Farina substitute

Best substitute

Fine Semolina

Use the same amount by weight, plus about 10 percent more liquid as the farina you are replacing

Best for kasha manna and hot porridge

Different texture

Farina is a starch that swells and sets, so in a bowl of kasha manna it provides all the body and the soft, smooth structure, and in a cake filling, dumpling or cutlet mixture it is a binder that soaks up liquid and firms up as it cooks. Fine semolina is the closest substitute and swaps 1:1 by weight, though it is more coarsely ground so the porridge comes out grainier and firmer and wants a few extra minutes and about ten percent more milk. Cream of Wheat is not a substitute at all, it is simply farina under a brand name. For a gluten-free version, cream of rice swaps 1:1 and sets softer and stickier. Do not use plain flour for porridge, because you will get glue rather than grains.

Other farina substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Cream of Wheat or Any Hot Wheat Cereal Labelled Farina
Close match
Use the same amount
Worth stating plainly, because it saves a lot of confusion: Cream of Wheat is farina.
What changes
So are most store-brand hot wheat cereals, and the ingredient list will usually say farina outright. The only thing to check is whether you have the regular or the instant version. Instant farina has been pre-cooked and dried, so it thickens in about a minute, sets a little gummier, and tastes flatter and slightly cardboardy, which shows up in a simple milk porridge more than in a cake filling. Regular or two-and-a-half-minute farina behaves exactly as a recipe expects.
Best for
any recipe calling for farina, kasha manna and manna porridge, baking and fillings
Avoid the flavoured instant packets, which contain sugar, salt and often milk powder. They will throw the seasoning of a savoury or delicately sweet recipe completely off.
3Cream of Rice or Fine Rice Semolina
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The best gluten-free option and genuinely pleasant in its own right.
What changes
It cooks in about the same time and thickens similarly, but sets softer and stickier because rice starch behaves differently from wheat, and it tastes cleaner and faintly sweeter with none of farina's mild wheaty note. In a breakfast bowl that is barely a compromise. In a dumpling or a cut-and-fried semolina pudding it holds together less well, so add an egg to the mixture and chill it thoroughly before cutting.
Best for
gluten-free hot porridge, milk puddings, thickening fruit soups and fillings
Fine rice flour is not the same thing and will go pasty. Look for the granular product sold as cream of rice or rice semolina.
4Fine Cornmeal or Instant Polenta
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Makes a very good hot cereal and a poor stand-in for anything delicate.
What changes
Corn brings colour and flavour that farina does not: the porridge comes out yellow, distinctly sweet-corny, and more granular even when finely milled, with a slightly drier finish. For a breakfast bowl with butter, milk and sugar or a savoury bowl with cheese, that is a fine outcome and many people prefer it. In a Polish cheesecake filling, a cherry-soup dumpling or a cake layer, the corn flavour and colour are immediately obvious and wrong.
Best for
hot breakfast porridge, savoury porridge with cheese or butter, gluten-free porridge
Instant polenta thickens in three to five minutes; regular cornmeal wants 20 to 30. Check which you have before you commit to a timing.
5Quick Oats, Blitzed Fine
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount for porridge only
A reasonable breakfast rescue and nothing more.
What changes
Pulse quick oats in a blender for 20 seconds and cook them in milk and they give you a smooth, thick hot cereal at about the right consistency in about the right time. The flavour is unmistakably oaty and the colour is beige and flecked rather than ivory, so it does not pass as manka. Because oats absorb more liquid than farina, start with about 20 percent more milk. Do not try this in baking, where oats bring their own gumminess and will not set.
Best for
hot breakfast cereal, porridge for children, when farina has run out and breakfast is now
Rolled oats blitzed fine work too but need a few minutes longer. Steel-cut oats cannot be made to behave like farina at all.
6All-Purpose Flour, as a Binder Only
Taste and texture differ
⅔ the volume of farina
This one comes with a hard line.
What changes
Where a recipe uses farina to thicken a fruit filling, bind a cutlet mixture, or firm up a cheese filling, plain flour does the same starch job at about two thirds the volume and nobody will notice, though the result is very slightly pastier and less pleasantly granular. Where a recipe cooks farina into a porridge, flour is not a substitute in any sense: it hydrates instantly into a smooth paste with no separate swollen grains, and what you get tastes like wallpaper paste. There is no technique that fixes this.
Best for
thickening cake and pastry fillings, binding cutlet and kotlety mixtures, dusting a work surface for cherry dumplings
Cornstarch also works as a filling thickener at about half the volume of farina, and it sets clearer and glossier.

