Khmeli Suneli substitute

Best substitute

Homemade Khmeli Suneli Blend

Use the same amount as the khmeli suneli you are replacing

Best for satsivi walnut sauce

Close match

The honest best answer, since a spice blend can only really be substituted by another blend. Combine 3 teaspoons ground coriander, 2 teaspoons dried dill, 2 teaspoons dried summer savory, 1 teaspoon ground fenugreek, 1 teaspoon dried mint, 1 teaspoon dried marjoram, half a teaspoon ground black pepper, half a teaspoon turmeric and a pinch of ground bay leaf. That makes about four tablespoons. It tastes convincingly like the real thing: green, warm and softly bitter with a maple-savoury undertone. What it lacks is the specific muskiness of blue fenugreek and dried marigold, which most cooks outside Georgia will never notice.

Other khmeli suneli substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Three-Ingredient Emergency Blend
Different taste
Use the same amount
Two parts ground coriander, one part dried dill and half a part ground fenugreek, plus a pinch of black pepper.
What changes
These three carry most of the blend's identity, since coriander provides the warm citrus-woody base, dill the green top note and fenugreek the distinctive maple-bitter backbone, so the result is recognisably in the right family. What is missing is the savory and mint, which give real khmeli suneli its lift and slight coolness, so a dish made with this tastes rounder, heavier and less bright. Perfectly good for a weeknight kharcho and noticeably simpler in a satsivi.
Best for
weeknight cooking, kharcho and bean stews, marinades and rubs, cooks with a basic spice shelf
If you have no fenugreek, add a pinch of celery seed or a little ground mustard for the faintly bitter note. It is not the same, but it stops the blend tasting flat.
3Blue Fenugreek (Utskho Suneli) Plus Coriander
Close match
1 part blue fenugreek to 2 parts ground coriander, then use 1:1
If you can find only one Georgian spice, this is the one to buy.
What changes
Utskho suneli is ground blue fenugreek, the single most characteristic note in khmeli suneli, and it is milder and rounder than the common fenugreek sold as an Indian spice, tasting nutty and hay-like with a gentle maple sweetness rather than a hard bitterness. Used alone it is too narrow and slightly musty, but blended with twice as much ground coriander it makes a spare, convincing Georgian seasoning. Add dried dill if you have it and the gap closes further.
Best for
satsivi and walnut sauces, lobio and bean dishes, aubergine rolls with walnut filling, anyone shopping at a Georgian or Russian grocer
If you have common fenugreek rather than the blue kind, use about half as much, since it is more bitter and dominates a blend easily.
4Curry Powder, Used Sparingly
Different taste
Use half the amount called for, plus ½ teaspoon dried dill for every teaspoon of khmeli suneli
The most commonly suggested swap and a real compromise rather than a good match.
What changes
It works at all because both blends lean on coriander and fenugreek, which is more overlap than you might expect. What goes wrong is everything else: curry powder brings cumin, turmeric, ginger and often chilli, so a satsivi made with it tastes distinctly South Asian, duller yellow and warmer-spiced, and the fresh green dill-and-savory character disappears completely. Use half as much so the cumin does not take over, and add dried dill to push it back toward Georgia. Choose a mild blend with no chilli.
Best for
stews and braises where other flavours dominate, chicken and bean dishes, last-resort weeknight cooking
Avoid hot curry powder and any blend with cinnamon or clove, which drag the dish somewhere else entirely. Madras and other chilli-forward blends are the wrong choice here.
5Herbes de Provence Plus Ground Coriander
Different taste
1 part herbes de Provence to 1 part ground coriander, then use 1:1
A surprisingly decent stand-in for a reason worth knowing: savory, thyme and marjoram are staples of both traditions, and summer savory in particular is a real khmeli suneli component.
What changes
So the herbal half genuinely matches. Add an equal amount of ground coriander for the warm base and you have something quite close in profile, missing only the fenugreek's maple-bitter depth, which makes the result taste greener and lighter and less distinctively Georgian. Pick a blend without lavender, since lavender is floral and soapy in a savoury Georgian stew.
Best for
grilled and roasted meat, vegetable dishes, quick marinades, well-stocked European spice shelves
Check the label for lavender before you use it. Many supermarket herbes de Provence blends include it, and it is the one ingredient here that will make the dish taste wrong rather than merely different.
6Svan Salt (Svanuri Marili)
Different texture
Use 1 ½ times the amount, and remove about ½ teaspoon salt for every tablespoon used
If you have this, you already have most of a khmeli suneli.
What changes
Svan salt is a Georgian seasoning of coarse salt blended with garlic, khmeli suneli spices, dried marigold and often chilli, so it delivers the blend's whole aroma along with salt and a pronounced garlic note. Because it is largely salt you need to use more of it to get the same spice impact and then take salt out of the recipe, and the garlic will be noticeable, which suits meat, beans and vegetables and slightly muddies a delicate walnut sauce. Some versions are hot, so taste first.
Best for
grilled and roasted meat, potatoes and vegetables, beans and lobio, finishing salads and tomatoes
Taste it on its own before cooking with it. Salt content and chilli level vary a lot between producers, and some are aggressively garlicky.

