Green seasoning substitutes

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

Best for

stew chicken and brown stew, curry chicken, goat and duck, fish and shrimp marinades, pelau and rice dishes, oil down and pepper pot, roast pork and beef

Coarsely blend 1 packed cup cilantro or culantro, 1 bunch scallions, ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, leaves from 6 thyme sprigs, 8 garlic cloves, 1 small onion, 2 celery stalks including the leaves, half a seeded scotch bonnet and 2 tablespoons white vinegar or lime juice, with just enough water to move the blades. Leave it slightly rough rather than smooth. There is no single correct recipe: Bajan seasoning leans on marjoram and more onion, Guyanese versions push the thyme and add basil, Trinidadian versions are dominated by chadon beni. Keep it in a jar in the fridge for about two weeks, or freeze it in an ice cube tray and drop a cube into the pot. Note that it usually contains no salt, so season the dish separately.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.