Vegetable oil substitutes, and the swaps that cut the fat

Any refined cooking oil replaces vegetable oil cup for cup, because that is all vegetable oil is. In baking, melted butter swaps 1:1 as well. Applesauce, Greek yogurt, mashed banana and canned pumpkin can take over part of the oil, and they are the only swaps here that cut the fat. They change the texture to do it.

What vegetable oil actually is

In the US, a bottle labelled vegetable oil is almost always soybean oil. Crisco’s has one ingredient, soybean oil. In Britain it is often rapeseed oil: Tesco’s own lists rapeseed oil and nothing else. Canola was bred from rapeseed, and the FDA lists canola oil as another name for low erucic acid rapeseed oil.

Either way, the job of vegetable oil is to taste of nothing and to take heat. So the useful question is what the oil is doing in your recipe.

Can I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil?

Yes, 1:1, in cooking and baking alike. It is the most searched version of this question, and Betty Crocker lists olive oil as a straight swap for vegetable oil, with one warning: some olive oil tastes peppery, and that can come through in a bake.

So the bottle decides. Light or refined olive oil has had most of its flavour taken out and behaves like vegetable oil anywhere. Light refers to the taste: the calories are the same as any other oil’s. Extra virgin keeps its fruity, peppery taste, which is welcome in savoury cooking, olive oil cake and chocolate bakes, and noticeable in a vanilla sponge.

For frying, USDA lists olive oil among the oils it recommends for deep frying. The reason to keep extra virgin for the pan rather than the fryer is the price, not safety.

The reverse question, vegetable oil in place of olive oil, has the same answer: cup for cup wherever the olive oil is a cooking fat, and a poor stand-in wherever it was there for its taste, as in a dressing or drizzled over a finished dish.

Can I use canola or avocado oil instead of vegetable oil?

Yes, both 1:1. Canola is the closest thing to vegetable oil there is, and in Britain the bottle of vegetable oil is often rapeseed oil, its close relative. Avocado oil tastes mild and, by Oklahoma State University’s figure, smokes above 482F, so it handles heat well. The only reason not to use it is the cost.

Sunflower, corn and peanut oil (groundnut oil in Britain) swap the same way. What matters is refined against unrefined: a cold-pressed bottle tastes of the seed, which is lovely on a salad and odd in a birthday cake.

Can I use butter instead of vegetable oil?

Yes. Melt it, let it cool a little, and use the same amount. Betty Crocker treats melted butter and oil as cup-for-cup swaps in muffins, quick breads and cakes, and Serious Eats made the same-amount swap in brownies when it tested the two.

Butter brings flavour and browning, and costs a little moisture. It is about 18 percent water, by King Arthur’s figure, so the same volume carries less fat than oil does. A cup of oil is about 218 g of fat by USDA values, and matching it takes about 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons of butter. In most bakes the plain volume swap is fine.

Where it shows is the day after. King Arthur has replaced a quarter to half of the butter in several of its own cakes with oil, to stop them drying out as fast. Serious Eats found the same in brownies: made with butter instead of oil, they lost chew and turned gritty by the next day, and a mix of butter and oil kept most of both.

Going the other way, oil in place of butter, is a different question: butter substitutes has the amounts.

Vegetable oil substitutes for baking

What can I use instead of vegetable oil in cake mix?

Any other oil, or melted butter, in the same amount. For a lighter cake, Betty Crocker’s kitchens have tested applesauce in place of the oil in their mixes. The amounts differ by flavour, which is why there is no single rule. Their devil’s food takes 1 1/4 cups of water, 1/2 cup of applesauce and 3 eggs, and their yellow cake 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of applesauce and 3 eggs. They say the texture and height of the cake change slightly, and that they did not recalculate the nutrition.

For a chocolate mix, mayonnaise works because it is made of oil and egg. Hellmann’s own recipe beats a box of chocolate cake mix with a cup of mayonnaise, a cup of water and 3 eggs, and no oil.

What can I use instead of vegetable oil in brownies?

Melted butter, for a richer brownie with a little less chew, or a mix of butter and oil, which Serious Eats found the best balance of chew, flavour and keeping.

Applesauce makes a much lower-fat brownie. King Arthur’s Better (for You) Brownies use a cup of applesauce and just 3 tablespoons of butter or oil, which its test kitchen puts at a third of the fat of a typical brownie. It drains the applesauce first, through a coffee filter, and says that is what makes them dense and moist.

Applesauce, yogurt, banana and pumpkin

Fat coats the flour in a batter and keeps it from turning tough. Mississippi State University Extension says purées such as applesauce and pumpkin do a similar job without adding fat, and advises replacing half the oil first and seeing how it turns out. Illinois Extension gives the same half-and-half starting point. Replacing all of it is a bigger change, and it suits some bakes better than others: the University of Florida’s extension says a full swap works well in quick breads, muffins and brownies, and Betty Crocker’s kitchens replaced all the oil in their cake mixes.

For Greek yogurt, Michigan State University Extension uses 3/4 cup of fat-free Greek yogurt for each cup of oil, which saves 1,829 calories and 224 g of fat by its arithmetic. That 3/4 cup also adds about 17 g of protein to the batch, by USDA values.

What that means per muffin: in a batch of 12 made with 1/2 cup of oil, the oil alone is about 80 calories and 9 g of fat in each muffin. Swapping half of it for applesauce takes about 38 calories and 4.5 g of fat off each one.

Is there a healthier substitute for vegetable oil?

It depends on which number you mean.

For calories and fat, the purées and yogurt, as the table at the top shows. Nothing else on the list cuts fat, because every other swap is a fat.

For saturated fat, the swap to make is towards canola, and away from coconut oil and butter.

Figures from USDA FoodData Central. The American Heart Association advises replacing saturated fats with unsaturated oils such as canola, soybean and olive oil, so the oils on this page are already the swap it recommends, and butter and coconut oil are the direction it advises against.

For frying, roasting and stir-frying

Use any refined oil. On USDA’s list of approximate smoke points, soybean and peanut oil are about 450F, canola about 435F, and corn, olive and sunflower about 410F. Its frying guide cooks chicken pieces at 375F and fish at 320F, below all of them.

Butter is the one to avoid for real heat, because its milk solids burn. Ghee, which is butter with the water and milk solids removed, fries without that problem.

Keep toasted sesame, walnut and flaxseed oil out of the pan as a straight swap. They are sold for their flavour, often unrefined, and a spoonful seasons a dish where a cupful would take it over.

Vegetable oil in Britain

The same bottle under the same name, but often rapeseed oil rather than soybean, as above. Peanut oil is sold as groundnut oil, applesauce as apple sauce or apple purée, and canned pumpkin as tinned pumpkin purée. Every amount on this page works the same.

Macro and saturated fat figures are per half cup from USDA FoodData Central, rounded, and brands vary. Treat them as estimates for comparing options rather than exact figures.