The Best Olive Oil Substitutes For Any Scenario: Sauteing, Baking, And More

Olive oil used to be a pretty common thing to keep in your pantry. It was readily available, it was a healthy option, and it didn't cost much more than regular oil (except for super-premium or artisanal brands). That's changed quickly over the past couple of years. Back in 2022, we were already writing about factors that might increase the price of olive oil — and sadly, that speculation has been all too correct. Global inflation drove up the costs for producers, climate change has hit olive yields sharply, and a lethal virus has decimated olive groves in traditional olive-growing areas (most notably, Italy's Puglia region). Prices have gone up and supplies have gone down, so it's getting harder to rely on olive oil as a culinary staple the way we've done in the past.

As a trained chef and former restaurateur, I've baked, cooked with, and otherwise used more kinds of oil than most people, and I've learned a lot about them along the way. Here are several oils you can substitute for olive oil in specific scenarios, from sauteing to baking to finishing oils suitable for the most elegant dishes.

Let's start with the most pedestrian option of all, plain old vegetable oil. In the U.S., vegetable oil is made from soybeans, or a mixture of soy and corn oil, because those are the two big commodity crops (so, cheap oil!). In Canada, where I live, it's canola and soy for similar reasons. Either way, it's "vegetable" in the sense that it's neither animal nor mineral.

Vegetable oil isn't the most glamorous choice, but it's the kitchen's all-around workhorse. This is what you'd use in place of ordinary, everyday olive oil. By this, I mean the type of olive oil that's most heavily processed and refined, with labels describing it as light tasting or sometimes pomace. It's the most neutral-tasting type of olive oil, and because it's so highly refined, it has a high smoke point. That makes it the olive oil you'll want to use for a stir fry or sauteing — but by the same token, it's the easiest olive oil to substitute.

So, go ahead and use whichever brand of vegetable oil you keep on hand for those uses. Vegetable oil is also a suitable choice for vinaigrettes and dressings, or baked goods, where the flavor of the olive oil isn't meant to be front and center.

Avocado oil is a mildly premium product, and it fetches a higher price than most general-purpose oils — but it's a relative bargain compared to the sky-high cost of olive oil. It's a good olive oil substitute to keep in your pantry for a few different reasons. To begin with, like many other oils, avocado oil is available in two different styles. Refined avocado oil is a good general-purpose oil, because of its high smoke point and neutral flavor. Virgin or cold-pressed avocado oil has mild nutty, buttery, or grassy flavors, like the avocados it's made from — which is a unique production method that extracts the oil without heat or solvents. So, while it doesn't really taste like olive oil, it's a good alternative in many use-cases. 

Use refined avocado oil in all the same situations as "plain" olive oil or vegetable oil. Virgin avocado oil can be a good replacement for virgin olive oil in recipes like delicately flavored vinaigrettes or for frying eggs in olive oil Martha Stewart-style. Also, if you're in the "no seed oils" camp, avocados (like olives) are a fruit.

Canola oil is another widely available oil that's eminently suitable for general-purpose kitchen use. Canola is widely grown on Canada's vast prairies, which means it's an inexpensive commodity option from just across the border. There's not much of a nutritional difference between canola and vegetable oil, with vegetable oil being slightly lower in calories but higher in saturated fats. Like vegetable oil, canola has a neutral flavor and a high smoke point. 

Many chefs (including me) recommend it as a money-saving option for frying foods, rather than splashing out for olive oil. Use canola oil for sauteing or stir-frying in place of plain olive oil, or in baking or dressings where neutral flavor is a positive. Cold-pressed canola oil is available, but not everyone likes canola's natural flavor (some perceive it as "fishy"). If you're looking for a flavorful oil to use in place of virgin or extra-virgin olive oil, there are better choices.

If you're mostly looking for olive oil substitutes because of budget considerations, I'll warn you straight up: Nut oils aren't usually your budget option. I'm still going to mention a few, though, because the steep rise in olive oil pricing makes them more competitive, and because they really deserve to be better known.

Walnut oil is readily available through on- and off-line vendors of gourmet products, usually sourced from California or France. Walnut oil has a fine and delicately nutty flavor and a pale color, so while it's less assertive than olive oil, it's definitely a premium product. I like to keep walnut oil in the pantry during the summer, in particular, when my garden is churning out herbs, delicate salad greens, and fresh tomatoes in abundance. It keeps nicely for a few months in a cool, dark corner of the pantry, or you can store your nut oils in the fridge for better shelf life.

