What to use instead of lemongrass
Quick answer
The closest option is Lemon, rated acceptable. The nearest thing in an ordinary kitchen, and it is a partial match for a real reason: lemongrass and lemon peel share citral, which is the compound the aroma is built on. What lemon zest lacks is the grassy, faintly floral body underneath — geraniol and the rest — and what it adds, if the juice is used rather than the zest, is acidity the recipe did not ask for. Use the zest, not the juice, and add it late.
It will not do for: Curry pastes, where lemongrass is pounded in as body as well as aroma and zest cannot supply the bulk; Dishes where the lemongrass is eaten — a finely sliced salad, a larb; Anywhere added acidity would break the dish, which rules out using the juice.
All recorded options
Ranked by suitability. Ratios are given only where they are defensible, and always with their basis — by weight or by volume — because spice densities differ.
Lemon
AcceptableThe nearest thing in an ordinary kitchen, and it is a partial match for a real reason: lemongrass and lemon peel share citral, which is the compound the aroma is built on. What lemon zest lacks is the grassy, faintly floral body underneath — geraniol and the rest — and what it adds, if the juice is used rather than the zest, is acidity the recipe did not ask for. Use the zest, not the juice, and add it late.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | close | n/a |
Works for
- Soups and broths where lemongrass was infused and removed
- Marinades and dressings wanting a citrus lift
- Teas and infusions
Does not work for
- Curry pastes, where lemongrass is pounded in as body as well as aroma and zest cannot supply the bulk
- Dishes where the lemongrass is eaten — a finely sliced salad, a larb
- Anywhere added acidity would break the dish, which rules out using the juice
Cuisine: A Thai or Vietnamese dish stays recognisable and reads as generically citrus rather than specifically lemongrass. The difference is most obvious in a green curry paste and least obvious in a broth.
No ratio, because zest and stalk are not measured in comparable units and the usable part of a lemongrass stalk varies with how much of the tough outer leaf is discarded. The zest of one lemon against one stalk is where most cooks start.
Lemongrass
PoorCitral is volatile and drying takes most of it. What is left is woody and hay-like, and it never softens, so dried lemongrass can scent a liquid and cannot be an ingredient in one. Rehydrating does not bring the top note back — it was lost rather than concentrated.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | different | close | n/a |
Works for
- Teas and long infusions where the stalk is strained out
- Stocks and broths, at a longer steep than fresh would need
Does not work for
- Curry pastes, where lemongrass is pounded to a paste and eaten
- Salads and raw preparations
- Any dish where the bright citrus top note is what the lemongrass was for
Where a recipe simply says "lemongrass" and the dish is Southeast Asian, it means fresh. Dried is a different product with a narrower range of uses rather than a shelf-stable version of the same one.
Galangal
PoorRecorded to say that it does not work, because the two appear together in the same Thai curry pastes and are therefore assumed to be alternatives. They are not. Lemongrass is citric and grassy from citral; galangal is piney and almost medicinal from cineole, which lemongrass has essentially none of. Using galangal alone gives a paste that is sharp and resinous with nothing bright in it.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| different | different | close | similar |
Works for
- Nothing on flavour grounds; retained only for a paste that would otherwise have neither aromatic.
Does not work for
- Tom yum and tom kha, where the two aromatics are both present and doing opposite jobs
- Any curry paste, where the substitution removes the citrus axis entirely
- Infusions and teas, where galangal is unpleasantly medicinal on its own
Cuisine: Keeps the dish Southeast Asian and makes it taste like a version with the citrus left out, which is how most people experience it.
The useful fact is the partnership: a Thai curry paste generally wants lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaf together, each supplying an axis the others do not. Dropping one is a subtraction, not an exchange.
Where lemongrass stands in for something else
The reverse view of the same graph.
- Instead of Lemongrass — poor