diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
index 3755fb594f28aaf0a03dd669248d2a18647c445b..e9897ffa2840c9e764c311b709d150b98cf85f25 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ def configure_args(self):
             '--enable-R-shlib',
             '--enable-BLAS-shlib',
             '--enable-R-framework=no',
+            '--without-recommended-packages',
             '--with-tcl-config={0}'.format(tcl_config_path),
             'LDFLAGS=-L{0} -Wl,-rpath,{0}'.format(join_path(prefix, 'rlib',
                                                             'R', 'lib')),