Peanut oil is an inexpensive, healthful and inoffensive way to cook—unless you have a peanut allergy!
Light peanut oil is popular as a deep frying oil in restaurants and for salad dressings and baked goods. But when you are highly allergic to peanuts, you do not want to risk a deadly reaction to peanut oil in your food.
Avoid Dark Oils With Strong Flavors
There are many oils on the market and they all do basically the same thing: oils hold moisture and provide some level of unctuousness to the texture of food. Darker oils provide a flavor profile that lighter oils do not. A dark extra virgin olive oil, for instance, has an inescapable flavor which is good on its own or for a select number of foods which benefit from that flavor. Sesame oil and some dark peanut oils are the same way, and they lend a certain ethnic flavor to foods as well.
Light Oils Are Interchangeable
Luckily for people with a peanut allergy, light oils are easily interchangeable. Peanut oil can easily be substituted with vegetable oil or canola oil or light olive oil. If you have a recipe that calls for peanut oil for baking, broiling, grilling, deep-frying, searing, stir-frying and sautéing, it is easy to substitute any vegetable oil without altering the flavor. Simply measure the necessary quantity of vegetable oil instead of peanut oil. They substitute evenly for one another: one cup to one cup.
Try Applesauce Instead!
If you want to avoid oils altogether, a healthy substitute for vegetable oil is applesauce or prune puree. Use half of the required oil measurement, and reduce baking time by 25 percent. You’ll have a dish with less fat, all the flavor, and allergen-free!