Oil free and low salt is a great way to go!
I have eliminated oil from my everyday cooking. I now sauté vegetables in water and bake instead of fry. I have also eliminated oil from salad dressing. We are not deprived of any flavor and feel even better than ever. I have even lost 2 lbs.! Bonus!
And a pinch of salt is enough to bring out the flavor of food. There is no reason to salt every layer of every dish as I have seen chefs on television do and I had been doing prior to this experiment. Our palettes adjusted and it is fine.
There is pretty much only one food and one cooking method that require oil: the mighty potato and roasting.
Let’s talk potatoes first. I am not talking about straight up baked potatoes or mashed potatoes. I am talking about oven fries and home fries. I LOVE them and they are just not the same without oil – I tried, believe me. But that’s okay. Since we are not sick with heart disease or diabetes, a little oven fry or home fry once in a while will be fine for us and I pledge to use the littlest amount of oil I possibly can for each dish. But for the most part, I will be making regular old jacket potatoes from now on.
As for roasting vegetables, this is off the table if I want to be completely oil free. But for a recipe or two that calls for roasting vegetables, I will use as little oil as possible to still get the crispiness desired. I did not have luck “roasting” vegetables tossed with vegetable stock.
As far as baking, I have several cookie recipes up that are oil free. I have been experimenting with turbinado sugar (raw sugar) which is less processed than cane sugar (and part of the WFPB lifestyle.) I have come up with a brownie recipe using butternut squash (to be posted soon) but an entire cake has not happened yet. But since we don’t eat cake everyday, I think a cake with a little oil in it is okay for us too.
All in all, this month has proven to me that further dietary changes require a little bit of effort and adventure. And it only takes about 10 days to adapt to a new way of being whether it is in food or life. So think about it, try it, and let me know how your food project is going. You might just be surprised.
Great conclusion to an adventurous month, Lisa! Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂
It was great reading your blog this month (although I always like reading your blog :-)). I should make an extra effort to use less oil, less (or nothing) processed, etc..
Can I ask your reasons for going oil free? I’ll go now and look through old posts and probably find the answer there, but right now there is such a resurgence of the ‘back to fat’ type movement it is interesting to encounter someone cutting back on oil. I know that a lot of the vitamins in certain vegetables require fat to be utilized by the body, which would be a consideration to maybe do *less* oil versus no oil.
thank you! and it just takes a little effort but it is doable!
i am a follower of dr. t colin campbell and dr. esselstyn. for maximum health they recommend no oil, salt, or processed foods. so you can get the fats you need from the olives, avocados, walnuts etc. instead of the oil version of those things. it is a cleaner way to eat and i have certainly proven it to myself.
I use my Misto spritz to make oven fries with some but little oil.
yes, good idea! i don’t want to use a spray though that has anything in it other than oil. so i am still looking!