7 Best Substitutes For Sesame Oil To Cook Your Favorite Asian Cuisine

Sesame oil is a vegetable oil made from roasted sesame seeds. It has a nutty taste and is mostly used in Asian cuisine. But, not everyone has it in their home or their local grocery store. So, here are 7 substitutes for sesame oil.

Depending on what you’re cooking, you can substitute sesame oil with:

Walnut oil

Coconut oil
Roasted sesame seeds
Olive oil

Flaxseed oil
Avocado oil
Peanut oil.

If you want to find out more about these sesame oil substitutes and how to use them the right way, then keep on reading this article.

Substitutes For Sesame Oil

Walnut Oil

Like sesame oil, walnut oil gives every dish a nutty taste. Walnuts are full of nutrients, antioxidants, and omega 3 fatty acids (monosaturated fats). So it’s safe to say that this oil is better than your usual sunflower oil. It has a lot of health benefits like improving your vision and memory. Walnut oil is made by pressing the walnuts until all the oil comes out of it. I think this is the perfect substitute for sesame oil because of the texture and the nutty flavor.

How To Use Walnut Oil In Your Cooking

While not suited for heat and therefore, frying, walnut oil can be a great taste enhancer in your salad dressings, pasta, sauces, and even some desserts. It gives every meal a strong taste and rich flavor. Especially when your recipe already has chunks of walnuts in it.

Avocado Oil

Avocado Oil is an oil extracted from the pulp of the avocado and has a creamy texture. It can be used either for cooking and raw which makes it a good alternative for sesame oil. It has great health benefits like preventing the risk of heart disease, lower cholesterol, improves skin health, and quickly heals wounds. It contains a very healthy oleic acid ( a monosaturated omega-9 acid), similar to olive oil.

How To Cook With Avocado Oil

Avocado oil can be used either raw or to cook with. Because of its high smoke point, this oil can be used for deep frying and baking. It can be found in many health food stores and Asian grocery stores that sell Asian food. If you do not want to cook with this oil, you can put it in various salads, salad dressings, and even your body.

Avocado oil lacks the nutty flavor of sesame seed oil, but it does have an earthy avocado taste that has a more neutral flavor. Which is completely fine if you ask me. This is a completely perfect replacement for sesame seed oil.

Roasted Sesame Seeds

Well, this is the closest you can get to the exact same taste of sesame oil. You can put sesame seeds in a non-stick skillet, add just a little bit of oil and let them toast for a couple of minutes. When ready, sprinkle a couple of teaspoons on top of your favorite Asian dish (or any dish that requires sesame oil) and enjoy your meal. The only bad thing about this is the lack of oil, but still, it achieves the perfect nutty taste. You will notice the difference that sesame seeds make.

Health Benefits Of Sesame Seeds

Sesame seeds can be a good source of proteins, antioxidants, minerals, vitamin B, and many healthy fats. Eating sesame seeds regularly can improve heart health, can control your blood sugar, and help heal arthritis.

Sesame Seeds Uses For Cooking

It seems like sesame seeds are all the talk in the last decade. Aside from its health benefits, sesame seeds have been wildly popular in many meals. You can put them in stir-fried rice, salad toppings, and dressings, chicken wings, as a topping for bread.

A popular use for sesame seeds is also making a smooth paste out of it that’s called Tahini. Tahini can be made either from toasted sesame seeds or untoasted sesame seeds. It’s mixed in a food processor along with some oil. Tahini is used as the main ingredient in hummus but also it can be consumed by itself, as well as many sauces and dressings.

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil can work just fine as a sesame oil alternative, as any oil would. But, if you’re looking for that signature, nutty and earthy flavors that toasted sesame oil gives, look away. Coconut oil provides a coconut flavor that is not similar at all to the flavor that sesame seed oil gives.

Benefits Of Coconut Oil

It has lots of healthy fats that improve heart health

Can be a good moisturizer for your skin during the winter when your skin is dry
Can burn calories and therefore improve weight loss
Protects hair from the sun, and it’s a natural hair conditioner

It’s used in daily cooking and baking healthy meals
Can refresh your breath and brighten your teeth
Lowers your cholesterol level

Normalizes your blood pressure

Cooking With Coconut Oil

You can use this oil however you like. It has a high heat tolerance and can be baked with, fried with, and everything else. Your baked goods will have a slight coconut taste and a moist texture. You can use it as a replacement for butter and lard in baking, greasing up baking trays, and make desserts and savory dishes. All go for coconut oil. You can find it anywhere for a moderate price, and it will last you a long time. Another good thing about this type of oil is its long shelf life. You can tell that this is a totally acceptable substitute for sesame oil, no matter the different taste. Coconut oil is making its way into people’s everyday uses and needs.

