These ten seed oil free dinner recipes are the most cooked, most shared, and most converted recipes on The Foodie Kitchen. Each uses one ancestral fat — tallow, ghee, lard, butter, or olive oil — as the primary cooking fat. No canola. No soybean. No vegetable oil. Every recipe includes a full ingredient list and method.
1
Cooked in beef tallow
A cast iron skillet, 80/20 ground beef, and beef tallow. The crust produced in tallow at high heat is why people remember the old McDonald's fries.
2
Cooked in beef tallow
Pat dry, season, cast iron, tallow, high heat. The skin crisps in a way that butter cannot sustain at the required temperature.
3
Cooked in ghee
The dum pukht method seals the pot with dough and lets the rice cook in steam and ghee. This is how biryani has been made for 400 years.
4
Cooked in lard
Birria is a Mexican braise where tough beef cuts are cooked in lard until they shred. The consommé is made from the rendered fat and braising liquid.
5
Cooked in olive oil + butter
Tagine cooking is defined by slow steam. The olive oil base and butter finish produce a sauce with more depth than any seed oil version.
6
Cooked in lard
Every pad thai recipe written before 1970 used lard. The wok hei flavour — the smoky, slightly charred taste of authentic pad thai — requires lard at very high temperature.
7
Cooked in butter
Brown butter, shrimp, garlic, lemon. This is the fastest seed oil free dinner on the site and the one most likely to convert a skeptic on first taste.
8
Cooked in tallow
Bulgogi needs very high heat for the caramelisation of the soy and pear marinade. Tallow provides that heat without the smoke from seed oil oxidation.
9
Cooked in niter kibbeh
The most complex seed oil free dinner on this list. Niter kibbeh — Ethiopian spiced butter — takes two hours to develop properly and creates a completely irreplaceable flavour.
10
Cooked in butter
Browned butter, pasta water, lemon, chicken breast. A 30-minute dinner with three steps and no seed oil anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
What fat do I need to start cooking these recipes?
Start with Fatworks grass-fed tallow ($16) and Kerrygold butter ($28 for four packs). These two fats cover the majority of the recipes on this list. Add ghee if you plan to cook Indian dishes and lard if you plan to cook Mexican or Asian food.
Are these recipes difficult?
The difficulty ranges from easy (garlic butter shrimp, 15 minutes) to intermediate (birria tacos, 4 hours). The smash burgers and chicken thighs are beginner-appropriate and produce dramatic results on first attempt.
Can I substitute the fats in these recipes?
For most recipes, you can substitute within the ancestral fat group — tallow where ghee is called for, lard where butter is called for — with some flavour variation. Avoid substituting seed oils back in, which will produce inferior results at the required cooking temperatures.
Savannah Ryan · Amazon
The 7 Day Reset
7-day plan built around seed oil free dinners — complete with shopping list and daily menus.
Related guides: All Seed Oil Free Dinner Ideas · 7-Day Meal Plan · What Is Tallow? · What Is Lard? · What Is Ghee? · Grocery List
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Savannah Ryan · 23 Cookbooks
All Seed Oil Free · All Ancestral Fats
African, Hawaiian, Indian, Mediterranean, Asian, Exotic, Chicken, Rice, Cookies, Coffee, Spices, Plants, World Cuisine, 30-Minute Dinners and more.
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