Olive Oil Substitutes: What to Use Instead
Run out of olive oil or need a neutral flavour or very high heat? Here are the best substitutes for cooking, baking and dressings, with swap ratios.
The best olive oil substitute depends on the job. For high heat cooking, use a neutral oil like canola, sunflower, or rice bran. For richness and flavour, use butter. For dressings, use a nut or seed oil with some character. For baking, any mild vegetable oil swaps in at the same quantity.
Most of the time you should reach for extra virgin olive oil first, because it is stable under heat and adds flavour. These swaps are for when you have run out, need a neutral taste, or genuinely need to cook hotter than 200 °C.
When you have simply run out
If the recipe just needs fat for cooking, almost any cooking oil will stand in. Canola, sunflower, rice bran, and vegetable oil blends all work for sauteing, roasting, and frying. You lose the olive flavour, but the dish still cooks.
For richness, butter is a fine swap in a pan. It browns and adds depth, though it burns sooner than oil, so keep the heat moderate. A mix of butter and a neutral oil raises the burn point and gives you the best of both.
Before you swap, remember that extra virgin olive oil handles more heat than people think. It smokes at around 190 to 210 °C, above almost all home cooking. If you thought you needed a substitute only because of the smoke point myth, you probably do not. Our olive oil smoke point guide has the detail.
When you need a neutral flavour
Sometimes olive oil’s flavour is the problem. Delicate cakes, mild mayonnaise, some Asian dishes, and anything where you do not want a fruity or peppery note all call for a neutral oil.
Good neutral choices:
- Canola oil: clean, cheap, widely available
- Sunflower oil: neutral and light
- Rice bran oil: neutral with a high smoke point, popular in Australia
- Grapeseed oil: neutral with a light body, good for dressings
These carry almost no taste of their own, so the other ingredients lead. They are less stable under prolonged heat than extra virgin, so use them where a neutral flavour genuinely matters rather than by default. For the case in favour of olive oil, see cooking with extra virgin olive oil.
When you need very high heat
Most home cooking stays under 200 °C, so extra virgin olive oil copes. But for searing at very high heat, wok cooking over a roaring burner, or deep frying where you want to push past 200 °C, a higher smoke point oil makes sense.
Rice bran oil, refined sunflower oil, and peanut oil all smoke later and suit these jobs. Peanut oil in particular is a classic for stir-frying and deep frying, though watch for allergies. If you are deep frying and just want to save your good oil, a cheaper olive oil or blend also works well, as covered in best olive oil for frying.
Substitutes for dressings and finishing
Raw applications are where flavour counts most, so a bland oil disappoints. If you are out of extra virgin, reach for an oil with character:
- Avocado oil: buttery and smooth, good in dressings
- Walnut or macadamia oil: rich and nutty, excellent drizzled over salads or vegetables
- A splash of sesame oil: strong, so use a little alongside a neutral oil
None of these truly replaces a peppery Australian extra virgin, but they hold their own in a vinaigrette. The trade off is that nut oils are less stable and go rancid faster, so buy small and use quickly. Our olive oil shelf life notes apply doubly to delicate nut oils.
Substitutes in baking
Baking is the most forgiving. Olive oil in a cake, muffin, or quick bread is there for moisture and tenderness, so any mild oil swaps in at the same quantity, one for one.
Use canola, sunflower, rice bran, or a light vegetable oil. For a richer result, melted butter works too, though it changes the texture slightly and you should use it warm, not hot. Melted coconut oil is another option, with a faint coconut note.
Rough guide for one cup of olive oil in baking:
- 1 cup neutral vegetable oil, or
- 1 cup melted butter (slightly richer, denser crumb), or
- 1 cup melted coconut oil (subtle coconut flavour)
If the recipe leans on olive oil for taste, such as an olive oil cake, a neutral oil will make it blander. In that case a milder extra virgin is closer than a flavourless substitute.
The quick reference
- Ran out, just cooking: any neutral oil, or butter for richness
- Need no olive flavour: canola, sunflower, rice bran, grapeseed
- Very high heat: rice bran, refined sunflower, peanut oil
- Dressings: avocado, walnut, macadamia oil
- Baking: any mild oil one for one, or melted butter
Keep in mind these are stand ins. Extra virgin olive oil is stable, flavoursome, and carries the health benefits that seed oils do not, so it stays the first choice for most cooking. The rest of the method lives in our pillar guide to cooking with olive oil.