There are a million reasons why you should use less oil in cooking. For one, it’s super expensive and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. While some cooking oil like vegetable oils are generally seen as healthy sources of fat, they still have high amounts of polyunsaturated omega-6 fat. This can raise your blood pressure, lead to blood clots that can cause heart attack and stroke, and cause your body to retain water.
With that being said, it’s about time we find a way to cook without using too much oil if any. Here are 7 hacks for cooking with less oil:
1. Use vegetable broth
One major hack is to replace the oil with liquids. Vegetable broth is a great liquid that you can use. It will also help to increase the flavour of the food. How do you do this? Heat up a few tablespoons until sizzling, then add your vegetables or meat. This helps to prevent sticking. Remember to stir frequently, and you can keep adding small amounts of broth to deglaze the pan too.
To make vegetable broth, cut up 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 Bell Pepper, and coriander stalks. Add to a sufuria. Then, add some cold water to the sufuria and boil. Once you start seeing some bubbling around the edges of the sufuria and a few wisps of steam, turn the heat down to medium-low and allow this to simmer for about 30-45 min. After this, remove the broth from the heat, strain your liquid, allow it to cool then store it for future use.
2. Buy non-stick cookware
If you want to spend less money on oil, you might need to make another investment, and that’s non-stick cookware. One of the main reasons why we use oil is to prevent oil from sticking to the pan or cooking pot. Cooking without oil becomes a whole lot easier if you have some quality nonstick pots and pans on hand. Make sure to skip harmful Teflon, which at high temperatures starts to break down, releasing toxic chemicals into the air. Instead, use heavy stainless steel or enamel-coated cast iron.
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3. Use avocado
For all the avocado lovers who are also looking to use less oil, this will be your time to shine. You can replace your cooking oils with avocado and it will do just the job! How? Blend or puree the avocado and use it as you would cooking oil. It can also replace your bread spread as avocado toast. Lastly, you can also use it to bake in the place of oil. Note, however, that avocado can cause baked goods to brown more quickly, so you might need to lower your oven temperature slightly.
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4. Use parchment paper
Again, since you won’t be using oil, you need to find a way to stop the food from sticking to the pan. Parchment paper is a great way to do this. Purchase some parchment paper to toss food on before you place it in the oven. The parchment paper keeps the food from sticking and makes cooking and cleanup without oil a breeze.
5. Invest in an air-fryer
Sometimes we have to spend more to save more. To use less cooking oil, you’ll need to invest in an air-fryer. Air-fryers have gained a lot of popularity in the last few years as people try to eat healthier and for a good reason. The food is healthy and it saves you time. Plus, it is pretty easy to use an air-fryer. Simply season your food, put it in the air fryer basket, and set the desired temperature and time.
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6. Utilize the oven or grill
You can also decide to grill more food than you fry it. An oven is a great tool because it requires minimal supervision. Plus, you can bake a lot of good tasty food from the oven. It will probably also save you a lot of time since you can do a lot of dovetailing.
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7. Try steaming
Steamed food is great! Whether it’s vegetables or maize or even fish, you can use the right flavour to make some super tasty food. Steamed food retains the flavour and nutrition intact as well as makes the food lighter. You can steam your food simply using water or vegetable stocks. While steaming, add a sprinkle of your preferred spice to boost the flavour.
