Cooking with olive oil
Olive Oil Substitute: What to Use Instead, Job by Job
The right olive oil substitute depends on what the oil was doing in the dish, so a dressing, a hot pan, a roasting tray and a cake batter each call for a different fat and sometimes a different quantity.
The short answer
There is no single olive oil substitute, because a dressing, a pan, a roasting tray and a cake batter ask the oil for different things. Rice bran and canola cover the hot jobs one for one. Melted butter covers a cake at about a third more volume. A dressing is the one swap that always tastes different.
The pan is hot, the recipe still says olive oil, and the bottle gives up half a teaspoon. What goes in instead depends on what the oil was there to do.
Dressing, frying, roasting and baking are four jobs. Here is the stand-in for each, the ratio wherever it is not one for one, and the flavour you lose.
Match the olive oil substitute to the job
An olive oil substitute is chosen by job, not by bottle. In a dressing the oil is most of the flavour, so any swap changes how the dish tastes. In a hot pan it is mainly a cooking medium and almost any kitchen oil does the work.
| The job | Reach for | Ratio | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dressing and finishing | Sunflower or grapeseed, more lemon | 1:1 | The grassy, peppery note |
| Gentle frying, tumis | Rice bran, canola or ghee | 1:1 | Little, in a spiced dish |
| Roasting at 180-200°C | Rice bran, canola, melted ghee | 1:1 | A fruity edge on browned skin |
| Cakes and muffins | Melted butter | About a third more volume | A crumb still soft next day |
| Curry, rendang, coconut bakes | Coconut oil, measured melted | 1:1 | Nothing; you gain sweetness |
Dressings and finishing: the hardest swap
A dressing is oil, acid and salt, so the oil carries most of what the tongue meets. Nothing replaces extra virgin olive oil here without changing the dish. Sunflower and grapeseed come closest in texture, go in one for one, and want extra lemon to stop the result tasting flat.
- Sunflower or grapeseed. Neutral and light, one for one, then sharpen with acid.
- Melted butter. Fine warm over fish, sets hard as the plate cools.
- Coconut oil. Only where sweetness belongs; it firms up in a chilled dressing.
- Ghee. Good through hot rice or dhal, wrong on a cold salad.
Ratios for the real thing are in extra virgin olive oil salad dressing.
Gentle frying and tumis
Home tumis runs roughly 140-180°C and most kitchen oils handle it without complaint. Rice bran and canola swap in one for one and add nothing to the flavour, which in a heavily spiced dish is the point. Ghee goes in one for one and brings a nutty dairy note.
Butter alone scorches at tumis heat because of the milk solids in it. Use it half and half with a neutral oil, or use ghee instead.
Roasting trays and the oven
Roasting asks a fat to coat, brown and stay put for half an hour at 180-200°C. Rice bran, canola and melted ghee all do that one for one. Coconut oil roasts cleanly too, though it leaves a sweetness better suited to pumpkin than to rosemary potatoes.
- Rice bran or canola. One for one, neutral, cheapest by the litre.
- Melted ghee. One for one, deeper browning, a dairy smell in the oven.
- Coconut oil. One for one, measured melted, sweet on root vegetables.
- Butter. Toss it through at the end of the roast, not the start.
Baking, and the one ratio worth remembering
A cake built on olive oil wants a liquid fat, and melted butter is the usual stand-in. Butter carries water as well as fat, so use about a third more by weight: 100 ml of olive oil becomes roughly 135 g of melted butter, cooled first.
Coconut oil bakes well in anything already sweet, one for one and measured melted. Ghee suits a dense bake and reads as dairy.
When olive oil is the substitute
Olive oil stands in for other fats as often as the reverse. It replaces butter or margarine in many bakes at roughly three-quarters the volume, and it replaces a neutral oil one for one in dressings, marinades and gentle pan work. The dish gains a peppery edge.
- For butter in a cake. Three-quarters the volume, and a mild oil rather than a bitter one.
- For a neutral oil in the pan. One for one, under the olive oil smoke point.
- For a neutral oil in a marinade. One for one, then taste before adding acid.
- Not for the deep fryer. Frying oil is not reused, and a full pot is expensive.
The classic oil and the six infused ones sit on the products page.
The short version
Ask what the oil was doing. In a dressing nothing swaps cleanly, so add acid and accept a different salad. In a pan, rice bran or canola. In a cake, melted butter.