Macadamia Nuts substitute

Best substitute

Cashews

Use the same amount by volume or weight as the macadamia nuts you are replacing

Best for white chocolate macadamia cookies

Close match

Cashews are the substitute, one for one, and they cost a fraction as much. They are the closest nut for softness, mildness and creaminess, which is why they work in both directions: in white chocolate macadamia cookies and in blended vegan cream sauces and cheeses. Brazil nuts are the next best if you have them, one for one, and blanched almonds will do if you only need the crunch. What macadamias contribute is fat and a tender, almost crumbly texture with a gentle sweetness, not a strong nut flavor, so what you are really replacing is richness and softness. That is also why cost is usually the reason people are here, and why cashews are such a satisfying answer: in most recipes they genuinely do the same job.

Other macadamia nuts substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Brazil Nuts
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, chopped coarsely
Similar fat content and a similarly soft crumbly bite, which makes them a genuinely close textural match.
What changes
Chop them by hand rather than in a processor, because they crumble to paste quickly.
Best for
cookies, brownies and blondies, vegan creams and cheeses, nut crusts, toppings
Almost the same richness and the same yielding texture, but with a distinctive musky, faintly mineral flavor that macadamias do not have. In a cookie with white chocolate that reads as a slightly earthier, more grown-up biscuit, which some people prefer. Worth knowing that brazil nuts are unusually high in selenium, so a couple a day is plenty and it is not a nut to eat in large handfuls regularly.
3Blanched Almonds
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, chopped and lightly toasted
The most likely nut to be in the cupboard already, and fine wherever you need crunch and bulk rather than creaminess.
What changes
Use blanched rather than skin-on so the color and flavor stay pale.
Best for
cookies, granola, crumble and streusel toppings, nut crusts for fish or chicken, salads
Much harder, drier and snappier, so where a macadamia gives way and almost melts, an almond resists and cracks. Flavour-wise it is cleaner and less rich, and it does not blend to a smooth cream unless you soak it for hours and strain it, so it is the wrong choice for sauces and vegan cheeses. In a cookie it works but reads clearly as an almond cookie, particularly against white chocolate.
4Pine Nuts
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume
Soft, oily and pale, which is a good match for macadamia's texture and color.
What changes
Best in savory applications and blended sauces, and toast them briefly and carefully because they scorch very fast.
Best for
pesto and blended sauces, salads, savory nut crusts, vegetable dishes, shortbread
The soft creamy bite is right and they blend beautifully, but pine nuts have a distinctive resinous, slightly piney flavor that is much more assertive than a macadamia, so they will lead a dish rather than enrich it quietly. They are also often as expensive as macadamias, which defeats the usual reason for substituting. Use them when they are what you already have.
5Cashews With Toasted Coconut Flakes
Different texture
Use ¾ cup chopped cashews plus ¼ cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes for every 1 cup macadamias
The best approximation for the classic white chocolate macadamia cookie, and it takes no extra work.
What changes
Toast the coconut in a dry pan until golden, and fold it in with the cashews.
Best for
white chocolate macadamia cookies, blondies, tropical style baking, granola
Closer than cashews alone, because toasted coconut supplies exactly the sweet buttery tropical note that macadamias have and cashews lack, and it reinforces the richness too. The result is not identical, since coconut brings its own recognisable flavor and a chewier texture, but people who like the original tend to like this. Use unsweetened flakes, since sweetened ones make an already sweet cookie cloying.
6Hazelnuts
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, toasted and skins rubbed off
Widely available and reasonably priced.
What changes
Toast at 180C for ten to twelve minutes, then rub off the skins in a tea towel while warm, which removes most of the bitterness.
Best for
brownies, chocolate baking, biscotti, praline and nut brittle, coffee cake
A firmer, crisper crunch and a much bolder flavor, which is a straightforward gain with dark chocolate and a straightforward problem with white chocolate, where hazelnut simply overpowers it. So this is a good swap in a brownie and a poor one in the cookie most people are making. It also does not blend to a smooth cream, so it is unsuitable for vegan cheeses and sauces.
7Sunflower Seeds
Taste and texture differ
¾ the volume of macadamias, toasted
The nut-free option, and the practical choice for school baking.
What changes
Toast the kernels in a dry pan until golden, and use slightly less than the nut quantity because seeds are denser.
Best for
nut-free cookies, school-safe baking, granola, crumble toppings
This keeps the crunch and some of the oily richness and nothing else, so be honest with yourself about it. Sunflower seeds taste grassy and mineral rather than buttery and sweet, so a nut-free white chocolate cookie made this way is a good cookie but it is not a macadamia cookie. Watch out for sunflower seeds turning the crumb faintly green when they meet baking soda, which is harmless but surprising.

