Healthy Holiday: How to Substitute Olive Oil into your Holiday Menu

Holiday meals are a time of indulgence, but often there are people around the table that have dietary restrictions and preferences that mean home cooks need to adapt their traditional recipes so that everyone gathered around the table can partake in the meal.

One simple substitution that helps address many food restrictions is to substitute olive oil in place of butter. Butter is a high calorie, sometimes salted, dairy product. It is often found on the list of things that people who eat a low-calorie, low-fat, low-salt diet avoid. Not to mention vegans and paleo diet followers often avoid all dairy products, in general. Lactose intolerant people usually avoid butter and other dairy products too.

It’s easy to adapt your holiday meals to be butter-free. Here are a few ideas, instead of butter you can use olive oil:

1) In your mashed potatoes
2) To baste your turkey or other meats
3) To marinate and roast vegetables
4) As the fat component in salad dressings
5) As the fat in your pie pastry and baked goods

Google search engine is your friend; practically any recipe that includes butter can have olive oil substituted into it. Just search “how to replace butter with olive oil in …” on Google and you’ll find recipe options galore. If you already have a favorite recipe you rely on, use our Conversion Chart, that will tell you exactly how much olive oil to substitute into a recipe in place of butter.

Holidays are a time to gather with friends and family to share a meal and make memories. We hope that our tips will help you cook up a dinner that everyone will enjoy and talk about for years to come. Cheers!