How To Fry an Egg Without Oil or Butter?

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods around. They’re a low-calorie source of protein, and they taste great. There are lots of ways to cook eggs without oil, such as poached eggs or hard-boiled eggs. But what about fried eggs?

If you are wondering how to fry an egg without oil or butter, read on. You can still enjoy fried eggs without adding extra fat to your diet.

You’ll discover the benefits and methods of cooking without oil or butter, as well as the best oil to use if you do want to add a dash to your dishes.

Fried eggs in a non-stick frying pan

If you have a good non-stick frying pan, such as Teflon or ceramic, healthy fried eggs are easy. There are three ways to do it.

Pan fry without oil on a gentle heat

Heat the pan on a medium heat. You don’t want it to get too hot because then your egg is more likely to stick. Crack your egg into the pan and cook gently until the yolk is just how you like it.

Pan fry without oil on a high heat

This is also known as a ‘dry fry’. Let the frying pan get very hot. Crack the egg into the pan, remove the pan from heat immediately and cover.

The residual heat from the pan as well as the heat that builds up under the lid will cook your egg.

Steam your egg

When the pan is hot, crack your egg into the pan and immediately pour a half teaspoon of water around the egg (onto the exposed parts of the frying pan). Cover the pan with a lid or plate. Cooking for 1 minute will give you a delicious fried egg without oil and with a nice runny yolk. If you prefer a solid yolk, cook for 2 minutes.

Top tip: for a more flavorful fried egg, substitute the water for bouillon (or crumble a tiny amount of bouillon cube in hot water and add that).

If you don’t have a non-stick frying pan

Not to worry! If you want to purchase an excellent non-stick, ceramic frying pan, you can get one here.

Otherwise, try one of the following methods.

Get some aluminum foil

You can cover the bottom of your frying pan with aluminum foil and cook your egg on top.

Try the microwave

Can you fry an egg in the microwave? Yes! Simply crack your egg into a pan that will give you the shape you want. You may want to add a bit of dried herbs or salt at this point to give your egg more flavor.

Heat it on medium heat for 40 seconds and check the yolk. If you want to cook it more, try no more than 5 seconds at a time. Eggs cook very quickly in the microwave!

If you want to make fat free eggs even easier, you can get this handy microwave egg cooker here.

The benefits of cooking without oil or butter

There are many health benefits from cooking without oil or butter, the main one being decreased fat consumption and therefore less risk of cardiovascular disease.

Heating oils for cooking – especially deep-frying – creates fumes which have been linked to cancer.

Frequently Asked Question s about cooking oils

- What is the best vegetable oil?

The best oils to consume are virgin oils, such as virgin olive oil or coconut oil. Virgin oils tend to be a bit cloudy and have more micronutrients, more fragrance and even more flavor than their more processed counterparts.

Virgin oils are best used unheated, or for light sautéing, to preserve nutrients. If you do use oils for frying, use processed oils such as canola oil.

You can reduce the amount of oil that you use by using an oil spray, or putting some oil on a paper towel and spreading it around the pan.

- Does vegetable oil clog arteries?

Contrary to popular belief, saturated fat does not clog the arteries. Heart disease seems to be caused rather by overall lifestyle choices, including lack of exercise, high consumption of refined carbohydrates and tendency towards obesity.

This is why the Mediterranean diet, while high in fat from olive oil and fish, is considered a healthy diet.

You can read more about that here.

- Which oils are bad for you?

Sunflower oil and corn oil are fine as long as you don’t heat them. If you heat them, they generate compounds (aldehydes) that are harmful to health.

- What is the healthiest oil to fry with?

The best oil for frying is olive oil, because olive oil when heated generates far fewer aldehydes (20 times less), and those that it does generate are less harmful to the body than those produced by sunflower oil and corn oil.

You can read more about these oils in this study here.

- Can I use melted butter instead of oil?

Yes. Butter releases fewer harmful compounds when heated, along with rapeseed oil and goose fat.

- What else can I use instead of oil?

Another way to fry without oil is to use vegetable broth, vegetable juice, water, vinegar, or even tamari or soy sauce. If you use canned tomatoes or beans, use a bit of the juice from the can.

For stir-fries, try smearing the pan with avocado. Avocado is a natural source of healthy oil, and it even helps prevent food from sticking to the pan.

References:

• Link between cooking oil consumption and  cardiovascular disease: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924224417300985
• Oil fumes and cancer: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935198938762
• More flavor, fragrance and better taste of virgin oils: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/cooking-fat-and-oil
• Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/15/1111?fbclid=IwAR2s7f3JXws1DdxugULqC42OmnK88p4aHj9DaXghcROgZ1VF1-H59KQg7SI