Outside of its countries of origin, ghee is not an everyday staple you find in a pantry. However, numerous Indian and South Asian recipes call for it, and many households outside these regions sure like to cook and eat the food!
Therefore, it is very common to need a substitute for ghee, and today we are giving you four!
- Butter
- Macadamia oil
- Avocado oil
- Vegan butter
Best All-Around Substitute For Ghee: Butter
It is kinda hard to find ghee where I live, so when I am cooking Indian-inspired meals at home, butter is my go-to. It is cheaper, more common, and tastes similar, just not as much depth.
Ghee is simply clarified butter, an easy 1:1 replacement in recipes. Ghee is made by melting regular butter until it separates into liquid and solids, and the fat is then strained off and used as ghee. So, when using butter instead of ghee, you just skip a step!
One thing to be aware of is that ghee has a higher smoke point than butter. This means that you may need to cook your recipes at a lower temperature if the written temperature exceeds the smoke point of the butter. You can read all about smoke points in our handy cooking fats and oils guide!
Best Raw Cooking Substitute For Ghee: Macadamia Oil
Ever heard of macadamia oil? This cold-pressed oil from macadamia nuts has a lovely nutty and buttery flavor that could be a good substitute for ghee. While ghee isn’t really used in raw food dishes, macadamia oil works well in them because of its ability to coat things like lettuce leaves and give dips a really interesting nutty kick.
Best Ghee Substitute for Regular Cooking: Butter
Butter is the perfect ghee substitute for regular cooking, such as baking and most stovetop cooking. A lot of dishes you would use ghee in are cooked at medium heat for some time on a stovetop, which butter is also built for.
Again, it is worth mentioning to watch the heat. When butter is heated past its smoke point, it burns and browns, and it tastes terrible… unless you are one of those people that enjoys super burnt toast.
Best Ghee Substitute for High-Heat Cooking: Avocado Oil
If you have a recipe that calls for more heat than butter can handle, avocado oil is a decent substitute. It has a high smoke point of around 520 degrees F, and its mild buttery flavor makes it a worthy stand-in for ghee. It is not as rich as ghee, but it can give you a delicious finished product, albeit oh so slightly less flavorful.
Ghee Substitute that is Closest in Flavor: Butter
I actually have my suspicions that when I eat at an Indian restaurant, and the food doesn’t taste as good as my usual spot, it is probably because they are not using ghee or its closest flavored substitute, butter. And I get it; it is expensive compared to a budget alternative such as canola oil. If I am correct, then in my humble opinion, please spend that little extra for the butter or a little more again for the ghee! It is worthwhile.
Best Neutral-Flavored Ghee Substitute: Avocado Oil
Avocado oil is probably the most neutral oil you can get without entirely losing the butter taste that is important to so many recipes containing ghee. I don’t want to go into canola oil as a substitute for the reasons in the above section. I really think the oil or fat being used needs its flavor for the dish to taste good. The downside is that it is expensive, particularly if you need to use a lot of it.
Best Budget-Friendly Ghee Substitute: Butter
Without getting into the realm of flavorless oils like vegetable or canola, butter is probably the cheapest of the alternatives for ghee. You could technically use the even cheaper margarine, but the flavor would not be as nice.
You might even want to try making your own ghee from butter, which can sometimes be cheaper, which basically involves heating unsalted butter on the stovetop until the water and milk solids separate from the fat.
Best Healthy Ghee Substitute: Avocado Oil
Avocado oil is a great healthy alternative to ghee. While ghee is nutritious, avocado oil doesn’t have the saturated fat some people prefer to avoid. It contains a range of beneficial nutrients, such as vitamin E, potassium, and magnesium, to name a few.
Best Keto Ghee Substitute: Butter
The good news, if you are on the keto diet and need a substitute for ghee, you can use butter. You can use any oil, really. The keto diet is focused on limiting carbs and fats, and oils have none of them.
Best Paleo/Whole30 Ghee Substitute: Avocado Oil
The paleo and Whole30 diets are dairy free; therefore, the best substitute would be avocado or macadamia oil, as butter is out. Both oils are seed free, cold-pressed, and from whole food sources, making them great additions to these diets.
Best Plant-Based Ghee Substitute: Vegan Butter
Vegan butter would be the best, specifically a vegan substitute for ghee. Of course, you can have avocado and macadamia oil too, but for some recipes that need that solid, buttery taste, a decent vegan butter works as long as you can find one with a similar flavor to butter.
FAQs
In terms of health, butter is not necessarily healthier than ghee. Both contain saturated fats, and while some nutritionists recommend avoiding them, they aren’t the devil in balanced amounts. Ghee has a higher smoke point than butter, which means it can be used in higher-temperature cooking without breaking down into harmful compounds.
Coconut oil can be used as a substitute for ghee in some recipes, but its flavor is not the same, so do take that into account. I think it tastes good in dahls and coconut milk curries. You can even make coconut ghee if you feel experimental, combining the best of both worlds!
Ghee and butter oil are quite similar. The main difference is that while ghee is derived from butter, butter oil is made from clarified butterfat cooked longer and at higher temperatures. This makes it more shelf-stable than ghee but also gives it a slightly different flavor profile.
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