Lemon Verbena substitute

Best substitute

Dried lemon verbena, including verbena or verveine tea bags

Use 1 tsp dried, or 1 tea bag, for every 3-4 fresh leaves

Best for infusions and syrups

Close match

Lemon verbena is pure aroma. It adds no acid, no sweetness and no body, so what you have to replace is a smell, and the honest answer is that nothing matches it exactly. The most accurate thing you can buy is dried lemon verbena in tea bag form, sold as verbena or verveine tea, which is the same leaf: use 1 tea bag or 1 teaspoon of the dried leaf for every 3 to 4 fresh leaves. Failing that, the best kitchen fix is a strip of lemon zest plus lemon balm, using the zest of half a lemon and a small handful of lemon balm leaves for every 6 fresh verbena leaves. For syrups, sorbets and custards, a bruised stalk of lemongrass per 8 leaves is a genuinely good stand-in.

Other lemon verbena substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Lemon zest plus lemon balm
Different taste
Use Zest of half a lemon plus a small handful of lemon balm for every 6 verbena leaves
Neither on its own is convincing: lemon balm is mild, grassy and faintly minty, and lemon zest is sharp and oily.
What changes
Together they cover most of the ground verbena occupies, with the zest supplying intensity and the balm supplying the soft herbal background.
Best for
sorbets and granitas, syrups, fruit salads, cold drinks and cocktails
The result is brighter and more straightforwardly lemony, without the perfumed length that makes verbena taste almost floral. Lemon balm bruises and browns quickly, so add it at the end of an infusion, and grate only the coloured part of the lemon peel to avoid bitterness.
3Lemongrass, bruised and sliced
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 stalk for every 8-10 verbena leaves
The closest match in raw aromatic strength.
What changes
Lemongrass has the same high, clean citral-driven lemon smell, which is exactly what makes verbena smell like verbena.
Best for
syrups, sorbets and ice cream, poaching liquids, panna cotta and custards
It carries a distinct gingery, grassy edge, so a lemongrass sorbet tastes Southeast Asian rather than Provencal. Smash the stalk with the flat of a knife, slice it, infuse it in warm liquid for 15 to 20 minutes and strain it out, because the fibres are woody and never soften.
4Lemon thyme
Taste and texture differ
Half as much, by volume, as the verbena called for
Useful when the dish is savoury or when it is going near heat for a while, since lemon thyme survives cooking far better than verbena does.
What changes
Best for
roast chicken and fish, vegetables, shortbread, marinades
Resinous and woody underneath the lemon, so it pulls the dish towards herb rather than perfume. Use half the quantity or the thyme takes over, and strip the leaves from the stems. Not the choice for a delicate sorbet or a milk-based dessert, where the piney note will sit oddly.
5Lemon basil or Thai basil with lemon zest
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, plus zest of a quarter lemon per 6 leaves
Lemon basil is genuinely citrus-scented and, like verbena, is best used raw or barely warmed, which makes it a sensible replacement in cold desserts and salads.
What changes
Best for
fruit salads, granitas and sorbets, cold soups, cocktails
Adds a clear anise-basil undertone, so a peach and verbena salad becomes a peach and basil salad, which is delicious but different. Tear rather than chop, and add at the last moment because basil blackens fast.
6Kaffir lime leaf
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 leaf for every 2-3 verbena leaves
A blunt but effective option when you want strong citrus perfume in something creamy or frozen and have none of the above.
What changes
Best for
ice cream and custards, syrups, poached fruit, rice pudding
Emphatically lime rather than lemon, and much more powerful, which is why the ratio is so low. Freeze the leaf and slice it paper-thin or infuse whole and remove, because the leaf itself is leathery and unpleasant to bite into.
7Leave it out and add lemon zest at the end (the honest fallback)
Different taste
Use Zest of 1 lemon for every 8-10 verbena leaves
When verbena is a supporting aromatic in a braise, a poaching syrup for a fruit that already has plenty of flavour, or a marinade, dropping it and finishing the dish with fresh lemon zest is a perfectly respectable outcome.
What changes
Best for
braises and stews, marinades, poached fruit, savoury sauces
Do not do this in a verbena sorbet, verbena ice cream or verbena tea, where the herb is the whole point and the dish becomes sugar and cream with a squeak of lemon. In those cases hunt down verbena tea bags instead, which most supermarkets carry.

What is Lemon Verbena?

Lemon Verbena is Lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora, known as verbena in France and cedron in Latin America) is a shrub with narrow, slightly rough leaves that carry the purest and most intensely lemon-scented aroma of any culinary herb.

Cooking tips

Never boil lemon verbena. Its aroma is highly volatile, so drop the leaves into liquid that has come off the heat, cover it and let it steep for 10 to 20 minutes. Boiled verbena tastes faintly of cut grass.
The leaves are sandpapery and stay tough no matter how long you cook them, so either strain them out after infusing or slice them into hair-thin ribbons if they are staying in the dish.
Lemon verbena is one of the few herbs that dries well and keeps its character for months, which is why the tea-bag substitution works. Store the dried leaf in a sealed jar away from light.
As a rough conversion, 3 fresh leaves are about 1 teaspoon of dried crumbled leaf, and a small handful of fresh leaves, around 10, will flavour a cup of syrup or 2 cups of cream noticeably.
It is almost never sold in supermarkets because the leaves wilt within a day of picking. If you like it, one plant on a windowsill or patio produces more than you can use all summer and dries easily for winter.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave lemon verbena out?

It depends on whether it is the flavour or a flavour. In a braise, a marinade or a poaching syrup for a strongly flavoured fruit, leave it out and add the zest of a lemon instead and the dish still works. In a lemon verbena sorbet, ice cream, syrup or tea, the herb is the entire point, so use dried verbena from a tea bag, or lemongrass, rather than omitting it.

Is lemon verbena the same as verbena or vervain?

No, and this trips people up. Lemon verbena is Aloysia citrodora, an intensely lemon-scented shrub. Common vervain, Verbena officinalis, is a different plant with a bitter, hay-like taste used in herbal medicine rather than cooking. French verveine tea is usually lemon verbena, but check the botanical name on the box if it matters.

Is lemon balm a good substitute for lemon verbena?

On its own, not really. Lemon balm has the right family of flavour but perhaps a quarter of the intensity, with a soft minty edge, so a verbena sorbet made only with balm tastes faintly herbal and vague. Doubling the quantity and adding the zest of half a lemon per 6 verbena leaves gets you most of the way there.

How much dried lemon verbena replaces fresh?

Use 1 teaspoon of dried crumbled leaf, or one verbena tea bag, for every 3 to 4 fresh leaves. Unlike basil or parsley, verbena does not lose much when dried, so this is one dried herb you can trust in delicate dishes such as custards and syrups.

Can you eat the leaves or only infuse them?

They are edible but tough and slightly abrasive, so they are almost always infused and removed. If you want them in the finished dish, stack the leaves, roll them and slice them as finely as you possibly can, then use about half as much as a recipe would use of a soft herb like basil.

Related substitutes

More spices & herbs substitutes

Lemon Verbena substitute

Other lemon verbena substitutes

2Lemon zest plus lemon balm

3Lemongrass, bruised and sliced

4Lemon thyme

5Lemon basil or Thai basil with lemon zest

6Kaffir lime leaf

7Leave it out and add lemon zest at the end (the honest fallback)