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When I began switching to a real food lifestyle I encountered a big problem. I wanted to avoid unhealthy ingredients. But struggled to swap the ingredients I was trying to avoid with healthier options. Therefore I simply didn’t know how much of each healthier option to use! So I’ve been compiling this real food cooking and baking substitutions for a while. And I created this handy little chart to help you out!
Real food cooking and baking substitutions
|
Ingredient |
Used For |
Substitutes |
Notes |
|
White sugar |
Baking and cooking |
Sucanat, Rapadura, Stevia, unfiltered honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, molasses, coconut sugar/nectar, turbinado sugar | See the bottom of the page for substitution amounts for cooking and baking |
|
Brown sugar |
Baking and cooking |
Sucanat, Rapadura, coconut sugar, palm sugar | These can be used as a 1:1 substitution. |
|
Any refined flour |
Baking and cooking |
Sprouted wheat, white wheat, spelt, buckwheat (GF), or brown rice (GF). Can soak organic whole grain flours. | Using sprouted flour is much more simple. Soaking requires an additional 12-24 hours. |
|
Vegetable Shortening |
Baking and cooking |
Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic butter (pastured), leaf lard (highest quality lard), tallow | Don’t skimp on these substitutes! Our bodies need this good quality fat! |
|
Cornstarch |
Cooking |
Arrowroot powder, sprouted brown rice flour, tapioca flour | Most commercial cornstarch contains GMO corn. That is a good reason to switch! |
|
Chocolate Chips |
Baking |
Enjoy Life Brand Chocolate Chips | There is soy in most store-bought chocolate. Avoid soy and buy these really tasty chips instead! |
Granulated natural sugars can be substituted in a 1:1 ratio in your baking recipes.
What if you want to substitute honey or maple syrup for granulated sugar?
White Sugar to Honey/Maple Syrup/Coconut nectar ratios
1/8 cup sugar=1 tbsp honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
¼ cup sugar=2 tbsp honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
½ cup sugar=1/4 cup honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
¾ cup sugar=1/4 cup + 2 tbsp honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
1 cup sugar=1/2 cup honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
2 cups sugar= 1 cup honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
3 cups sugar=1 ½ cups honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
Now you can easily find simple substitutions for your cooking and baking needs. And these are much healthier options for you!
This is awesome! I’ve been working on converting my holiday recipes so this is perfect. I’ve pinned this for future reference. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome! So glad this will help you out! 🙂
Since reading how coconut sugar is made and the toil it takes on the tree I prefer not to use it. I’d rather have the coconut oil than the sugar, plenty of sweet stuff on the planet to use instead 🙂 Thanks for this article!
Nice list. Thanks! (and I love Enjoy Life Brand Chocolate Chips ;>) Yum!
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Thank you so much for doing the converting . I have referred to this many times and am grateful and appreciative.
❤️
You’re welcome! 🙂