Chili Leaves (Sili Leaves) substitute

Best substitute

Spinach

Use 1 large handful, about 2 ounces, for every bunch of chili leaves

Best for tinola

Different taste

Spinach is the easiest swap, a large handful per bunch of chili leaves, stirred in during the last thirty seconds. Malunggay, or moringa, is the closest in spirit and is the other traditional tinola green, sold frozen at most Asian groceries. Watercress is the best match for the gentle bitterness. The critical thing to understand is that chili leaves are not spicy: the leaves carry no capsaicin, so their job in tinola or monggo is to add a soft green vegetable and a mild bitter edge that cuts through rich broth. Adding chilies instead is the one substitution that definitely does not work.

Other chili leaves (sili leaves) substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Malunggay (Moringa Leaves)
Close match
Use the same amount by volume, added in the last minute
The closest substitute in role, because malunggay and chili leaves are the two standard greens Filipino cooks reach for in exactly these dishes, often interchangeably.
What changes
Fresh, or frozen in blocks at Filipino and Indian groceries.
Best for
tinola, monggo, chicken binakol, clear chicken soups, vegetable stews
Similar small tender leaves and a comparable gentle bitterness, so a tinola made with malunggay tastes correct to anyone who grew up with either. It is slightly more mineral and greener-tasting, closer to a young kale in character, and the leaves are smaller so they scatter through the broth rather than forming visible clusters. It cooks even faster than chili leaves, so add it last.
3Watercress
Different texture
1 small bunch, roughly half the volume of chili leaves
The best flavour match for the bitterness, and worth seeking out if the green edge is what you liked about the original.
What changes
Add it at the very end and let the residual heat wilt it.
Best for
tinola, clear soups, chicken soups, monggo, sinigang
Gets the mild bitterness right in a way nothing else on this list does, but its pungency is mustard-like and horseradishy rather than the faint pepper-plant aroma of chili leaves, so it reads as sharper and more aggressive. It is also strong enough to dominate, which is why you use about half as much. The stems stay pleasantly crunchy while the leaves collapse.
4Bok Choy Leaves or Pechay
Different taste
Use The leafy green tops of 2 to 3 heads for every bunch of chili leaves
Already a Filipino soup staple, cheap and stocked everywhere.
What changes
Use only the leafy green parts, since the white ribs need much longer cooking and belong in a different kind of soup.
Best for
tinola, monggo, misua soup, clear soups, sauteed vegetable dishes
Mild, juicy and clean tasting, with no bitterness at all, so it fills the same space in the bowl without contributing any of the green complexity. The leaves are much larger, so tear them into pieces or the soup looks like it has cabbage in it. A good honest filler that most Filipino households would recognise as a legitimate swap.
5Sweet Potato Leaves (Talbos ng Kamote)
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume
Another genuine Filipino cooking green, often sold in bunches at the same shops that would carry chili leaves, and used in the same soups and sours.
What changes
Best for
tinola, sinigang, monggo, clear soups, boiled vegetable sides
Similar tenderness and a comparable mild vegetal bitterness, and it holds shape a little better than spinach. The main difference is a faint slipperiness, since the leaves are slightly mucilaginous, which thickens the broth a touch. Some people find that pleasant and some do not, but it is subtle in a soup with rice.
6Arugula or Mustard Greens
Different taste
Half the volume of chili leaves, added off the heat
For when the bitterness is the whole reason you wanted chili leaves and spinach feels too tame.
What changes
Both are widely available and both wilt fast.
Best for
tinola, clear soups, monggo, when you want a pronounced bitter edge
Considerably more pungent and bitter than chili leaves, which are quite gentle, so used in equal quantity they take over the bowl and make a delicate ginger broth taste harsh and peppery. Use half as much, add it off the heat, and taste. Mustard greens in particular develop a sinus-clearing sharpness that has nothing to do with the original.

What is Chili Leaves (Sili Leaves)?

Chili Leaves (Sili Leaves) is Chili leaves, called dahon ng sili or sili leaves in the Philippines and usually taken from siling labuyo plants, are the young tender leaves of the chili pepper bush, used as a mildly bitter cooking green with a faint peppery aroma and no heat at all.

Cooking tips

Add chili leaves and every substitute on this list at the very end, ideally off the heat. They need thirty seconds to a minute, and boiling them turns the leaves army-drab and leaches the mild bitterness into the broth as a dull, flat taste.
Strip the leaves off the stems and discard the stems. Chili plant stems are woody and fibrous and unpleasant to chew, and this is the fiddly part of prepping them that people usually skip and then regret.
Use only young leaves from culinary chili plants, and only if you know they are unsprayed. Chili leaves from a plant treated with garden pesticide are not food, and while pepper leaves themselves are a traditional vegetable across Southeast Asia, the leaves of other nightshades such as tomato and potato are not eaten.
If you are growing chilies, pinching the young leaves is free and improves the plant. Take leaves from the growing tips rather than stripping a whole branch, and the bush will bush out rather than going leggy.
Do not add chilies to compensate. If your soup tastes flat with the substitute, the answer is a little more ginger, a splash of fish sauce or a squeeze of calamansi, since heat is not something chili leaves were contributing in the first place.

Frequently asked questions

Are chili leaves spicy?

No, not at all, and this is the single most common misunderstanding about them. Capsaicin, the compound that makes chilies hot, is concentrated in the fruit and particularly the placental tissue around the seeds, not in the foliage. Chili leaves taste like a mild slightly bitter green, closest to a young spinach with a faint peppery herbal fragrance, which is exactly why they belong in a gentle ginger broth like tinola rather than in a spicy dish.

Can I just add chopped chilies instead of chili leaves?

No, and it will actively spoil the dish. Chilies bring heat and no leafy bulk, while chili leaves bring leafy bulk and no heat, so you would be substituting along the wrong axis entirely. Tinola made with chilies in place of the leaves is a hot soup that was never meant to be hot, and it still has no green vegetable in it. Use spinach, malunggay or watercress instead.

Can I just leave the chili leaves out?

Yes, the soup will still work, but it will feel incomplete in a specific way. Tinola is chicken, ginger, green papaya or upo, and greens, and without the greens it is a broth with pale vegetables in it, visually monotonous and missing the slight bitterness that keeps a rich chicken broth from tasting heavy. Almost any tender green is a better outcome than none, so a handful of whatever is in the fridge is the right move.

Where do I buy chili leaves?

In practice, mainly at Filipino groceries and Southeast Asian wet markets, sold in bunches and sometimes labelled pepper leaves or dahon ng sili, and occasionally frozen. They are perishable and do not ship well, which is why they are so hard to find in Western supermarkets. The most reliable supply is your own chili plant, or a friend with one, since even a single potted plant produces more leaves than you need for a pot of soup.

What is the difference between chili leaves and malunggay in tinola?

Regional preference more than anything, and many families are firmly loyal to one. Chili leaves are slightly larger, softer, and carry a faint peppery herbal fragrance. Malunggay leaves are tiny, more mineral and marginally more bitter, and they scatter through the broth. Both are added at the end, both provide the same gentle green counterpoint to ginger and chicken, and either is a correct answer to a recipe that asks for the other.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Chili Leaves (Sili Leaves) substitute

Other chili leaves (sili leaves) substitutes

2Malunggay (Moringa Leaves)

3Watercress

4Bok Choy Leaves or Pechay

5Sweet Potato Leaves (Talbos ng Kamote)

6Arugula or Mustard Greens