diff --git a/Documentation/howto/meson.build b/Documentation/howto/meson.build
index c023c10416..92a08b13ee 100644
--- a/Documentation/howto/meson.build
+++ b/Documentation/howto/meson.build
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ custom_target(
 foreach howto : howto_sources
   howto_stripped = custom_target(
     command: [
-      find_program('sed'),
+      sed,
       '-e',
       '1,/^$/d',
       '@INPUT@',
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index ed857aaa4a..5bf6a914ea 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -201,11 +201,12 @@ endif
 cygpath = find_program('cygpath', dirs: program_path, required: false)
 diff = find_program('diff', dirs: program_path)
 git = find_program('git', dirs: program_path, required: false)
+sed = find_program('sed', dirs: program_path)
 shell = find_program('sh', dirs: program_path)
 tar = find_program('tar', dirs: program_path)
 
 # Sanity-check that programs required for the build exist.
-foreach tool : ['cat', 'cut', 'grep', 'sed', 'sort', 'tr', 'uname']
+foreach tool : ['cat', 'cut', 'grep', 'sort', 'tr', 'uname']
   find_program(tool, dirs: program_path)
 endforeach