Olive Oil

Olive oil ( like coconut and sesame oil) is considered a healthy fat. It does its job good ( which is to grease up your meal) but again, the nutty flavor of the sesame seeds is missing.

It is made by pressing olives and extracting the oil out of them. This oil is worldwide known as a first-hand replacement to normal cooking oil.

Cooking With Olive Oil

Olive oil has a neutral taste and is a popular oil in cooking and baking. There are two types of olive oil: extra virgin olive oil, and a regular one. What’s the difference?

Extra virgin olive oil is made from pure and cold-pressed olives. It is mostly used in salads or for salad dressings.
Regular olive oil is mixed with processed oils and cold-pressed ones, which is not the healthiest choice. This oil can be used in frying and baking.

Benefits Of Olive Oil

Olive oil is rich in monosaturated fats and is a healthy alternative to other everyday cooking oils.

Has antioxidants that reduce the risk of inflammation and chronic diseases.
Olive oil has many nutrients that have antibacterial properties in them.
It promotes cardiovascular health.

Because of the healthy fats, olive oil can help to improve your immunity.

Peanut Oil & Other Nuts

Peanut oil is popular for giving taste to Chinese, European and Indian dishes. It is commonly used for frying. This oil is a good alternative to sesame oil in recipes because of the nutty flavor it provides, and that is what it’s all about. It is considered one of the healthiest oils to cook with because it’s naturally trans-fat-free and cholesterol-free. Feel free to experiment with other nut oils that give your meals different types of flavors ( hazelnut oil, walnut oil, almond oil, etc…)

Peanut Oil For Cooking

Peanut oil is mostly used in cooking for its flavor in Indian cuisine. It can complement lots of exotic meals like stir-fries, Chinese chicken, curry, and hummus. Because of its high smoke point, peanut oil is used for sautéing, frying, and baking.

Flaxseed oil

Flaxseed oil or Linseed oil is a good alternative for sesame oil again, because of its nutty flavor. This oil has a low to a medium smoke point and it is not suitable for cooking with it. It can be great for raw foods and uncooked recipes like salad dressings and sauces that require sesame seeds or sesame seed oil. It is made from squeezing flaxseeds until they release their natural oils.

Flaxseed oil is full of omega 3 fatty acids that help with blood circulation, and many other health benefits. For a daily dose of these so-called good fats, mix a teaspoon of flaxseed oil in your smoothies or other beverages.

What To Use Sesame Seed Oil For

Sesame oil is a vegetable oil made from pressed sesame seeds. It has a neutral, but also nutty taste. Some varieties of sesame oil include toasted sesame oil( or black sesame oil), light sesame oil(or plain sesame oil), and cold-pressed sesame oil.

Toasted sesame oil is made by toasting the sesame seeds before pressing them. This gives the oil a more powerful taste than the regular one. This oil has a low smoke point(unlike the untoasted sesame oil) and therefore it is better for adding flavor to raw foods, and it should be used in small doses because it can be a little bitter. You can find this taste enhancer in many Indian and Asian recipes.

Light sesame oil (or regular sesame oil) is made from raw sesame seeds. This type of sesame oil has an earthy and nutty taste and it is used for frying and deep-frying because of its high heat tolerance.

Make Your Own Sesame Oil

In a wide non-stick pan put one cup of sesame seeds. Put the sesame seeds on medium heat for 20 minutes, constantly watching over them as to not get burned. When your start to see that your seeds are browning, take them out of the heat and put in one cup of any type of vegetable oil. Make sure every ingredient is safe for human consumption before making any type of edible oil.

Now, put the mixture back on the heat, so the oil can absorb the fragrant sesame smell and taste. Heat the ingredients for about 5 minutes and take them off the stove. Let it cool for few minutes and put it in a blender. When you’re happy with your consistency stop blending and store your sesame oil in a jar. The mixture should look like a smooth paste.