Swap Butter With One Pantry Staple Ingredient For A Dairy-Free Lemon Curd

Sweet, tart, and creamy lemon curd is one of the most classic, versatile spreads in the food world. It can be used as the filling for your pie, a topping for your ice cream, the good stuff between your layers of cake, or even the sunny swipe of flavor on your morning toast. Making this tangy treat has long been a matter of following a pretty specific formula (give or take a few slight variations): Lemon juice, egg yolks, sugar, and butter combined and heated together until the thickened, luscious mixture emerges.

That said, some rules are made to be broken, and what if we told you there was a common pantry ingredient that could completely change your lemon curd game — and even help you create a non-dairy alternative? By simply swapping out the usual butter in your recipe for a few glugs of olive oil, you'll have a new spin on lemon curd that brings a delicious new dimension of flavor to the table — all without overcomplicating the process.

To make this citrusy magic, the majority of your ingredient list will remain about the same, except instead of butter, you'll want to use a ½ cup of olive oil to 1 cup of lemon juice. (Knowing how many ounces of juice are in a lemon will help you plan, but if you run dry too soon, there are also some tips to squeeze out every drop out of lemon juice.) From there you can go about your typical curd-making method, for example, combining these ingredients in a food processor, then cooking over a double boiler until thick and creamy.

Lemon curd, like other recipes that feature very few elements, is a great stage on which to highlight and experiment with your select ingredients. For example, it's a good chance get a better understanding of the difference between Meyer and regular lemons. And because your oil will also share center the spotlight in this variation, you can explore a range of options. The flavor profile of olive oil can range from grassy to peppery, smoky to herbal, nutty to woody, and beyond. In the context of this curd, you can take different brands and styles for a spin to see which you prefer paired with your lemons — and even tailor your flavor depending on how you plan to put it to use. But no matter what, this subtle non-dairy version will bring new life to your lemon curd.