How to Cook with Butter Substitutes

It is hard to beat real, honest-to-goodness butter for cooking, but you can learn to make delicious dishes without it.

There are a wide variety of butter substitutes on the market today. Some are low in fat, some in salt and others in cholesterol. All purport to be far better for your health than butter. Many of these spreads and other types of substitutes can be difficult to cook with because they do not contain enough oil, react differently to high levels of heat or simply evaporate rather than melting like real butter. In this article, we will discuss how to cook with butter substitutes

Things You'll Need

• Cookbook
• Fruit puree
• Olive oil
• Ground pepper
• Rice spread
• Margarine

Instructions

How to Cook with Butter Substitutes

1. Select several recipes that look good to you. Different types of cooking require different types of butter substitutes. Choose some recipes to try to help you decide what substitutes you like the best.

2. 

   Make toasted breads with flavored oils. Olive, nut and fruit oils all will add flavor to breads and rolls without adding the cholesterol levels associated with buttering bread. If you want to serve garlic bread, for example, use olive oil and garlic to season it rather than garlic butter.

3. Look for spreads that have 50% oil when frying or sauteeing.If a spread has any less oil than this, it will not melt properly and your food may scorch rather than cook.

4. 

   Batter your food with milk, eggs and flour. Because butter substitutes do not fry as well as real butter, add egg to your frying batter to make it cook faster and soak up less grease.

5. 

   Try fruit purees, rice spreads or vegetable oils for baking. All of these can be substituted in equal amounts for butter. However, since these types of substitutes can make your cakes and breads denser than they would be with butter, you may wish to add just a pinch more baking soda and sweetener to the batter to counteract this.

Tips & Warnings

• Butter substitutes are not always better for you than the real thing. If you are not combating high cholesterol or other traditional butter-related health problems, then consult a dietitian before switching to a butter substitute.