diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fenics/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fenics/package.py
index 01a2f16019f..36eeaef4702 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fenics/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fenics/package.py
@@ -131,6 +131,7 @@ def cmake_args(self):
             self.define_from_variant('DOLFIN_ENABLE_OPENMP', 'openmp'),
             self.define_from_variant('DOLFIN_ENABLE_CHOLMOD', 'suite-sparse'),
             self.define_from_variant('DOLFIN_ENABLE_HDF5', 'hdf5'),
+            self.define_from_variant('HDF5_NO_FIND_PACKAGE_CONFIG_FILE', 'hdf5'),
             self.define_from_variant('DOLFIN_ENABLE_MPI', 'mpi'),
             self.define_from_variant('DOLFIN_ENABLE_PARMETIS', 'parmetis'),
             self.define_from_variant('DOLFIN_ENABLE_PETSC', 'petsc'),