Rendang paste substitutes

Genuinely the right answer, and not difficult: it is a blender full of aromatics.

Best for

beef rendang, chicken rendang, rendang jackfruit or tempeh, any recipe calling for rendang paste

Soak 8 to 12 dried red chilies in hot water for 20 minutes, then blitz them with 8 shallots, 6 garlic cloves, a 2-inch piece of galangal, a 1-inch piece of ginger, the white parts of 2 lemongrass stalks, 1 tablespoon of ground turmeric or a 2-inch piece of fresh, 4 candlenuts or macadamias, and 2 tablespoons of oil, adding a splash of water only if the blender stalls. If you are short an ingredient, galangal and lemongrass are the two that really matter; you can live without the candlenuts by adding an extra spoon of coconut cream later. Make double and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray.

The closest jar-and-cupboard shortcut, and a very respectable result.

Best for

beef and chicken rendang, dry curries, weeknight versions

A meat curry powder blend, sold in most Asian grocers, already contains the coriander, cumin, fennel, cinnamon, clove and star anise side of rendang, which is the part hardest to improvise. Bloom it in hot oil for a minute before adding the blitzed fresh aromatics, then fry the lot until it darkens. The result is more coriander-and-cumin forward and less bright than a proper bumbu, and it lacks the fresh chili sweetness, so add a tablespoon of sambal oelek. Use a meat or beef curry powder, not a generic yellow curry powder, which is too turmeric-heavy.

Shares most of rendang's aromatics, and brings one loud extra flavour with it.

Best for

beef rendang at short notice, chicken rendang, dry coconut curries

Laksa paste is built on the same foundation of galangal, lemongrass, chili, shallot, turmeric and candlenut, which is why it gets you a surprisingly long way. The difference is that almost every laksa paste contains dried shrimp or belacan, so the dish tastes distinctly of the sea, and it is often noticeably sweeter. Counter it with an extra 100 ml of coconut cream and three tablespoons of toasted grated coconut, which pushes the flavour back toward rendang. Nobody will mistake it for the real thing, but it will be a good dish.

A better jarred Thai option than red curry paste, because it already has the warm spices.

Best for

beef rendang style braises, slow-cooked coconut curries, chicken

Massaman is the Thai curry paste that already contains cinnamon, clove, cardamom and often peanut, which puts it much closer to rendang's warm-spice profile than red curry paste is. It is sweeter and rounder, and the peanut note is noticeable. Add the toasted coconut and a tablespoon of tamarind paste, cook it down properly dry rather than leaving it soupy, and you get something in the right family. It will still taste Thai around the edges because of the kaffir lime and shrimp paste in most jars.

The least-bad common jar swap, and it needs real help to stop tasting Thai.

Best for

emergency rendang, coconut braises, when the shop only had one kind of curry paste

Used straight, Thai red curry paste produces a dish that tastes clearly Thai and not Indonesian, because of the kaffir lime and shrimp paste in it and the complete absence of rendang's warm baking spices and toasted coconut. The additions above cover most of the gap: the coriander, cinnamon and clove supply the spice-box depth, and the toasted coconut supplies the darkness and thickness that is arguably rendang's signature. Be honest with yourself that this is an approximation rather than a substitution.

Rough and ready, made entirely from things people already have.

Best for

weeknight cooking, when no Asian grocer is reachable, using up a jar of sambal

This gets you heat, savouriness, a spiced backbone and a red colour, which between them read as a rendang-adjacent dish. What is missing is the perfume: galangal and lemongrass are what make rendang smell like rendang, and there is no imitating either from a standard supermarket. If you can get even one stalk of lemongrass or a jar of galangal paste, add it, and the dish improves out of proportion to the effort. Expect something hotter and more one-dimensional than the real thing.