Sumac Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Sumac Is Doing

Nothing copies sumac exactly, because no single substitute brings its acid, its astringency and its red color all at once. So pick the swap that covers what your dish needs most. For a dry, sour sprinkle, lemon zest is the easy start. In a dressing or a stew, about half as much lemon juice or vinegar does the job. And if you have za’atar, check the label: many blends already contain sumac.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The only sumac ratios we could trace come from one merchant, The Spice House, and it doesn’t say where they came from. Its general advice is to start with less than the recipe amount.¹

If sumac is a dry, sour finish

Here sumac is a sprinkle: over a salad, on grilled meat, stirred into sliced onions. You want tartness without adding liquid.

1. Lemon zest

Zest gives you sumac’s lemony impression without wetting the dish. It won’t add sumac’s astringency or its color.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says you can start 1:1 with lemon zest.¹

Dried lemon peel (Computed): If you have dried peel instead of fresh zest, NDSU Extension gives 1 teaspoon dried lemon peel as equal to 1 to 2 teaspoons grated fresh peel.² So start with half as much dried peel as you would fresh zest.

2. Amchur (dried mango powder)

Amchur is a dry, sour powder, which makes it a natural stand-in for another dry, sour powder. Katzer says it’s used when you want only a hint of tartness, and calls its taste subtle and resin-like.³

Ratio (Method): Start with about half the sumac amount, taste, and add more. Its color is milder, so it won’t turn the dish red.

3. Ground anardana (dried pomegranate seeds)

Anardana is another dry souring agent. Susan Jung describes it as astringent and used quite sparingly.⁴ Astringency is the part of sumac’s taste that lemon zest is missing.

Ratio (Method): Grind it fine and start with about half the sumac amount.

4. Powdered loomi (dried lime)

Katzer notes that powdered loomi flavors rice as an alternative to sumac.⁵ Expect a musky, bitter edge that sumac doesn’t have.

Ratio (Method): Start with a quarter to half the sumac amount, because loomi’s bitterness builds quickly.

If sumac is souring a wet dish

In a dressing, a marinade or a pot of stew, the sumac dissolves into the liquid and you mostly taste its acid. A liquid acid does the job well here.

1. Lemon juice

Lemon juice brings the sourness, but the dish loses the astringency.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says to use about half the volume of lemon juice and add more to taste.¹

2. Wine or apple cider vinegar

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House gives the same advice as for lemon juice: about half the volume, then more to taste.¹ Vinegar brings its own sharp smell, so it suits marinades better than a delicate salad.

3. Tamarind

Tamarind is darker and sweeter than sumac, so it suits stews and sauces better than pale dishes.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says to use about half and adjust.¹ Its page doesn’t say whether it means paste, concentrate or pulp, and those differ in strength.

If sumac is part of an herbal blend

Za’atar

Many za’atar blends contain sumac, so using one puts sumac back in the dish. How much they contain varies a lot. America’s Test Kitchen’s version is heavy on sumac, nearly as much as thyme, with smaller amounts of oregano and sesame seeds.⁶ The Spice House’s small-batch version uses 1/4 teaspoon of sumac to 1 teaspoon of thyme plus oregano, marjoram and sesame.⁷ The first is much more sour than the second.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says you can start 1:1 with za’atar, but taste first, because it adds thyme, sesame and sometimes extra salt.¹ Check the label for sumac. A blend without it adds no sourness.

If sumac is seasoning meat or fish

Lemon pepper

Store-bought lemon pepper is mostly salt and pepper with a lemon note. The McCormick label lists salt first, then black pepper and citric acid, with lemon oil near the end.⁸ The Spice House’s version lists pepper, salt, monosodium glutamate, citric acid, garlic, lemon peel and onion.⁹ The label of McCormick’s Signature Seasonings Lemon Pepper gives 170 mg of sodium per 1/4 teaspoon.¹⁰ So lemon pepper changes how salty the dish is, not only how sour.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says to use about half as much lemon pepper and adjust.¹ Cut back on any other salt in the recipe.

What none of these replaces

On a white plate of hummus or yogurt, sumac’s deep red is part of the point. None of the substitutes above gives you that. A pinch of sweet paprika adds color without sourness.

What isn’t known

• You’ll often read that sumac was used for sourness in the region before lemons arrived. No source we reviewed supports that.
• Za’atar blends range from sumac-forward to barely sour, and no source measures the sumac share of a typical store-bought blend.

Related

• Sumac, sumac uses and cooking with sumac
• Za’atar and za’atar substitutes
• Lemon pepper and lemon pepper substitutes
• Mango powder (amchur), anardana, loomi and barberry
• Too much tamarind? and too much vinegar?

Footnotes

1. Sumac Substitute, The Spice House, 2018. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Garden-Robinson, Ingredient Substitutions (FN198), NDSU Extension. ksre.ksu.edu · Reference work ↩

3. Mango, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

4. Jung, How to use dried pomegranate seeds, or anardana, South China Morning Post, 2025. scmp.com · Publication ↩

5. Lime, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

6. Roof, Za’atar, America’s Test Kitchen, 2017. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

7. Za’atar Substitute, The Spice House, 2020. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩

8. McCormick Lemon & Pepper Seasoning, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩

9. Lemon Pepper Seasoning, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩

10. McCormick Signature Seasonings Lemon Pepper, label via Stop & Shop. stopandshop.com · Merchant ↩

Also drawn on

• Sumac (Rhus coriaria L.), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages, Gernot Katzer. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com