What is Khmeli Suneli?

Khmeli Suneli is the everyday dried herb and spice blend of Georgian cooking, also transliterated hmeli suneli and sold simply as Georgian spice blend, built on coriander, dried fenugreek, marigold petals, dill, summer savory, mint and black pepper, and its job in a dish is aroma alone rather than heat, salt or colour.

Cooking tips

Bloom it in fat or add it with the liquid rather than sprinkling it on at the end. These are dried herbs and ground seeds, and they taste dusty and raw until they have had heat and moisture. Thirty seconds in the oil with the onions is enough.
Fenugreek is the one component you can genuinely overdo. It turns bitter and slightly medicinal in quantity, so about a quarter teaspoon of the finished blend per serving is a sensible ceiling, and if a dish tastes harsh and vaguely like burnt maple syrup, fenugreek is the reason.
Dried marigold petals, sold as imeretian saffron, are mostly colour with a faint musky warmth. Half as much turmeric does the colour job, so do not delay cooking while you hunt for marigold. It matters far less than the coriander, fenugreek and dill.
The blend goes in at different moments depending on the dish. In satsivi, the cold walnut sauce, it is stirred in off the heat with the walnuts and garlic so the aroma stays fresh. In kharcho and lobio it goes into the pot early so it can soften and infuse the broth.
Store it airtight and dark and treat it as a three-month spice rather than a three-year one. Dill and mint fade first, so an old jar tastes flat and fenugreek-heavy, and stirring in a spoonful of fresh dill at the end revives a stale batch better than adding more of the blend.

Frequently asked questions

What does khmeli suneli taste like, and is it spicy?

It is not spicy at all, since the classic blend contains no chilli. It tastes warm and herbal, with coriander's citrusy woodiness at the base, a green dill and savory top note, a cool touch of mint, and a distinctive slightly bitter, faintly maple-like depth from fenugreek. If a jar you bought is hot, it has had chilli added, which some commercial and Svan-style blends do.

Can I use curry powder instead of khmeli suneli?

As a compromise, yes, and it is the swap most often suggested, because both blends are built partly on coriander and fenugreek. Use half as much so the cumin and turmeric do not dominate, add half a teaspoon of dried dill per teaspoon, and pick a mild blend with no chilli, cinnamon or clove. The dish will taste warmer and more South Asian and will lose the fresh green character, but it will be good.

Can I just leave it out?

You can cook the dish without it, but it will taste generic, because khmeli suneli is most of what identifies a Georgian recipe as Georgian. At an absolute minimum add ground coriander and dried dill in a two to one ratio, which covers the two largest components and takes you a long way for two ingredients. Satsivi in particular tastes like plain walnut sauce without the blend.

Do I need blue fenugreek specifically?

It is the authentic choice and it is worth buying if you find it, sold as utskho suneli, because it is milder, nuttier and rounder than the common fenugreek on Indian spice shelves. But common fenugreek works: just use about half as much, since it is more bitter and will otherwise dominate the blend. Either way, fenugreek in some form is what makes the blend recognisable.

Where can I buy khmeli suneli?

Russian, Georgian, Ukrainian and Armenian grocery shops stock it as a matter of course, usually in cellophane packets, and online spice merchants carry it too. Because packets vary a great deal in freshness and in whether they include marigold, blue fenugreek or chilli, and because the blend fades fast, mixing your own from coriander, dill, savory, fenugreek, mint and marjoram is often the better result as well as the faster one.

Related substitutes

More spices & herbs substitutes

Khmeli Suneli substitute

Other khmeli suneli substitutes

2Three-Ingredient Emergency Blend

3Blue Fenugreek (Utskho Suneli) Plus Coriander

4Curry Powder, Used Sparingly

5Herbes de Provence Plus Ground Coriander

6Svan Salt (Svanuri Marili)