Dried Mint substitute

Best substitute

Fresh Mint

Use 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint for every 1 teaspoon dried mint

Best for yogurt sauces

Taste and texture differ

Use fresh mint at three times the amount: 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint for every 1 teaspoon of dried, added at the end of cooking rather than the beginning. If you have neither, cut open a mint tea bag - pure mint tea is dried mint and swaps 1:1. Dried basil or dried marjoram at 1:1 will fill the herbal gap in a meatball or a sauce without tasting minty. Do not reach for peppermint extract in a savoury dish; it is a completely different, sweet-tasting product and will make keftedes taste like toothpaste.

Other dried mint substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Mint Tea Bag, Opened
Close match
Use the same amount by volume; one standard tea bag yields roughly 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons
Pure mint tea is nothing but dried mint leaves, cut a little finer than culinary dried mint.
What changes
Best for
keftedes, yogurt sauces, soups, spice rubs, emergency substitution
The best trick on this list and genuinely the same ingredient. Check the label says mint or spearmint only, with no green tea, licorice, lemongrass or flavourings, which would carry into the dish. The cut is finer than jarred dried mint so it disperses faster and can taste slightly stronger - start with a scant measure.
3Dried Marjoram or Dried Basil
Different taste
Use the same amount
Two dried herbs in the same botanical family that supply warm, sweet, herbal aroma without any cooling menthol note.
What changes
Best for
keftedes and meatballs, tomato sauces, stuffed vegetables, meat rubs
Honest about what these do: they replace the herbal presence, not the mint. A Greek meatball made with dried marjoram tastes rounded and savoury rather than cool and lifted, which most people find perfectly good and nobody would mistake for mint. Marjoram is the closer of the two; basil is sweeter and more assertive.
4Dried Mint You Dry Yourself
Close match
Use the same amount
Fresh mint leaves dried in a low oven or air-dried, which takes minutes of work and gives you a better product than most jars.
What changes
Best for
all uses, yogurt sauces, meatballs, long-term storage
Spread leaves on a tray at 170F for 20 to 30 minutes until they crumble between your fingers, or hang a bunch upside down in a dry room for a week. Home-dried mint keeps far more aroma than a supermarket jar that has been on a warm shelf for a year, and it is the obvious answer if you have a mint plant taking over a corner of the garden.
5Dried Mint Blended With Parsley
Different taste
Use ½ teaspoon of whatever dried mint you have plus ½ teaspoon dried parsley for every 1 teaspoon dried mint
A way to stretch a nearly empty jar without changing the character of the dish.
What changes
Best for
meatballs, stuffed vegetables, rice dishes, soups
Useful when the jar has an eighth of a teaspoon left in it. Dried parsley is almost flavourless and largely contributes green colour and bulk, so the mint you do have still sets the tone while going twice as far. The result is noticeably milder, so this only works where mint is a supporting note rather than the point of the dish.
6Leave It Out
Different taste
Omit, adding a squeeze of lemon at the end
The honest option, because mint is an aroma ingredient with no structural role at all.
What changes
Best for
meatballs, soups, rice dishes, stews
Nothing will fail if you skip the mint - no texture changes, nothing splits, nothing fails to set. The dish simply loses a distinctive lift, which matters a lot in a yogurt sauce or a tabbouleh where mint is a headline flavour, and rather little in a mixed meatball with onion, garlic, oregano and lemon already in it. A squeeze of lemon supplies some of the freshness the mint would have given.

What is Dried Mint?

Dried Mint is Dried mint is mint leaves, almost always spearmint, dried and crumbled into flakes, and drying changes it - it loses the cool sharpness of the fresh herb and becomes warmer, earthier and more concentrated.

Cooking tips

Dried mint is not weaker fresh mint, it is a different seasoning. Drying drives off the volatile compounds that make fresh mint taste cool and replaces that with something warmer and hayier, which is exactly why Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern recipes for keftedes, kofte, yogurt sauces and soups specify dried and not fresh. Substituting fresh works, but the dish will taste brighter and less traditional.
Crush the flakes between your palms as you add them, and add them earlier than you would a fresh herb. Dried mint needs a little heat and time to release its aroma into a meatball mixture or a sauce, unlike fresh mint, which should go in at the last moment.
Bloom it in warm fat for the biggest flavour. A classic Turkish and Levantine technique is to warm a teaspoon of dried mint in melted butter or olive oil for about twenty seconds and pour it over lentil soup, yogurt or dumplings. Do not let it sizzle hard or it turns bitter within seconds.
Mind the mint species. Most culinary dried mint is spearmint, which is sweet and mild. Peppermint is much higher in menthol and tastes sharp and almost medicinal, so if your jar says peppermint, use about two thirds as much. Mint extract and peppermint extract belong in desserts and should never go into a savoury dish as a substitute for the dried herb.
Replace the jar more often than you think. Dried mint fades faster than woody herbs like oregano and thyme, and after a year it is mostly green dust with very little aroma. If you rub a pinch in your palm and cannot smell it clearly, double the quantity for that dish and buy fresh stock, or use a mint tea bag instead.

Frequently asked questions

How much fresh mint equals dried mint?

Three to one by volume: 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh mint for every 1 teaspoon of dried mint. That ratio holds for most leafy herbs. Add the fresh mint at the end of cooking rather than the start, since heat destroys its aroma quickly, while dried mint benefits from being added early.

Can I use mint tea bags as dried mint?

Yes, and it is one of the most useful kitchen shortcuts there is. Pure mint or spearmint tea is simply dried mint leaves, cut finer. Snip the bag open and use it 1:1. Just check the ingredient list first, because many mint teas contain green tea, licorice root or added flavourings that would show up in your food.

Can I leave dried mint out of a recipe?

Yes. Mint is pure aroma and does nothing structural, so nothing will go wrong. It matters most where it is a lead flavour - a yogurt sauce, tabbouleh, a mint-forward lamb dish - and least in a well-seasoned meatball or soup with plenty of other aromatics. A squeeze of lemon replaces some of the freshness it would have provided.

Is dried mint the same as dried spearmint?

Almost always, yes. Culinary dried mint sold for cooking is normally spearmint, which is sweet and gently minty. Peppermint is a different species with far more menthol and a sharper, cooler bite, so if a jar specifies peppermint, use about two thirds the amount to avoid a medicinal edge.

What is the best substitute for dried mint in Greek meatballs?

Fresh mint at three times the amount is closest, added to the mixture just before you shape the meatballs. If you have no mint of any kind, dried marjoram or dried basil at 1:1 keeps the herbal element without pretending to be mint, and given that keftedes also contain onion, garlic, oregano and often lemon zest, the result is still very good.

Related substitutes

More spices & herbs substitutes

Dried Mint substitute

Other dried mint substitutes

2Mint Tea Bag, Opened

3Dried Marjoram or Dried Basil

4Dried Mint You Dry Yourself

5Dried Mint Blended With Parsley

6Leave It Out