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Green Seasoning substitute

Best substitute

Homemade Green Seasoning (Blender Formula)

Use 2 tbsp for every lb of chicken, fish, pork or beef

Best for stew chicken and brown stew

Close match

The real thing, made from whatever green herbs and aromatics you can actually buy, which is exactly how it is made in Caribbean kitchens.

Other green seasoning substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Green Seasoning with ratios

  1. 2Jarred Caribbean Green Seasoning

    Different texture

    Use the same amount

    Bottled green seasoning from brands sold in Caribbean grocers and the international aisle, often labelled Bajan seasoning or Trinidad green seasoning.

    What changes
    Best for
    weeknight stews and curries, quick marinades, seasoning rice and peas, soups

    The same ingredient with the work done, so nothing needs adjusting on quantity. The honest differences are that jarred versions are usually saltier, more vinegary and much smoother than homemade, and the fresh green top note is largely gone, so a marinade made with it smells of vinegar and garlic rather than of herbs. Cut back the salt in your dish, and stir a handful of chopped fresh cilantro or scallion into the pot at the end to put the greenness back.

  2. 3Puerto Rican Sofrito or Recaito Plus Dried Thyme

    Close match

    Use the same amount plus 1 tsp dried thyme per ¼ cup sofrito

    The Spanish-Caribbean aromatic base of onion, garlic, culantro, cilantro and peppers, sold jarred as sofrito or recaito in most large supermarkets.

    What changes
    Best for
    stews and braises, rice dishes, beans, curry bases

    The closest thing to green seasoning you can buy without a trip to a Caribbean shop, because it shares the garlic, onion and culantro backbone. What is missing is thyme, which is the single most identifiable note in Trinidadian and Bajan cooking, and scallion. Add a teaspoon of dried thyme per quarter cup of sofrito plus a chopped scallion and you are genuinely close. Green recaito is a better match than red sofrito, which contains tomato and annatto and will tint the dish orange and make it taste faintly of tomato paste.

  3. 4Chimichurri

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by volume

    The Argentine raw parsley, garlic, oregano, vinegar and oil sauce, sold in most supermarket refrigerated sections.

    What changes
    Best for
    grilled and roast meat, quick fish marinades, pork, vegetables

    Structurally the same idea, a raw green herb and garlic paste sharpened with vinegar, which is why it works better than you would expect. It tastes noticeably more of oregano and oil and much less of thyme, scallion and cilantro, so a stew chicken made with it comes out Mediterranean rather than Caribbean. Two fixes close most of the gap: add a teaspoon of dried thyme and a chopped scallion per quarter cup, and drain off some of the oil, because green seasoning is a wet herb paste rather than an oily sauce and too much oil stops the meat browning.

  4. 5Fresh Herb and Garlic Mince (No Blender)

    Different texture

    Use About 3 tbsp of the mince for every lb of meat

    Everything chopped by hand and mashed together, which is how green seasoning was made before blenders.

    What changes
    Best for
    small batches, fish, chicken, stews

    Finely chop a big handful of any soft green herb you have, 2 scallions, a stripped thyme sprig, 4 garlic cloves and a slice of onion, then mash them in a bowl with a splash of vinegar and a pinch of salt with the flat of a knife or the bottom of a glass until the garlic goes pasty. It clings to the meat less evenly than a blended paste and will not colour the flesh green, so give it a longer marinade, ideally overnight. Flavour-wise it is arguably better than a blender version because nothing gets bruised into bitterness.

  5. 6Adobo Seasoning Plus Fresh Herbs

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 1 tsp adobo plus 2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs for every lb of meat

    Dry Latin all-purpose seasoning of salt, garlic powder, oregano and turmeric, propped up with whatever fresh green herbs are in the fridge.