I like to drizzle walnut oil over freshly steamed vegetables, or use it in vinaigrettes with a mellow, mild-flavored vinegar, so the oil, vinegar, and greens get to all be equal partners (in the same way I might otherwise use a flavorful extra-virgin olive oil). I've also drizzled it over desserts or walnut-based baked goods, where it adds a subtly nutty note.

As an oil crop in the U.S., sunflowers rank well behind soybeans and corn. Sunflower oil is still common and popular, though, so it's available everywhere at a perfectly reasonable price. It's very similar to safflower oil, and you can use them more or less interchangeably. As with vegetable oil and canola oil, sunflower oil a solid choice for general-purpose culinary use. Its flavor is light and neutral, and you can use it in place of a light-tasting olive oil for frying, sauteing, vinaigrettes, and general-purpose baking. If you commonly toss your potatoes with olive oil before roasting them, for example, consider potatoes roasted in sunflower oil instead.

Some vendors sell artisanal or cold-pressed sunflower oils, which are less refined and can have a pleasingly nutty flavor. Those less-refined oils are, ironically, ideal for more-refined dishes where the oil's flavor plays a more important role. Again, its flavor doesn't make it a direct replacement for extra-virgin olive oil as an ingredient, or when drizzled over other foods as a finishing ingredient — but you can tweak recipes to bring their flavor profile in line with the change of oil.

Sesame oil is something you'll often see in ethnic grocery stores or in the world foods aisle of your supermarket. It's especially common in Asian or Middle Eastern/North African cookery, both of which make heavy use of sesame.

There are two kinds of sesame oil, plain and toasted. The plain is made from raw sesame seeds, and its flavor is mostly neutral with just a hint of sesame flavor. It's good for sauteing and stir fries, like a light-tasting olive oil, and it's often used that way in Asian cuisines. The toasted kind is made from seeds that have been heated and browned, and it has a strong sesame flavor. It's used as a finishing oil, something you'd drizzle over a cooked dish to add flavor and aroma. 

This makes it an intriguing option for dishes where you'd otherwise use a flavorful virgin or extra-virgin olive oil, especially in vinaigrettes or as a drizzle over vegetables or cooked fish, meat, or poultry. There's some overlap in the regions where olive oil and sesame oil are used, but if you're using sesame oil in place of EVOO, you'll need to experiment a bit. With sesame oil being so heavily associated with Asian foods, and olive oil so heavily associated with Mediterranean dishes, some guests might find the substitution a bit jarring.

Nut oils aren't exactly cheap, but if you're interested in them as a culinary substitute for olive oil, rather than a money-saver, they have a lot to offer. While the various nut oils are as distinctive as the nuts themselves (and I've left out several that could be on this list), each can bring a nuance to your food that rivals the finest olive oils.

Chefs like Bobby Flay encourage cooks to think in terms of having two kinds of oils in your kitchen: regular oils to cook with and finishing oils to add a final, elegant touch to your foods. Almond oil is a good example of the latter. If you envision something that tastes like almond extract, you're off-base: Instead, it has a light and delicately nutty flavor that's distinctive without being overwhelming. In comparison, even a very fine olive oil can feel overbearing.

Almond oil is not a direct substitute for a good virgin or extra-virgin olive oil in salads and dressings, because its flavor is lighter and subtler. You'll need to dial back on the other flavors just a little in order to let it shine (so, cut back on herbs, and use the mildest vinegar in your collection). It's also an excellent choice for drizzling over raw or lightly steamed vegetables or subtle-flavored mains like seafood or poached chicken. Be sure to buy sweet almond oil (culinary), not bitter almond oil (cosmetic), because bitter almonds are toxic and their oil isn't meant for eating.

Part of the appeal of a good extra-virgin olive oil is visual; its viscosity and color (green-gold to deep green) make it beautifully appealing as a drizzle on your plate. Most of the substitutions I've listed here have the pale yellow-gold hues you associate with vegetable oil, but there are alternatives that capture the eye just as well as olive oil. One of those is pumpkin seed oil. 

Like nut oils, pumpkin seed oil tastes different from olive oil (it's nutty, rather than having the grassy, fruity, or peppery notes that you get with good olive oil), but it's different in a good way. When you use it in your dishes, you'll create the impression of a confident cook creating a new spin on an existing dish, rather than someone who's trying a last-minute substitution as a fingers-crossed, culinary Hail Mary.