What is Macadamia Nuts?

Macadamia Nuts is a round, cream-colored nut with the highest fat content of any common nut, which is why it has an unusually soft, crumbly bite and a mild buttery flavor with almost none of the bitterness of a walnut; it is sometimes sold as Queensland nuts.

Cooking tips

Toast macadamias at a lower temperature than other nuts, around 160C for eight to ten minutes, and check them often. They contain more fat than any common nut, which means they brown from the inside and go from pale to scorched with very little warning, and a burnt macadamia is bitter in a way that ruins the batch.
Salt them. Macadamias unsalted taste rich but oddly blank, and a light scattering of flaky salt over warm toasted nuts before they go into a cookie dough or a salad is what makes their sweetness readable. This is why the packaged roasted salted ones taste so much better than raw ones straight from the bag.
Chop them with a knife, not a food processor. Macadamias are soft enough that a processor turns half of them to paste while the other half stays whole, and the paste makes cookie dough greasy. Two or three passes with a heavy knife on a board gives you the coarse rubble you want.
Buy pieces rather than whole nuts unless you need them whole for appearance. Macadamia halves and pieces are usually noticeably cheaper than perfect whole nuts and are identical once chopped, which matters when this is the most expensive nut in the shop. Check the bulk bins and the baking aisle rather than the snack aisle.
For a vegan cream, sauce or cheese, soak whichever nut you use in boiling water for thirty minutes and blend far longer than you think necessary. Macadamias and cashews both go silky, but only with a proper long blend, and a sauce that tastes faintly gritty simply needs another two minutes in the blender rather than more liquid.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best cheap substitute for macadamia nuts?

Cashews, without much competition. They are usually a third of the price, they share the softness, the pale color and the mild sweetness, and they behave the same way in both baking and blending. For a white chocolate macadamia cookie, cashews with a quarter cup of toasted coconut flakes folded in gets you remarkably close, because the coconut supplies the buttery tropical note that cashews are missing. Blanched almonds are cheaper still but much harder and drier.

Can I use cashews instead of macadamias in vegan cheese or cream sauce?

Yes, and in this particular use cashews are arguably the better ingredient rather than a compromise. Both nuts are high in fat and low in fiber, which is what lets them blend to a genuinely smooth cream, and cashews are softer to begin with so they need less soaking and less blending. Soak them in boiling water for half an hour, drain, and blend with fresh liquid until completely silky. The result is a shade sweeter and less buttery than macadamia, which most recipes accommodate easily.

Can I just leave the macadamias out of a cookie?

Yes, and the cookie will bake perfectly well, just plainer. Nuts in a cookie dough are an addition rather than structure, so no adjustment to flour, fat or liquid is needed. What you lose is crunch and richness against the sweetness of the white chocolate, which is what stops those cookies from being one-note. Toasted coconut flakes, toasted oats or a handful of another nut all fill the gap better than leaving it empty.

Why are macadamia nuts so expensive?

They are slow to grow, hard to shell because the shell is exceptionally tough, and grown in relatively few places, which keeps supply tight. That is worth knowing because it means the price is unlikely to drop and substituting is a reasonable long-term habit rather than a one-off compromise. If you love the flavor, buying a small bag and using it where the nut is the point, then using cashews everywhere else, is a sensible way to spend the money.

Is macadamia oil a substitute for macadamia nuts?

Only for flavor, never for texture. Macadamia oil carries some of the buttery character and is lovely in a dressing or drizzled over vegetables, but it contributes no crunch and no bulk, so it cannot replace nuts in a cookie or a crust. Where it is genuinely useful is as a supporting move: a teaspoon of macadamia oil in a dough made with cashews nudges the flavor back toward macadamia while the cashews handle the texture.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Macadamia Nuts substitute

Other macadamia nuts substitutes

2Brazil Nuts

3Blanched Almonds

4Pine Nuts

5Cashews With Toasted Coconut Flakes

6Hazelnuts

7Sunflower Seeds