Cooking With Olive Oil
If you are trying to eat smarter and healthier, you must be worried about excessive consumption of oil, butter, margarine and other high-fat, cholesterol rich foods. Excessive consumption of high fat and high cholesterol foods can cause a number of health problems like obesity, heart disease, and stroke. One easy way to reduce your chance of heart disease is by cooking with monounsaturated fats like olive oil, instead of butter and stick margarine. Olive oil can improve the taste of almost any dish. However, you have to know certain facts about olive oil cooking for best results.
First of all, you should know that there are three types of Olive oil, and you can use different types for making different foods. Virgin and extra virgin Olive oils are the best for low temperature cooking or , When you apply heat to extra virgin olive oil, it does not retain its complex flavor, so it is better for use with uncooked foods like salad dressings, raw or lightly cooked vegetables, says Registered Dietitian and Joy of Kosher founder Tamar Genger. Moreover, extra virgin olive oil can be quite expensive and just a little can enhance the flavor of any dish.
On the other hand, pure olive oil comes through a different refining process and it is perfect for high heat cooking purposes. It has a smoking point of 410º F, which gives you the option to cook foods in high temperature (like deep frying). You can not cook at such a high temperature with other oils like vegetable oil, corn oil, peanut oil and others. Moreover, it can maintain its flavor even with high heating; and you can reuse the oil after multiple uses so it is environmentally friendly.
Baking foods like fish, meat, omelets with butter is a common practice. But it is not the only option. If you replace butter with olive oil, you can get dual benefits. Firstly, use of olive oil will reduce saturated fat in baking; and secondly, you will get a scrumptious taste in those foods. Moreover, Tamar Genger says that you have to use less olive oil compared to butter to cook any food. Normally, for a cup of butter or margarine you would use ¾ cup of olive oil, but for more accuracy, you can check out any reliable conversion chart available in the Internet.
Consumption of cooked foods rich in olive oil can lower cholesterol levels in the human body; thus it helps you to stay away from the risk of several diseases like Coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, over weight and others. However, Tamar Genger thinks that you have to keep it in a cool and dark place; otherwise the oil can easily break down in sunlight and temperature and become rancid. So, keep all these things in mind for cooking healthy and delicious dishes with Olive oil.
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