sauces that need real body
Brazil nuts are among the fattiest nuts going, which makes them a genuinely good textural match, and they grind smooth without soaking. The catch is a slightly sulphurous, faintly mineral flavour that can push through in a lightly seasoned dish, so they suit a heavily spiced rendang far better than a delicate coconut braise. They also turn rancid quickly, so taste one before you commit the whole batch; an old Brazil nut will make the entire paste taste bitter.
5Raw skinless peanuts
Different taste
About 1.5:1, so 6 peanuts for 4 candlenuts
Fine in a pinch, but it pulls the dish in a Javanese, peanut-sauce direction.
What changes
Best for
satay sauce and bumbu kacang, gado gado dressing, pecel and Javanese dishes where peanut belongs
Peanuts thicken well and are cheap and available everywhere, but they are the least neutral option on this list by a wide margin. They taste of peanut, and once they do, a rendang starts tasting like a satay braise. In dishes where peanut is already part of the tradition this is not a problem at all and is arguably an improvement. In rendang, laksa or opor, it changes the dish. Use raw or blanched peanuts, not roasted, and remove the papery skins.
6Nut-free: desiccated coconut with a little oil, or ground white poppy seed
Different taste
Use 1 tablespoon unsweetened desiccated coconut plus 1 teaspoon coconut oil for every 3 candlenuts
The route to take with a nut allergy, and it does most of the same work.
What changes
Best for
curry pastes with a nut allergy in the house, coconut braises, thickening a spice paste
Toast the coconut lightly in a dry pan first, then grind it into the paste with the oil. It thickens well and adds richness, and since almost every dish that uses candlenut also uses coconut milk, the flavour fits naturally. Ground white poppy seed, about a teaspoon per three candlenuts, is the classic South Asian thickener and does the same job with a cleaner, more neutral result. A tablespoon of cooked white rice blitzed into the paste is a third option that thickens without adding any flavour at all.

What is Candlenut?

Candlenut is Candlenuts, known as kemiri in Indonesia and buah keras in Malaysia, are waxy cream-coloured tropical nuts that are always cooked and are ground into spice pastes to thicken them and give them body.

Cooking tips

Candlenuts are not eaten raw. They contain compounds that make them mildly toxic and unpleasantly bitter uncooked, and they are always ground into a paste that is then fried and simmered. This is one reason the nut substitutes above are so easy to work with: every one of them is safe raw, so you are removing a constraint rather than adding one.
Dry-toast the nuts briefly in a pan before grinding, whichever nut you use. Two or three minutes over medium heat, shaking the pan, deepens the flavour and helps them break down more smoothly in a blender.
Grind nuts with a little liquid rather than dry. A tablespoon of oil, water or coconut milk lets the blender catch and gives you a genuinely smooth bumbu, whereas dry grinding gives you a stubbornly grainy meal no matter how long you run it.
Rough conversion: 3 candlenuts is about 3 macadamias, 3 cashews, or a level tablespoon of ground nuts. Most Indonesian recipes call for somewhere between 3 and 8, and the exact number matters less than getting the paste to the consistency of thick porridge.
All of these nuts are high in oil and go rancid fast. Buy small quantities and keep them in the freezer, and smell them before use. Rancid nuts will make an entire pot of rendang taste stale and there is no fixing it afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the candlenuts out?

Yes, and the dish will still work, but it will be different in a way you will notice. The paste will be thinner, the finished sauce will be less silky, and it will be more likely to split and look oily rather than staying emulsified. If you omit them, compensate with an extra tablespoon or two of coconut cream, or a teaspoon of ground coconut, to bring back some of the body. Nothing about the flavour of the dish depends on the candlenuts themselves.

Are candlenuts poisonous?

Raw candlenuts are mildly toxic and will upset your stomach, which is why they are only ever used cooked and ground into a paste that is then fried and simmered. Cooked, as they are in every traditional recipe, they are fine. This is worth knowing mainly so you do not snack on them out of the bag, and it is a reason to be relaxed about substituting a familiar nut instead.

Are candlenuts the same as macadamia nuts?

No, they are different trees, but they are remarkably close in the kitchen. Both are waxy, pale and very high in fat, and both grind into the same rich, thickening paste, which is why macadamia is the accepted substitution in Indonesian and Malaysian cooking outside Southeast Asia. The main practical differences are that macadamias are safe raw and considerably more expensive, and they are very slightly sweeter.

Where do I buy candlenuts?

Indonesian, Malaysian, Filipino and general Southeast Asian grocers usually stock them, labelled kemiri or candlenut, sold in bags in the dry goods aisle. They are much less common in mainstream supermarkets. If you cannot find them, macadamia or raw cashew is a genuinely close swap rather than a compromise, so it is not worth a special trip unless you cook Indonesian food often.

What does candlenut taste like?

Very little, which is the point. It is faintly creamy and slightly bitter, closer to a raw macadamia than anything strongly flavoured, and once it is ground into a bumbu with shallots, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, turmeric and chili you cannot pick it out at all. What it contributes is thickness, richness and a smooth mouthfeel, so judge a substitution on texture rather than on flavour.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Candlenut substitute

Other candlenut substitutes

2Raw cashews

3Blanched almonds

4Brazil nuts

5Raw skinless peanuts

6Nut-free: desiccated coconut with a little oil, or ground white poppy seed