    What changes
    Best for
    emergency weeknight seasoning, grilled chicken, pork chops, rice

    This is the least-good option and it is worth being straight about why: green seasoning is a wet raw paste that penetrates and perfumes the meat over hours, and a dry powder simply sits on the surface. What you get is a well-seasoned piece of meat rather than a Caribbean-tasting one. Adobo is also mostly salt, so leave the extra salt out of the dish entirely. If this is all you have, chop in any fresh herb and a raw garlic clove and let it sit for at least thirty minutes, and accept that the result is good food rather than the dish you were aiming at.

What is Green Seasoning?

Green Seasoning is A raw blended herb-and-aromatic paste from Trinidad, Guyana, Barbados and the wider English-speaking Caribbean, made from culantro or cilantro, scallion, thyme, parsley, garlic, onion, celery and hot pepper, and used to marinate meat and fish before cooking.

Cooking tips

  • Green seasoning is a marinade, not a finishing sauce. Its job is to perfume and tenderise raw meat and to knock down the strong smell of fresh chicken or fish, which is why Caribbean cooks wash the meat with lime or vinegar first and then rub the seasoning in. Give chicken and pork at least two hours and ideally overnight; fish and shrimp need twenty to thirty minutes and no longer, because the acid starts to firm up the flesh.
  • Scrape most of the paste off before the meat hits hot oil. Wet herbs burn and turn bitter, and they stop the meat browning, which matters enormously in brown stew chicken where the colour comes from caramelised sugar. Scrape the marinade into the pot separately once the meat is seared.
  • Almost every version is unsalted, so salt the dish yourself. This trips people up when they switch from a salty jarred seasoning to a homemade batch and the food suddenly tastes flat. Taste, then salt.
  • Freeze it in ice cube trays. One cube is roughly two tablespoons, which seasons a pound of meat, and it keeps for six months with very little loss. This is the single most useful thing you can do with a big bunch of herbs that is about to wilt.
  • Thyme and scallion are the two notes that make it read as Caribbean rather than generic green sauce. If you have to drop something from the formula, drop the parsley or celery, never the thyme.
  • This is a fresh refrigerated condiment and should be treated like one. Keep it cold, use it within about two weeks, and do not attempt to can or shelf-store a homemade batch. Home-canning recipes for low-acid herb and garlic mixtures must be followed exactly as tested and never improvised, so check current guidance from the National Center for Home Food Preservation if preserving is your goal.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave green seasoning out?

You can, but you have to replace its job rather than skip it. Green seasoning is the entire flavour base of a Trinidadian or Bajan stew, so leaving it out gives you plain boiled meat in gravy. At minimum, marinate the meat with chopped garlic, scallion, thyme and a squeeze of lime, and add a chopped onion to the pot. That is a reduced green seasoning by another name and will get you most of the way.

What is the difference between green seasoning and sofrito?

They do the same job in different kitchens. Green seasoning is the English-speaking Caribbean version, dominated by thyme, scallion and chadon beni, used raw as a marinade. Sofrito is the Spanish-Caribbean version, built on culantro, cilantro, garlic, onion and sweet peppers, and it is more often cooked off in oil at the start of a dish. Green recaito is close enough to swap; red sofrito with tomato and annatto is not, because it changes the colour and adds a tomato note.

Do I need chadon beni or will cilantro do?

Cilantro is fine and is what most people outside the Caribbean use. Culantro, also called chadon beni or shado beni, is roughly three times stronger and holds its aroma in a long-simmered pot, so if you only have cilantro use about three times as much and add a little extra at the end of cooking. Adding a few celery leaves and some flat-leaf parsley gets closer to culantro's savoury, slightly bitter character.

How long does homemade green seasoning last?

About two weeks in a sealed jar in the fridge, and six months frozen. Pressing the surface flat and covering it with a thin film of oil slows the browning. It will darken from bright green to olive within a day or two, which is normal oxidation and not spoilage; throw it out if it smells fermented or fizzy rather than herbal.

How much green seasoning do I use per pound of meat?

Two tablespoons per pound is the standard working amount, and up to three for goat, oxtail or anything strongly flavoured. Fish takes less, about a tablespoon per pound, and for a much shorter time. If you are using a salty jarred version, start at half that and taste the cooking liquid before adding salt.

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