Try it over tomatoes and fresh mozza in a Caprese salad, or in your favorite olive oil-based vinaigrette. It's a fine substitute in recipes like this olive oil polenta cake (and in desserts and baked goods generally). Or, swirl it into scrambled eggs or polenta just as they're finished and coming off the heat. Just remember that it's best when not subjected to high heat, which dampens its flavor and can even make it bitter. Pumpkin seed oil is a no-cook ingredient, best used as a finishing oil to bring drama to your finished dish.

Let's turn our attention back from finishing oils to cooking oils. One that's favored by many chefs is grapeseed oil. Like cream of tartar, which is a byproduct of the wine industry, this type of oil is extracted from the seeds of wine grapes after the wine making (so, it also helps subsidize the price of your glass of wine!).

The thing with grapeseed oil is that it combines a very clean, neutral flavor with a high smoke point. That makes it an ideal replacement for light-tasting olive oil in any scenario that calls for frying or searing. TV chef Robert Irvine recommends it for pan-searing, for example, because you can really crank the heat under it and also because it won't mask or interfere with the flavor of the food you're searing. All in all, you should arguably cook with grapeseed oil more often, given its superior qualities and moderate price.

High-heat frying isn't the only area where you can substitute grapeseed oil for olive oil, of course. Like the other cooking oils on this list, it makes a great base for vinaigrettes and dressings, and it's also good in any baked goods that don't depend on the olive oil for their flavor.

This is a choice that will likely have many of you raising your eyebrows, because it's hard to imagine a cooking fat that's less like olive oil at first glance. That's because, unlike olive oil, coconut oil is high in saturated fats, which means it's white and solid at room temperature (almost like shortening).

That doesn't mean you should rule it out, though. Refined coconut oil works pretty well as a cooking oil for sauteing, stir fries, pan-searing, and other uses — anywhere (in short) you'd use a refined, high-temperature olive oil (we've published a guide to cooking with coconut oil, if you're coco-curious). Because it's refined, you won't pick up a noticeable coconut flavor in the finished dish. Unrefined or virgin coconut oil, however, has a more pronounced coconut flavor, so it needs a little more thought before you use it in place of coconut oil.

You'll need to melt coconut oil before you use it in anything other than a high-temperature recipe, which also means it'll turn solid again as the food cools. You could use it in a dressing, for example, but only if you warm the dressing (which is actually a power move) or use it in a warm salad. In baking, coconut oil is typically a shortening substitute rather than an olive oil substitute, but it can go either way (just melt it first). Also, coconut oil isn't considered a seed oil by the anti-seed oil movement, should that be your primary consideration.

Here, again, butter is not an ingredient you'd necessarily think of as a direct substitute for olive oil. In fact, it's a well-worn truism that there's a north-south divide among European countries, with those in the south leaning toward olive oil and those in the north (outside of the olive's habitat) favoring butter. 

But it's not as far-fetched as it sounds. Butter melting over a stack of steamed vegetables is essentially being used as a finishing oil, for example, and a rich Hollandaise sauce is basically just mayonnaise made with melted butter. And really, it's hard to argue that butter isn't a flavorful ingredient or excellent for baking, though there are times when it's better to bake with oil. It's a valid substitute for olive oil in low-temperature cooking (say, butter-poached eggs or vegetables instead of oil-poached).

Butter doesn't work as well in high-temperature cooking, however, because it's not a pure fat, as it contains water and milk solids. To replace olive oil in those scenarios, you'll need to use clarified butter or ghee instead. It's the butter equivalent of refined oil, except you can make ghee at home. With the water and milk solids removed, you can saute at high temperature but still enjoy butter's flavor in the finished dish.

If you've read through this list from start to finish, you'll recognize by now that you have lots of options when it comes to high-temperature oils for general-purpose cooking. There are also plenty of good finishing oils to use in elegant dishes in place of a higher-quality olive oil. It's hard to point to any one of those, though, and say it's an ideal substitute for good olive oil. Most nut or oils have more delicate flavors than olive oil, for example, that get lost among the bold Mediterranean flavors that often go along with olive oil. The ones that do have a pronounced taste of their own sometimes aren't compatible with Mediterranean flavors.

That's why I think pistachio oil may be the best finishing oil to use in place of olive oil. It has the same viscosity and color as a good olive oil, and its intriguing flavor — grassy and floral, with hints of nuttiness and pistachio's signature pine/mango notes — makes it a standout. Drizzle it over greens, lightly steamed vegetables, fish, or chicken, or swap it in olive oil-based cakes and breads, where the flavor of the oil is central. 

Pistachio oil is a classic Mediterranean ingredient in its own right. So, while it doesn't taste like olive oil, it goes well with most of the same things.