You would sub the oil even up for the butter....I have never done it with canola...but hve with extra virgin olive oil...and you can taste it...not that that's bad...
I would guess you could use a more tasteless oil and add perhaps a little butter flavoring, if it's important to you...
But I would skip it and use onions for flavor!
Yeah....home made white sauce is soooo much better than canned soup...and really easy once you get the knack.
Linda C

Why don't you give safflower oil a try. It's very light, almost as healthy as cannola, but it tastes better.

I often cut way back on the fat in white sauces. You can usually get away with half the butter (or half the amount of oil). Another way to make your white sauces healthier--use half low-fat milk and half chicken stock. Not only healthier, but TASTIER too!

Thanks - you even answered the chicken stock question I was wondering about.

I tend to avoid making béchamel sauces and stick with velouté instead (because of lactose problems), but both generally start with a roux.

You can reduce the oil in the sauces to zero by using potato flour or potato starch as a thickener instead of a roux. Often I will reduce the amount of the roux and then add potato starch as needed to finish the thickening. It depends on how important the flavor of the roux is to the sauce. A dark roux (common in Cajun/Creole cooking) will have a somewhat nutty flavor, but as Linda suggested, you could sauté some onions in a minimal amount of oil instead to make up for the loss of flavor. BTW, potato starch will give a bit of a potato flavor to the sauce, but it is fairly subtle.

Lars

Lars,
is potato starch/potato flour the same as instant potatoes which I know are often used to thicken food. Or is it something else and if it is where I do find it?

Thank you

Theresa

I wouldn't swear to it but I don't think instant potatoes will thicken sauces, unless you use a lot of it...

You can usually find potato starch or flour any place they sell Bob's Red Mill flours..

Or you could make your own... Have you ever let cut potatoes sit in water for a while and you end up with some white stuff in the bottom of the pot... That's potato starch... If you carefully drain most of the water you can use what's left to thicken gravy... But that's only if you have a lot of potatoes and aren't going to make much gravy... lol

If you have a juicer you can make enough to thicken just about any amount of liquid... About five pounds of potatoes will give you about a 1/2 cup of potato starch... Wash and peal the potatoes and run them through the juicer... Put the juice in a jar then let the 'juice' sit until the starch settles to the bottom, slowly pour off the 'water', add fresh water, shake it up a bit and let it sit some more... Repeat that a few times until the water stays clear... Leave a little water in the jar ( about 1/2 the amount of starch ), put the top on and keep it in the refrigerator until you need it... If you're going to keep it for any length of time refresh the water every few days... Use it the same way you use corn starch.

Rita

Theresa, Rita is correct..I use the Bob Red Mill..there is actually potato flour and potato starch 'flour'. I use potato starch flour. It feels like cornstarch..which you can substitute..but in my mind the potato starch doesn't leave a starch taste..which cornstarch can do sometimes.

I don't know about instant potatoes - I guess you would have to read the package to be sure, but I don't think they are the same. Instant potatoes might have butter, salt, and other ingredients added.

I buy potato flour at a Japanese market. It's used quite commonly in Japanese sauces, possibly because of food allergies to corn and/or wheat. I bought Manischewitz brand Potato Starch in the Kosher department of the grocery store, and so you might try looking there. What I like about potato starch is that it will dissolve in hot liquid without making bad lumps, but it's easier if you make a slurry first, although the slurry doesn't have to be cold. It's much easier to work with than cornstarch. You can also find potato flour in health food markets, but I've always found it in regular markets as well.

Potato starch is a powerful thickener - it thickens when heated - and so you have to be careful not to use too much. I use it frequently to add to marinades which I then heat in the microwave (if it is a small quantity). I then use the leftover marinade as a sauce. This works especially well for soy sauce based sauces as well as for fish.

Lars

Thanks everyone, that clears it up for me. I didn't think it was the same as instant potatoes and I am glad, not a fan of them.

I live about 2 miles from Bob Red Mill's store; I go there frequently so I will buy some potato flour.

I don't like butter, so I am not a big fan of roux but did not know how else to thicken "stuff".

Thanks again.