Pandan Extract substitute

Best substitute

Fresh or Frozen Pandan Leaves, Steeped or Blended

Use 2 to 3 large leaves for every 1 tsp extract

Best for buko pandan

Close match

The real thing in its original form, and the only substitute that actually tastes of pandan. Frozen leaves from an Asian market work almost as well as fresh and are far easier to find. Blending gives a stronger, greener extract than steeping.

Other pandan extract substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Pandan Paste (If Your Recipe Says Extract, or the Reverse)
Close match
Use ½ tsp paste for every 1 tsp extract
This is the most common real confusion behind the search, so worth stating plainly: paste and extract are not the same strength or the same product.
What changes
Paste is thicker, more concentrated, sweetened and almost always contains added green food colouring. Extract is thin and often nearly clear.
Best for
pandan chiffon cake, buko pandan, any recipe where the green colour matters
Prep. Stir it into a small amount of the wet ingredients first so the colour distributes evenly, then add to the batter.
Start with half as much paste as the extract the recipe calls for, taste, then add more a quarter teaspoon at a time. Paste will colour the batter far more strongly, which is usually what people want. Going the other way, if you have extract and the recipe says paste, use twice as much and add green colouring separately, or accept a pale dessert.
3Coconut Extract Plus Vanilla Extract
Different taste
Use ½ tsp coconut extract plus ½ tsp vanilla for every 1 tsp pandan extract
The best imitation you can build from a Western baking cupboard.
What changes
Pandan's aroma sits somewhere between vanilla, fresh hay and coconut, and combining coconut and vanilla lands closer to that impression than either does alone, particularly in a coconut-based dessert like buko pandan.
Best for
buko pandan, coconut desserts, ice cream, custards and puddings
Prep. Add both with the wet ingredients, plus a drop of green food colouring if the dish is supposed to look green.
It gets the sweet, creamy, tropical impression and misses the green grassy top note entirely, which is the note that makes pandan recognisable. In a dessert that already contains a lot of coconut it passes easily. In a pandan chiffon cake, where pandan is the only flavour, it reads clearly as coconut-vanilla.
4Vanilla Extract
Different taste
Use the same amount
The single most available option, and honest about what it does: it fills the aromatic slot in the recipe with something pleasant.
What changes
Pandan is often described as tasting a little like vanilla, and in a background role, such as a rice pudding or a syrup, nobody will feel something is wrong.
Best for
rice puddings, custards, sweet sticky rice, drinks, recipes where pandan is a background note
Prep. Add with the wet ingredients, plus a drop or two of green food colouring if appearance matters.
The result tastes of vanilla, not pandan. It lacks pandan's grassy, faintly savoury edge, which is what keeps a pandan dessert from being cloying, so the finished dish reads sweeter and more one-dimensional. Do not use it where pandan is the headline, such as pandan chiffon or pandan kaya.
5Matcha Powder
Different taste
Use ¼ tsp for every 1 tsp extract
Use this for one reason only: colour.
What changes
Matcha delivers a strong natural green plus a grassy vegetal note that is, at a squint, in the same territory as pandan's. It is the best way to get a green cake without artificial colouring.
Best for
colouring cakes and chiffons green, ice cream, when combined with vanilla for flavour
Prep. Sift it and whisk it into a little warm liquid to a smooth paste before adding, or it clumps.
It tastes clearly of green tea, with tannin and a bitter finish that pandan does not have, and too much turns a dessert astringent. Combine a quarter teaspoon of matcha for colour with a teaspoon of vanilla for aroma and you get closer than either alone. Guests will say green tea, not pandan.
6Nothing, With the Recipe Adjusted
Different taste
omit, and add ½ tsp vanilla or 1 extra tbsp coconut cream
The truthful answer for when pandan is the point of the recipe.
What changes
Nothing tastes of pandan except pandan, and an imitation built from vanilla and food dye in a pandan chiffon cake produces a green vanilla cake, which some people would rather not make at all.
Best for
pandan chiffon cake, pandan kaya, any recipe named after pandan
Prep. Increase whatever the dish's other aromatic is, and skip the colouring.
If the dish is defined by pandan, either find frozen leaves, which almost every Asian grocer stocks, or make a different dessert this weekend. If pandan was one aroma among several, as in many coconut puddings and rice dishes, leaving it out and leaning on the coconut is a clean result rather than a compromised one.

