If you don’t know much about cooking, your impulse when preparing a meal might be to make it exactly according to the recipe. Follow each instruction to a T, and you will certainly receive great results, right? But sometimes, allergies, dietary restrictions, and running out of a key ingredient can get in the way of our adventures in the kitchen. So rather than letting these little roadblocks stump us, we should learn ways to work around them!
One curious home cook, Jnwiggs1, recently asked on Reddit, “What ingredient do you normally replace in your recipes?” and hundreds of fellow kitchen aficionados came through in the replies. From suggestions to maximize flavor to tips that will save you some cash, we’ve gathered all of the best responses down below to help you boost your culinary knowledge. Keep reading to also find an interview with Emese and Nandi of the My Pure Plants blog to hear some of their best ingredient substitution tips, and be sure to upvote the replies you find particularly helpful. Then let us know in the comments what your favorite ingredient swaps are, and if you’re still hungry for even more cooking tips from Bored Panda, we’ve got you covered with this article right here.
#1
I typically replace garlic with twice as much garlic.
Image source: BuyTheBeanDip, pingnews.com
#2
I replace unsalted butter with salted butter. Even in baking. I honestly like the extra salt, especially in desserts since it balances out the sweetness.
Image source: Darwin343, Los Muertos Crew
#3
Depending on the meal, I will replace liquids with other liquids. Instead of water, I will use stock. Instead of stock, I might use wine. Or vice versa, if I do not have stock, I will use water and then up the flavor elsewhere. If I do not have wine, I might use stock.
Image source: Runzas_In_Wonderland, min che
#4
I am sadly allergic to garlic, so I replace it in every recipe with a homemade frozen paste made from shallots, green onions, and red onions. I also add additional fresh shallot.
Image source: AtomicNips, missy
#5
Not really a replacement per se, but I use canned tomatoes in place of fresh ones unless I can get good local and in-season ones.
Image source: StolenCamaro, Francesco Pinto
#6
Green onions instead of chives. They’re cheaper and i can’t really tell the difference. And I usually have a jar of them growing in my kitchen.
Image source: AnaDion94
#7
Onion powder instead of raw onions when I cook for my mother only, because they bother her if not cooked.
As for me though, I use extra raw onions.
Image source: YukiHase, Teja J
#8
Oil with butter. Because butter is better.
Image source: Cre8ivejoy, Pei Hua Yeap
#9
I’m a south Indian in the US, fresh coconut is often difficult to come by and processing it for future storage is also challenging on a busy schedule when you’re cooking for one. I have found that coconut powder and coconut flakes are excellent substitutes in many dishes which require ground or grated fresh coconut; plus they’re shelf stable and can help adjust consistency of the dish too.
Image source: vigglypuff, F_A
#10
Pecorino Roman for Parmesan. I find Parmesan ,even parmigiano reggiano, are just too subtly flavored. I prefer the more pronounced cheesy funk of pecorino.
Image source: ItsMePythonicD, Jacek Dylag
#11
Regular breadcrumbs with panko
Image source: howabout164, Ryo Chijiiwa
#12
I never keep buttermilk but always keep heavy cream. 1 tsp vinegar + enough heavy cream to make a cup. Wait 15 min. Viola buttermilk substitute.
Image source: Jazzlike-Squirrel116, Bill Smith
#13
When I don’t have oyster sauce or fish sauce I use Worcestershire sauce
Image source: ocelotlynx94, Edsel Little
#14
I never buy brown sugar…I just add molasses to white sugar. That way I can control the darkness easily.
Image source: bakehaus, Marchall
#15
For almost all dips and dressings I sub greek yogurt for Mayo.
Image source: yukimontreal, Vicky Ng
#16
Oils and vinegars. Like I already have 5 kinds of vinegar and I’ll be damned if I’m going out to get yet another just for this one meal.
Image source: SatanScotty, Ron Lach
#17
Usually replace anchovies with a vegan umami source because they wig me out so I don’t keep them in the house
Image source: AlmostDeadPlants, ¡Vaya Madrid!
#18
I use ghee instead of butter or oil for a lot of cooking.
Image source: Adchococat1234, Paolo Botio
#19
Mirin. A lot Japanese recipes tend to call for both mirin and sugar, I don’t like sweetness too much in my savory dishes so I switch to Japanese sake instead.
Image source: noobolite, jules
#20
I replace water with black coffee for boxed baking recipes.. and milk with almond milk for almost everything.
Image source: Sugarvenom93, Mathilde Langevin
#21
For anything calling for raw onions in the finished product, I rehydrate dried onions and use those. I am allergic to raw onions, but I can tolerate and even enjoy rehydrated dried ones. My favorite use for them is in salsa, they soak up the extra tomato juice that gets released while it sits overnight and it ends up perfect. I use fresh onions if whatever I’m cooking will cook them down until they’re translucent and soft.
Image source: t_portch, Heather Ford
#22
I’m vegetarian so basically any dish that has chicken or pork in I sub with tofu. It’s got a very neutral flavor so depending on how you season and cook it, it can takes like whatever you want it to.
Image source: Mr_Saturn1, Polina Tankilevitch
#23
Smoked paprika with regular paprika. I cannot stand the smoke flavor. Tastes too fake to me.
Image source: SloppyBobs, Peter Bright
#24
Cottage cheese in place of ricotta. Less salty and less fat, especially if you can find salt free and low fat versions.
Home made spice combinations instead of mixtures, less salty. Literally just read the back of the bottle it will tell you whats in there.
Anchovy sauce in place of msg. The savory saltiness of it works just as good
Vinegar or lemon juice in some cases when you need a acid.
Sugar /honey/ artificial sweetener. Whichever you have on hand.
Almond/soy/coconut milk works with a lot of recipes just as well with regular milk.
Croutons, soup crackers, ritz etc instead of breadcrumbs or literally old dry bread that you crush. The croutons worked amazing with some parmesan styled chicken.
Some vegetables can be switched say specific potatoes varieties or radish for daicon, cabbage instead of bok choi.
Image source: FNKTN, David Prasad
#25
Oo, I’ve always wondered about this one. I constantly hear people using fish sauce in places where I would use worcestershire sauce (e.g. a tomato pasta sauce) but I’ve been curious if that means you could use worcestershire sauce in a south east Asian dish
Image source: Mammoth-Tourist-4522, Annie Mole
#26
I replace anything that calls for sugar with Swerve. It’s a diabetic-friendly sugar substitute that doesn’t have the weird aspartame aftertaste.
#27
Pecorino romano is unavailable to me living in Singapore. I just sub in parmeggiano in 100% situations.
Guanciale is also impossible to procure for reasonable cost. I just use bacon.
Also, all those different peppers…serranos, pimentos, anaheim, banana…you dont get them in Singapore. Either generic green chilli or if you’re lucky jalapenos.
Image source: DatAdra, Karolina Grabowska
#28
I do not like the flavor of lemon, but I recognize its purpose as an acid, so I usually substitute it with either white distilled or white wine vinegar.
Image source: MissHBee, Didi Miam
#29
Celery. It’s the REAL devils lettuce. I always replace it with green bell pepper.
Taste, texture, nutritional value. It’s all bad.
Image source: Dalton387, Michael Derr
#30
99% of the time, shallots. They’re so expensive! And yeah, they do elevate a dish, but I don’t bother with them unless I’m making something ✨fancy✨
Image source: dapolkadots, Chris Baranski
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