What is Farina?

Farina is Farina is wheat milled to a fine, sandy meal from the inner endosperm with the bran and germ removed, sold in America under brand names such as Cream of Wheat and in Eastern European shops as manka or krupica, and cooked into a smooth hot porridge.

Cooking tips

Rain the farina into the hot liquid in a thin stream with one hand while whisking hard with the other. Dumping it in all at once is the single cause of lumpy kasha manna, because the outside of each clump gelatinises instantly and seals the dry middle in.
Salt the milk before the grain goes in, even for a sweet porridge. Farina has almost no flavour of its own, and unsalted manka tastes like paste no matter how much sugar or jam you add afterwards.
Learn the ratios and you can cook it without a recipe. Roughly 1 part farina to 6 or 7 parts milk by volume gives a pourable porridge, 1 to 4 gives a thick spoonable one, and 1 to 3 sets firm enough to chill in a tray and cut into squares for frying, which is how semolina pudding and sweet dumplings get made.
It keeps thickening after it leaves the heat, sometimes dramatically. Pull it off looser than you want it, and if it sets too far, whisk in a splash of hot milk rather than reheating it hard.
To stop a skin forming, press cling film directly onto the surface, or whisk in a knob of butter at the end, which also makes the texture glossier and richer.

Frequently asked questions

Is farina the same as semolina?

No, though they are close relatives. Both are milled wheat endosperm, but semolina comes from hard durum wheat and is deliberately left coarse, while farina is milled much finer and often from softer wheat. In practice they substitute for each other 1:1 by weight, and the difference shows up as texture: farina cooks smooth and creamy, semolina cooks grainier and firmer with a slight bite.

Is Cream of Wheat just farina?

Yes. Cream of Wheat is a brand of farina, and the ingredient list says so. Store-brand hot wheat cereals are usually the same product. The only meaningful choice is regular versus instant, since instant farina is pre-cooked, thickens in about a minute and tastes noticeably flatter, so use the regular version wherever the recipe cares about texture.

Can I just leave the farina out?

Not in porridge, where farina is the entire dish. In a filling or a batter, where it acts as a thickener and binder, you can replace it with about two thirds as much plain flour or half as much cornstarch and the recipe will work. In a dumpling dough or a cutlet mixture, dropping it altogether leaves the mixture too wet to hold its shape.

Is farina gluten-free?

No. Farina is wheat, so it contains gluten and is not suitable for anyone with coeliac disease or a wheat allergy. The closest gluten-free substitute is cream of rice or fine rice semolina at 1:1, which sets a little softer and stickier, and fine cornmeal also works for porridge, though it brings clear corn colour and flavour.

Why is my manka lumpy and how do I fix it?

Lumps mean the grain went into the liquid too fast, or the liquid was not moving enough when it did. To fix a pot you have already made, whisk it hard off the heat, and if that fails push it through a fine sieve, which works surprisingly well. Next time, whisk constantly and add the farina in a thin stream, or mix the dry farina with a few tablespoons of cold milk into a slurry first and stir that into the hot milk.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

Farina substitute

Other farina substitutes

2Cream of Wheat or Any Hot Wheat Cereal Labelled Farina

3Cream of Rice or Fine Rice Semolina

4Fine Cornmeal or Instant Polenta

5Quick Oats, Blitzed Fine

6All-Purpose Flour, as a Binder Only