Vegetable Ghee

Vegetable ghee is made from vegetable oils, often palm, processed into a soft solid fat that looks like ghee but is not made from butter. In India it is known as vanaspati, and in Pakistan as banaspati ghee. It has a mild, faintly buttery flavour and a high smoke point. Check the ingredients if you avoid dairy, as recipes differ.

Sweet makers and caterers use vegetable ghee for frying jalebi, balushahi, gulab jamun and namkeen, where large quantities of fat are heated for a long time, and bakers use it for nankhatai, khari and flaky pastries. At home it is handy for making parathas and puris in bulk. It comes in tins and tubs, and KTC is one of the names on the shelf.

Vegetable ghee is not a like for like swap for pure ghee in a dal tadka or on hot rice, where the butter flavour matters; for that choose pure ghee. Store tins sealed in a cool cupboard and melt only what you need. The full range is in our ghee category.