What Can I Use Instead of Vegetable Oil?

Canola, canola oil, and soybean oils are often sold as “vegetable oil.” Some people on restricted diets try to minimize their intake of vegetable oil. Perhaps you have been asked to use less vegetable oil when cooking for yourself or your family, and you’re wondering, “What can I use instead of vegetable oil?” You’ll find there are many ways to replace vegetable oil with other foods in recipes for cooking, baking, and household use.

Baking

In recipes that use liquid vegetable oil for baking, you can often substitute another ingredient. Try substituting the same amount of applesauce or yogurt in a cake recipe that calls for vegetable oil. Many cooks find that applesauce makes their cakes even more moist and delicious – and they won’t taste like apples!

If you do wish to use vegetable oil in baking, many recipes can have the amount of oil they use cut by up to half and still turn out delicious. Try this with a recipe you have used before and see if you can tell the difference! You can even substitute beneficial oil like palm oil for butter in a baking recipe: for a recipe that calls for 1 cup of butter, use ¾ of a cup of palm oil.

Try a fat-free, calorie-free cooking spray to oil your cake pans or muffin tins. You will use much less oil in a spray form, and it often coats more evenly than greasing a pan with an oiled towel. Baked foods will release more easily and less oil will wind up in your products.

If you cook savory pastries like cheese straws or breads that call for the addition of vegetable oil, try using palm oil there, too. It can lend a delicious flavor in addition to its health benefits.

Cooking

When preparing vegetables, think about choosing oil that has its own flavor like olive oil. You can use less oil in a recipe by thinking of the oil as a flavoring agent instead of a main ingredient.

When roasting a chicken whole, consider leaving off a coating of vegetable oil and instead using a dry rub of herbs and spices. The natural fats and oils in the chicken will be enough to keep the chicken moist and the skin may crisp better.

When barbecuing, try applying a bit of oil to the pan or grill instead of to the meat you are preparing. Less oil will wind up on the food, and when you apply it right where it’s needed, the oil will do a better job of keeping the food from sticking.

Marinate in palm oil, spices, and a tasty vinegar, juice, or even beer! Using other strongly-flavored ingredients can help you reduce the amount of oil you need to make foods taste good.

You can fry in olive oil if you take care not to overheat it. Olive oil has a lower smoke point than vegetable oil, so keep all frying on medium.

Try using just a little bit of oil in a salad dressing and adding more of a flavorful vinegar, like apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar, or another flavoring like lemon juice.

Unlike vegetable oil, palm oil can solidify when refrigerated, so if you’re going to store your prepared dressing, it’s a good idea to take it out ahead of time. You can also turn the container under warm running water for a few moments to re-liquefy the dressing.

Remember, you don’t have to give up all oil. Try substituting vegetable oil with olive oil, which can have health benefits like raising your HDL or “good” cholesterol. Using more strongly flavored oil, like olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, or sesame oil means that you need to use less oil to achieve a tasty final product. And using more of another spice or flavoring can help you use less vegetable oil. Low-fat cooking can taste great with a strongly flavored spice like rosemary or curry. Try to emphasize the other flavors of your dish and you may not miss the oil at all!