Can Vegetable Oil Be Substituted for Olive Oil? Yes—Here's How

Whether you're cooking or making a salad dressing, try vegetable oil or another olive oil substitute when your bottle of olive oil runs dry.

It seems a different oil is having its moment to shine every week. For example, coconut oil has been found useful in the kitchen and beauty products. Avocado, hemp, sesame, and hazelnut oil—the list goes on and on. These oils add different flavors and aromas to recipes and aren't always interchangeable.

At some point, when they run out of olive oil, home cooks may ask, "Can vegetable oil be substituted for olive oil?" since those are the two most frequently on hand in kitchens. If you run out of olive oil mid-recipe, here are some tips for substituting olive oil.

Olive Oil Substitutions

You may notice a slight difference in taste and fragrance, but vegetable or canola oil can be substituted for olive oil in most recipes. Refer to these specific uses to find the best olive oil substitute for what you're making.

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What to substitute in cooking: Olive oil's smoke point (meaning how hot the oil can get before it starts smoking) is 325°F to 410°F. The low end of the range is for unprocessed extra virgin olive oil, while the upper end reflects the smoke point of pure olive oil, a blend of refined and extra virgin olive oil. Thanks to a similar smoke point (400°F) and mild flavor profile, canola oil is a suitable replacement for olive oil for sautéing, grilling, roasting, and stir-frying.

What to substitute in salad dressings: Olive oil is the base of many salad dressing recipes. Extra virgin olive oil will impart more flavor than pure olive oil. You can use any nut oil as an olive oil alternative in salad dressings, but they will likely add a noticeable nut flavor. Vegetable oils such as canola, safflower, and sunflower will contribute less flavor than olive oil to salad dressings but bring the same body and texture.

With so many oil options available, there's no reason to pause cooking for an emergency grocery run; one of these substitutes will fill in nicely.

Nutrition Info on Vegetable and Olive Oil

Most oils have some (or a lot) of health benefits. Olive oil ranks among the healthiest oils, since the fats it contains are mostly the "good" kind, which are mono- and polyunsaturated fats. (You want to limit your intake of saturated fat.) But remember, too, oil does have calories, with one tablespoon of olive oil containing 119 calories. Vegetable oils are made from the seeds of plants. The healthiest vegetable oils include canola, corn, peanut, safflower, soybean and sunflower oils.
When you're choosing a vegetable oil, you want to choose one that's low in saturated fat and higher in monounsaturated fat (also called omega-9 fatty acid and oleic acid) and polyunsaturated fat (also called omega-3 and omega-6 acids). Olive, canola, sunflower and the nut oils hazelnut and almond oils are high in monounsaturated fats.

Related: Your Complete Guide to All the Types of Olive Oil—and How to Pick the Best Type