25 Oil-Free Vegan Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What do vegans cook with instead of oil? ›

Instead of oil, I use fruit purees, veggies, dairy-free yogurt, nut butters, almond flour or other nuts, sometimes coconut butter.

Oven-baked and roasted dishes can be incredibly flavorful without the need for oil. Roast your favorite vegetables, marinated with herbs and spices, for a crispy and savory side dish. Explore zero-oil baking recipes, from savory muffins to guilt-free sweets.

You can dry roast the spices until they change color and continue with the rest of the steps of the recipe. Use water or broth to saute onions/veggies once the spices are roasted. 2. You can dry roast the spices, remove them from the pan, and add them back to the pan with the ground spices.

I highly recommend having a mixture of grains, protein, and vegetables — it provides a great balance not only with flavor/bulk but also texture. Grains and legumes help keep the meal filling while the vegetables bring everything together.

What are good vegan butter substitutes? In baking, you can use vegan butter, applesauce, dairy-free yogurt, coconut oil, coconut butter, olive oil, nut butter, mashed banana and mashed avocado. In cooking, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable stock, or avocado oil to replace butter.

The short answer is: oil is a processed food full of fat and calories and not much else. We all agree that sugar is a processed food, full of “empty calories.” Well, so is oil. Actually, oil has more empty calories than sugar.

Eating food without oil can make one lose weight, feel exhausted and unwell because they are missing out on important nutrients required by the body, which is fat.

Eating oil-free food or cooking food with less or no oil is one of the secrets to staying healthy, especially for heart patients. Doing this will not only make the food taste better but will also give you a healthy lifestyle. Zero Oil Cooking is not just a cooking method, it's a way of life.

Sautéing allows the natural sugars to release and intensify. The nice thing about sautéing in water or broth is that you end up tasting more of the food instead of the oil. If you are roasting or baking vegetables, you also do not need to use oil.

Sautéing & Stir Frying

Just add a tablespoon or two of stock or water to your Saute Pan to add flavor and moisture for the veggies to cook in.

What happens if you pan fry without oil? ›

In the pan: You can easily fry meat with no cooking oil in a griddle or a normal, nonstick pan. The natural fats of the meat are enough to cook it, but if you want to add a little something to help it on its way, try a splash of sparkling mineral water. Strange, but it works!

Cooking with pure water is a great way to reduce calories, lower fat content, and support healthy weight management. Water-cooked food retains nutrients and has enhanced texture with limitless flavor possibilities.

Numerous studies have shown that vegans consume insufficient calcium and vitamin D, not only owing to the absence of dairy products but also due to calcium bioavailability problems in plant-based diets [28]. Vitamin D insufficiency exacerbates calcium shortage further owing to impaired intestinal absorption.

Intake and status of vitamin B12, vitamin D, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium and bone turnover markers were generally lower in plant-based dietary patterns compared to meat-eaters. Vegans had the lowest vitamin B12, calcium and iodine intake, and also lower iodine status and lower bone mineral density.

Recipe developers use applesauce, vegan yogurt, mashed banana, mashed sweet potato, mashed pumpkin, and sometimes water thickened with cornstarch as substitutes for pure fat ingredients. See my own oil-free dessert recipes here.

Air fryers can also make it easier to follow a vegan diet, offering a failsafe way to cook staples like tofu, cauliflower, and potatoes to perfection. Below, we've rounded up 10 mouth-watering recipes that prove plant-based cooking needn't be complicated or boring.

Omega-3 fatty acids are readily available in a wide variety of plant foods. Sources include walnuts, flaxseeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, edamame, seaweed, and algae. Other green leafy vegetables and beans also contain small amounts.

Olive oil is a completely plant-derived product that is made entirely from the fruit of the olive tree. The product does not require animals for sourcing or processing in any way. Olive oil is an excellent vegan substitute for other oils and fats that are derived from animals, namely butter.