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Using essential oils in cooking - add flavor and health

December 13th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Essential oils can be used in cooking, and you can drink them too.

Got a cold? Mix one drop of ginger essential oil with a teaspoon of honey in a cup, and fill the cup with very hot water for a steaming drink which will clear your airways and restore your energy.

Use pure therapeutic grade essential oils in cooking

Everyone cooks with herbs, and you know that herbs lose their aroma and flavor in time - most dried herbs have a shelf-life of only six months before they turn to sawdust. Indeed, by the time you buy them, most dried herbs have lost 90 per cent of their healing effects.

This doesn’t happen with essential oils. If you keep your oils in a dark place away from light, and tightly stoppered, they retain their aroma and benefits.

Replace your dried herbs with essential oils in your cooking - you’ll be thrilled with the results.

You need no more than a single drop of an essential oil per recipe serving four to five people.

Here’s a recipe for grilled chicken.

Chicken recipe
Make a marinade of: and let soak ½ hour or store until needed. 
4 Tbsp Honey, 
1 wine glass of white wine or apple cider 
2 drops each of Orange & Lemon essential oil

Aromatherapy’s essential oils in cooking - add a gourmet touch

July 31st, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Want to add a true gourmet touch to your meals? You can add essential oils like basil to your next pasta meal, and a drop of ginger will lift the dullest meat casserole.

In addition, ingredients like infused oils and flavored butters not only adds a tremendous amount of flavor to your meals, these types of ingredients cause your smell receptors to come alive.

You might never have thought about this before, but eating involves more than your sense of taste. Unfortunately for many of us, we never seem to have enough time to fully appreciate our meals. We eat fast while on the go, and never give our brains enough time to process the experience. If we could only slow down, we would realize that eating involves the sense of smell as well.

In fact, much of what we taste is influenced by smell. It has to be otherwise, we could only taste what our tongues have been designed to process - saltiness, bitterness, sweetness and sourness. Need further proof? Walk into any home at meal time or any restaurant and before we even see food we smell it and we’re able to pick out different aromas and that makes us instantly hungry.

Here are a few tips on incorporating aromatherapy into your cooking.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your food! Herbs, spices and even edible flowers can breathe new life into your meals. These ingredients will turn the most boring of foods like vegetables into foods you look forward to eating.

Incorporating aromatherapy into your cooking can help you lose weight. One reason why people tend to gravitate towards high fat foods is because these foods taste so good. And while cheese, creams, gravies and butter do add a lot of flavor, they also add a lot of calories. Using more fruits, vegetables and lean proteins in your recipes and flavoring them with herbs and flavored oils will provide you with the vitamins, nutrients and will invigorate, revitalize and lift your mood at the same time!

Before you can add aroma and flavor to food, it’s got to be released from the plant material first. Heat is an effective method of extracting aromas, but too much heat will damage these plants and consequently, spoil your meals. For best results, always heat slowly using low heat. 

What products can be used in aromatherapy cooking?

Essential oil infusions

Infusions are great to use in aromatherapy cooking. Not only do they add a variety of different flavors, they’re easy to make. An infusion is an oil or water that has been steeped generally with herbs or flowers.

Herbed butter

Used sparingly, herbed butters add a tremendous amount of flavor and an incredible aroma to practically any food. And as with infusions, herbed butters are easy to make at home. 

Herbs

When cooking, you’ll extract more flavors if you use fresh herbs; if you’re using a dried herb like thyme, a drop or two of the essential oil will make the dry herbs smell and taste like fresh.

Ideas to try

Instead of pastas made with cheese and meat, toss with vegetables that have been sautéed in infused oils.

Brush poultry, vegetables and seafood with herbed butter, wrap in aluminum foil, then grill. The steam will help the flavor of the herbed butters seep throughout the grilled items.

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