Vegan alternatives for Ghee or butter

Many people ask me being an Indian vegan how I manage without Ghee or Butter. It’s very common to find Ghee in every Indian kitchen. So what is the replacement for it???

I can understand the pain of not finding sweets without milk or ghee/butter. Some sweets/desserts are made without milk or ghee like Coconut laddu, Chikki, Gajak, etc. Still, many Indian Sweets are made with ghee or khoya/mawa(made with animal milk).

Indians use Ghee in many things like to spread on Chapati, in Sweets, in Rice, in pulses or vegetables, etc. After going vegan I found many alternatives that can be used for sweets and chapatis which I am mentioning below.

Oils that Can be used for making Indian Sweets are as under-

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is good to use in making sweets which are made by deep-frying. In many parts of South India, coconut oil is used to cook food.

Olive oil

Olive Oil is a good option for making sweets because it doesn’t have any strong smell or taste of its own, which makes sweets without any taste of the oil.

Emkay Ghee

Now, this is not a type of oil but it’s the name of a brand which makes vegan ghee. I am mentioning especially this here because I have used it in making sweets hence I recommend this. You can check out and buy Emkay from the following link-

Emkay Lite Interesterified Veg Fat. (Vegan Ghee)

Some other oils which can be used on Chapatis instead of ghee

Apart from oils mentioned above following oils can be used for chapatis

Sesame Oil

Sesame oil has many health benefits for skin and because of antibacterial properties and should be used on chapatis.

Mustered Oil

Flaxseed Oil

Sunflower Oil

Cashew Butter

Peanut Butter

I would personally recommend if you can not find any vegan butter, use olive oil. It doesn’t have any taste so it is good to go for baking items and Indian desserts or you can try coconut oil too.

Some of the desserts where I use coconut or olive oil are –

https://veganizing.in/vegan-muffins-recipe/

How to bake a whole wheat vegan marble cake at home