Using Essential Olive Oil To Make Healthier Recipes

Olive oil gives the best results in terms of healthy food when it is used uncooked or in very mildly heated state. The olive oil recipes mostly include the salads and dips which are used either as side serve or as the starting course of the meal. There are various ways to use it for cooking healthy food and get more nutrients packed into a meal. Some of these ways are:

Dressing of a Salad: You can bind into the oil some spices like paprika, mustard seeds powder or healthy salt and fold the raw or half-boiled vegetables into it. This makes salad very delightful to taste by adding more flavors. The dressing is certainly less fatty than the ones made of cream or other oils. Thus, the very purpose of eating salads, which is cutting the fat from the food, is met tastefully with the use of olive oil as a dressing.

For more acidic flavor in the salads, the olive oil can be combined with rice vinegar, fruit vinegar, champagne vinegar and etc. For making two cups of salad, amount recommended is one tablespoon of olive oil. The vinegar and juices (orange or lime) are also used in combination with the olive oil to make tangier tasting salads. Vinegar and juices are shaken together first, then the olive oil as recommended in healthy recipes is added slowly. To keep the fat content low, the care is taken not to douse the vegetables or fruits into the oil but only as a dressing.

As a Sauteing Medium: There are various recipes in which the vegetables are half-boiled and then sauteed or stir-fried for a crunchier texture. Olive oil is best for cooking where sauteing is involved. It not only sticks to the vegetables nicely; it does not burn so easily too. Thus, the sauteed vegetables will have natural flavor intact and the healthiness of the oil will come as a bonus for the lovers of healthy food.

As a pickling agent for Storing Vegetables: Preserving vegetables is a nice option when you want ready ingredients to fix a quick dish for that hunger pang. If you have taken ample care while pickling the vegetables, olive can act as a trusted medium for using vegetables even a week apart. For pickling purposes, two parts and one part vinegar are mixed together. Salt and pepper are added to it. This works as great preserving agent. You can use vegetables like avocados, carrots, cabbage and broccoli nicely blanched and fold them in the olive oil and vinegar and leave them for margination. The vegetables marinated this way can be taken out for stir-frying or used as filling for sandwich when needed. The shelf-life of this pickling method is about a week.

So, when you need to have little bit of oil in your healthy food, you can switch to olive oil. This oil, high in anti-oxidants and minerals has lots to offer in terms of health and taste. Well-known as an excellent source of healthy fats, the olive oil is a very versatile ingredient which when used in everyday recipes helps to elevate their flavor.

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