The Best Kind Of Butter For Sautéing Veggies

Sautéing vegetables in butter, whether in a stir fry, or simply a batch of spring peas, adds a depth of flavor to dishes that vegetable oil just doesn't provide. The rich, umami flavor of quality butter provides a sort of silky coating to each al dente bite, like corn on the cob in a pan. There's an even better version of butter for pan frying: clarified butter or ghee (browned butter). Cooked down to concentrated butterfat, clarified butter is almost the Platonic essence of butter. Ghee — a browned version of clarified butter with the toasted milk solids filtered out — is popular in Indian cuisine and adds a nutty unctuousness that clarified butter can lack. You can make your own ghee at home or buy a jar, and have it at the ready for all sorts of veggie dishes.

It's important to note that, while many people use the two terms interchangeably, there is a difference between clarified butter and ghee. As Alton Brown explains it on his site, clarified butter is butter slowly cooked down to remove the water. Ghee is that same butter cooked longer until it's a deep gold to light brown hue with a nutty, intense flavor (even with the browned milk solids filtered out). Each offers a higher smoke point in the frying pan, which is a huge advantage over regular butter that burns easily. And both enhance the flavor of your veggies in different ways. Some people also say ghee is easier to digest than regular butter, though the science may not bear that out.

An ideal sauté involves high heat (300 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit) and a limited time in the pan. But there's a risk of burning butter. So it's a big deal to use an oil with a high smoke point, like vegetable or safflower oil. Both clarified butter and ghee have high smoke points (up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit), thanks to a lack of water, which is great when making sautéed veggies.

When making your own clarified butter or ghee, filter out any solid bits (milk fats). Second, add clarified butter to the (cold or hot) pan first, melting it to temperature before adding vegetables, then thoroughly coat them while cooking. Because the water is already cooked off, you won't need as much clarified butter as regular butter. Finally, avoid some of the worst mistakes when stir-frying by adding ingredients in the right order so nothing overcooks. When sautéing vegetables before adding them to soup, the concentrated flavor of clarified butter enhances homemade soups even more.

With clarified butter, you're getting a sort of rich popcorn butter flavor that enhances natural sweetness, so consider peas, carrots, corn, or red bell peppers as great candidates. Ghee contributes a deep nuttiness and a slight aftertaste, so bitter and umami vegetables like cauliflower, potatoes, and mushrooms all work nicely. Customize dishes with flavored ghee, like the vanilla or garlic ghee from 4th & Heart, or make clarified compound butter, like an herb and garlic butter.