What is Pandan Extract?

Pandan Extract is Pandan extract is a concentrated flavouring made from the leaves of the pandan or screwpine plant, sold either as a thin liquid essence or a thicker sweet paste, and used a few drops at a time for a grassy vanilla-coconut aroma and, in the paste form, a vivid green colour.

Cooking tips

Extract and paste are not the same strength, and mixing them up is the most common pandan mistake. Paste is thicker, sweeter, concentrated and coloured; extract is thin and often nearly clear. As a starting point use half as much paste as the extract a recipe calls for, then adjust upward by taste.
Pandan is potent and easy to overdo. A teaspoon in a whole chiffon cake is plenty; a tablespoon tastes medicinal and faintly soapy. Add it at the low end, taste the batter, and go up. This applies doubly to blended fresh-leaf extract, which is stronger than the bottled kind.
Frozen pandan leaves are the best-kept secret here. Nearly every Asian grocery freezer carries them, they cost very little, and they keep for months. Two knotted leaves simmered in a pot of coconut milk or rice do more for a dessert than any bottle.
The green colour in most bottled pandan paste is added food colouring, not pandan. Real leaves give a soft muted green at best. If your finished dish looks pale, nothing has gone wrong; the electric green everyone associates with pandan is a dye.
Add pandan extract off the heat or at the end. Like vanilla, its aroma compounds are volatile, so long boiling drives them off and you end up with a dish that smells of nothing. Steeping leaves is the exception, since that is how you get the flavour out in the first place.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for pandan extract?

Real pandan leaves, fresh or frozen. For every teaspoon of extract, knot two or three leaves and simmer them in the recipe's coconut milk or milk for 10 to 15 minutes, then lift them out, or blend chopped leaves with a few tablespoons of the recipe's liquid and strain. That gives the genuine aroma. It gives almost no colour, so if your recipe is meant to look green you will need a drop of green food colouring as well.

What is the difference between pandan extract and pandan paste?

Paste is thicker, more concentrated, usually sweetened and almost always contains added green colouring, which is why it turns a batter vivid green. Extract or essence is thin, weaker and often nearly clear, so it flavours without colouring much. They are not interchangeable spoon for spoon: start with about half as much paste as the extract a recipe calls for, and if you are using extract where paste is specified, use roughly double and add colouring separately.

Can I use vanilla extract instead of pandan extract?

In a background role, yes, one for one. Pandan and vanilla share a sweet creamy quality, so in a rice pudding, custard or syrup vanilla makes a pleasant dessert and nobody will feel it is broken. What it misses is pandan's grassy, faintly savoury edge, which is what keeps pandan desserts from tasting cloying, so the result is sweeter and flatter. In a pandan chiffon cake or buko pandan, where pandan is the whole flavour, it reads clearly as vanilla.

Can I just leave the pandan out?

It depends whether the dish is named after it. In a coconut pudding or a pot of rice where pandan is one aroma among several, leave it out and lean on the coconut; the result is clean rather than compromised. In pandan chiffon, pandan kaya or buko pandan, the pandan is the dish, and either find frozen leaves at an Asian grocer or make something else. A green vanilla cake is not a pandan cake.

How do I get the green colour without pandan paste?

Three options. A drop of green food colouring is the honest answer and it is what the paste itself relies on. Sifted matcha, about a quarter teaspoon per teaspoon of extract's worth of colour, gives a natural green plus a grassy note, though it tastes clearly of green tea. Blending fresh pandan leaves with a little liquid and straining gives a genuine but much softer green that fades further during baking.

Related substitutes

More flavorings substitutes

Pandan Extract substitute

Other pandan extract substitutes

2Pandan Paste (If Your Recipe Says Extract, or the Reverse)

3Coconut Extract Plus Vanilla Extract

4Vanilla Extract

5Matcha Powder

6Nothing, With the Recipe Adjusted