The best substitute for margarine depends on how you’re using it. For spreading, mashed avocado and nut butters offer healthy fats with more nutritional punch. For baking, coconut oil swaps in at a 1:1 ratio. For cooking over heat, olive oil or ghee handle higher temperatures well. Here’s how each option works in practice.
Olive Oil for Cooking and Baking
Olive oil is one of the most versatile margarine replacements. It’s rich in monounsaturated fat, the type federal dietary guidelines specifically recommend choosing over saturated fats like butter, shortening, and coconut oil. Refined olive oil has a smoke point of 465°F, making it suitable for sautéing, roasting, and pan-frying at temperatures margarine can’t handle.
Because olive oil is liquid, you need less of it than solid margarine. The general conversion: use three-quarters the amount of olive oil. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of margarine, use 3/4 cup of olive oil. For smaller amounts, 1 tablespoon of margarine equals about 2 1/4 teaspoons of olive oil. This ratio works well in quick breads, muffins, and cakes, though the texture will be slightly denser than with a solid fat. Extra virgin olive oil has a stronger flavor that works in savory baking but can taste out of place in delicate sweets. Refined or light olive oil is more neutral.
Coconut Oil for Baking
Coconut oil is the easiest swap because it replaces margarine at a straight 1:1 ratio. It behaves similarly to margarine in baked goods since it’s solid at room temperature and melts during baking, which helps cookies hold their shape and gives muffins a tender crumb.
There’s one important caveat. Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10 percent of daily calories. Most Americans already exceed that threshold, averaging around 11 percent. If you’re choosing a margarine substitute specifically for health reasons, olive oil or other liquid vegetable oils are a better pick. But for occasional baking where you need a solid fat that performs like margarine, coconut oil works well. Refined coconut oil (smoke point 450°F) has a neutral flavor, while unrefined coconut oil adds a mild coconut taste.
Butter and Ghee
Regular butter is the most obvious swap, and it delivers flavor that margarine was designed to imitate. One tablespoon of butter has 102 calories compared to 68 for tub margarine, and 60 percent of its fat is saturated versus 29 percent in margarine. It also contains less vitamin E. So butter adds richness but isn’t a health upgrade.
Ghee, or clarified butter, is butter with the milk solids removed. This gives it a smoke point of 450°F, far above regular butter’s 302°F, making it useful for high-heat cooking like stir-frying. The removal of milk solids also means some people with dairy sensitivities tolerate ghee better than butter, though it’s not dairy-free. Use ghee 1:1 in place of margarine for cooking. In baking, it works but produces a slightly greasier result since it lacks the water content (about 16 percent) that standard margarine contains.
Avocado as a Spread
If you mainly use margarine on toast or sandwiches, mashed avocado is a whole-food alternative loaded with monounsaturated fat, fiber, and potassium. It doesn’t work as a direct swap in baking, but for spreading, it’s hard to beat. Top whole wheat toast with sliced avocado, a drizzle of olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon for a combination that replaces margarine with fresh, minimally processed ingredients.
Half a medium avocado has roughly 115 calories and 10 grams of fat, nearly all of it unsaturated. It also provides about 5 grams of fiber, something no margarine offers.
Nut and Seed Butters
Nut butters are increasingly replacing traditional spreads, and they bring protein and heart-healthy fats that margarine lacks. Most nut and seed butters contain 80 to 100 calories per tablespoon with 7 to 10 grams of mostly unsaturated fat.
Almond butter works as a base in muffin, cake, and cookie batter, and stirs nicely into oatmeal. Walnut butter has the highest omega-3 content of any nut butter, which helps lower LDL cholesterol and reduce inflammation. Cashew butter is exceptionally creamy and can even replace dairy in recipes calling for milk or cream. For anyone with tree nut allergies, sunflower seed butter is a solid alternative that provides protein, healthy fats, and magnesium. Spread it on toast, drizzle it on pancakes, or stir a spoonful into a smoothie.
These aren’t 1:1 baking substitutes for margarine in most recipes, but for spreading and as flavor additions to batters and sauces, they’re nutritionally superior.
Applesauce and Greek Yogurt for Lower-Fat Baking
When you want to cut fat rather than swap one fat for another, unsweetened applesauce and Greek yogurt both work in baked goods. Applesauce replaces margarine at a 1:1 ratio, adding moisture and a mild natural sweetness. It works best in quick breads, muffins, and cakes where a slightly denser, more moist texture is acceptable. Cookies tend to come out softer and less crisp.
Greek yogurt takes a different approach: replace half the margarine with three-quarters that amount of yogurt. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of margarine, use 1/2 cup of margarine and 3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) of Greek yogurt. This adds creaminess and protein while keeping some of the fat that gives baked goods their structure. Neither substitute produces the same flakiness as a solid fat, so they’re not ideal for pie crusts or puff pastry.
Vegetable Shortening for Pastry
For pie crusts and flaky pastries where texture matters most, vegetable shortening is the closest functional match to margarine. Shortening is 100 percent fat with no water, compared to margarine’s roughly 80 percent fat and 16 percent water. That higher fat content produces a very tender, flaky crust, though the lack of water means you may need to add a teaspoon or two of ice water to your dough to get the right consistency.
Shortening has a smoke point around 360°F and a neutral flavor. It won’t add the richness of butter or the health benefits of olive oil, but for laminated doughs, biscuits, and pie crusts, it performs reliably. Use it 1:1 in place of margarine.
Choosing the Right Substitute
Your best option comes down to what you’re making. For everyday cooking, reach for olive oil or another liquid vegetable oil high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat, like canola, sunflower, or safflower. Federal guidelines specifically recommend these over solid fats. For baking where you need a solid fat, coconut oil is the simplest swap. For spreading, avocado and nut butters add nutrition that margarine never had. And for pastry where flakiness is everything, shortening or butter will get you there.
- Olive oil: 3/4 the amount of margarine; best for cooking and savory baking
- Coconut oil: 1:1 ratio; best for cookies, muffins, and cakes
- Butter or ghee: 1:1 ratio; best for flavor and high-heat cooking (ghee)
- Applesauce: 1:1 ratio; best for lower-fat quick breads and muffins
- Greek yogurt: 3/4 the amount replacing half the fat; best for moist cakes
- Shortening: 1:1 ratio; best for pie crusts and flaky pastry
- Avocado or nut butters: to taste; best as spreads on bread and toast