Goji Berries substitute

Best substitute

Dried cranberries

Use the same amount as the goji berries you are replacing

Best for granola and muesli

Different taste

Which substitute works depends on which kitchen you are cooking in, because goji berries do two different jobs. In Chinese soups, congee, herbal broths and steamed dishes, they add gentle sweetness, a soft chewy bite and colour to an otherwise savoury pot, and there the closest swaps are dried jujube, red dates or a few dried apricot pieces, which do exactly that. In smoothies, granola, energy bars and health-food baking, goji berries are simply chewy tart-sweet dried fruit, and dried cranberries at 1:1 are the best swap, with raisins and chopped dried apricots close behind. There is no substitute that tastes precisely like a goji, since that slightly savoury herbal note is unusual, so expect a fruitier, sweeter result and adjust nothing else.

Other goji berries substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Dried jujube, red dates or Chinese dates
Taste and texture differ
Use 2 to 3 whole dried jujube for every tablespoon of goji berries
This is the right answer for Chinese cooking, because jujube is the ingredient that sits next to goji in the same pot in the first place.
What changes
They add a rounder, deeper, almost caramel sweetness and a soft skin that softens as the soup simmers, and they tint the broth a warmer colour. They are much larger, so tear or slice them and use fewer, and they take longer to soften, so add them at the start of the simmer rather than the end. Same shelf in any Chinese grocery.
Best for
Chinese herbal soups and broths, congee, steamed chicken and fish, sweet dessert soups
Remove the stone before serving if you have sliced them; whole ones can be left in the pot.
3Raisins, golden raisins or currants
Different taste
Use the same amount
Available everywhere and behave the same way, but they are considerably sweeter and softer than goji berries, with no herbal or savoury note at all.
What changes
In oatmeal, granola or a bar they work perfectly well and taste like a raisin version of the same thing. Golden raisins are the best of the three here, being lighter and slightly tangier. In a savoury Chinese soup they read as out of place because the sweetness is too forward and too obvious.
Best for
oatmeal and porridge, granola bars, baking, trail mix
Currants are closest to goji berries in size, which matters in a bar or a cookie.
4Chopped dried apricots
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount chopped small
A genuinely good bridge between the two uses, because apricot has real tartness and an orange colour close to a goji's.
What changes
Chopped fine, dried apricots work in granola and bars, and a couple of slivers also behave respectably in a chicken soup or a rice dish, adding sweetness without tasting like dessert. They are softer and stickier than gojis and much more strongly flavoured, so use a slightly lighter hand. Turkish dried apricots are milder than the tangy unsulphured brown kind.
Best for
granola and bars, rice and pilaf, chicken soups, baking
Dust the chopped pieces in a little flour or oats so they do not stick together.
5Dried cherries, dried barberries or dried blueberries
Different taste
Use the same amount
All three are small, chewy and tart, and all work anywhere you were using gojis as fruit.
What changes
Dried sour cherries are the closest on chew and colour. Dried barberries, or zereshk, are the closest on size and are sharply sour, which makes them brilliant in rice dishes and a little aggressive in a smoothie. Dried blueberries are the mildest and easiest to like. None of them carries the faintly savoury herbal note that makes a goji taste like a goji.
Best for
granola and muesli, rice dishes and pilaf, salads, baking
Barberries are usually sold with grit; rinse them and pat dry before using.
6Leave them out and add a little colour and sweetness another way
Taste and texture differ
omit, plus 1 teaspoon honey or a few strips of red bell pepper depending on the dish
Worth saying honestly: goji berries are usually a small garnish rather than a load-bearing ingredient, and in a soup or congee a tablespoon of them is doing very little beyond a few sweet chewy specks and some red colour.
What changes
Leaving them out changes the dish less than any of the substitutes above would. If the recipe was relying on them for sweetness against a bitter herbal broth, a teaspoon of honey or a couple of slices of carrot does the same job more quietly.
Best for
herbal soups and broths, congee, steamed dishes, tea
In a bar or granola recipe you should replace the bulk with some other dried fruit rather than simply omitting it.

What is Goji Berries?

Goji Berries is Goji berries, also called wolfberries and known in Chinese cooking as gou qi zi, are small elongated orange-red berries sold dried, chewy and only mildly sweet, with a faintly tomato-like, herbal edge rather than the bright fruitiness of most dried fruit.

Cooking tips

Goji berries need almost no cooking. Add them in the last five to ten minutes of a soup or congee, or scatter them over a steamed dish just before serving. Simmered for an hour they turn mushy, lose their shape and go slightly bitter, which is the most common mistake with them.
A short soak transforms them. Five minutes in warm water or tea plumps them from leathery to tender, and the soaking liquid turns pale orange and mildly sweet, so tip it into the pot rather than pouring it away.
Because they are only mildly sweet and faintly savoury, goji berries work in dishes where a raisin would taste wrong. If you substitute a sweeter dried fruit into a savoury Chinese soup, use about half as much or the broth will taste like it has been sugared.
In no-bake energy bars and granola, chop goji berries or your substitute coarsely. Whole dried berries sit as isolated chewy lumps rather than distributing through the mixture.
Goji berries are frequently sold as a supplement as well as a food, and packets sometimes carry health claims. Treat them as a pleasant dried fruit in cooking terms. Anyone taking blood-thinning medication such as warfarin should check with a pharmacist or doctor before eating them regularly, since interactions have been reported.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the goji berries out?

In most recipes, yes, and it is often the sensible choice. In a Chinese soup, congee or steamed dish, a tablespoon of goji berries is a garnish adding a little sweetness and red colour, and the dish tastes almost the same without them. In granola, energy bars or a bircher muesli they are contributing bulk and chew, so replace them with an equal volume of another dried fruit rather than simply omitting them, or the mixture will be dry and loose.

What do goji berries actually taste like?

Milder and stranger than people expect. They are lightly sweet and slightly sour, with a chewy, almost leathery skin and a faintly herbal, savoury note that some people compare to a dried tomato or a very mild cranberry. They are not intensely fruity like a raisin or a dried cherry, which is why no substitute matches them exactly and why almost every substitute tastes sweeter.

Are wolfberries the same as goji berries?

Yes, they are the same fruit under a different name, and you will also see them labelled Chinese wolfberry, gou qi zi or lycium. Packets in Chinese groceries are usually cheaper and often better quality than the health-food versions sold as a superfood, so buy them there when you can. If you find a bag labelled wolfberries and your recipe says goji berries, use it directly.

What is the best goji berry substitute for Chinese soup?

Dried jujube, sold as red dates, is the traditional partner ingredient and the closest match in function, at two or three sliced dates per tablespoon of goji berries. They add the same gentle sweetness to a savoury or herbal broth, though rounder and more caramelised. Add them at the start of the simmer because they need longer to soften. A couple of slivers of dried apricot also work.

Can I use goji berry powder or juice instead?

For flavour in a smoothie, yes: about a teaspoon of powder stands in for a tablespoon of berries. For anything where the chew and the visible berries matter, no, since powder dissolves and juice just adds liquid. In baking, powder also absorbs moisture differently, so do not swap it by volume for whole dried fruit.

Related substitutes

More fruits substitutes

Goji Berries substitute

Other goji berries substitutes

2Dried jujube, red dates or Chinese dates

3Raisins, golden raisins or currants

4Chopped dried apricots

5Dried cherries, dried barberries or dried blueberries

6Leave them out and add a little colour and sweetness another way