I recently purchased my first bottle of avocado oil thanks to Costco. I brought it home and was using it for salad dressing with white wine vinegar and some seasonings and that was pretty yum, but then got to wondering if I could use it for cooking and what the benefits if any are of using avocado oil. So I looked it up! Plus the bottle had lots of great info on it too.It has an unusually high smoking point and is very heat stable which makes it great for sauteing, baking, marinating, stir-frying, grilling, and even frying foods in. In case you don't know the smoking point is defined as the temperature at which an oil starts to show visible smoke in the pan. When it starts smoking the fatty acids break down structurally, flavor is lost, and unhealthy compounds are formed.
Avocado oil's smoking point is listed as somewhere between 480 (unrefined oil) and 520 refined oil) F. Compare that to olive oil's 300 to 400 degree (depending on the level of refinement) smoking point.
Avocado oil, like olive oil, comes from the fruit of the avocado not the seed or the nut like a lot of oils.
The fatty acid profile for avocados is comparable to olive oil. About 76% of the fat is monounsaturated, 12% is saturated and the rest polyunsaturated.
So what about the flavor you ask.. slightly nutty. I was afraid it was have a really strong flavor and I wouldn't like it, but it's so good!
I used it in a shaved brussel sprouts salad, a pasta salad and used in in my pizza dough last night. All good. I also used it for a simple salad dressing with equal parts avocado oil and white basalmic vinegar and a dash or two of Mrs. Dash. It may be my new favorite salad dressing.
It is also supposed to be really great for your skin. Lots of vitamin E, rehydrating properties, reduces the appearance of age spots, etc There are lots of other touted benefits you can find by Googling it like it's good for blood pressure, has anti cancer properties, good for psoriasis.
My take home is it is a great all around oil for the kitchen.
Tell me your favorite cooking oils right now, or just favorite oil. One of my favorites is still pumpkin oil but it is dreadfully hard to find in Billings MT. SO GOOD!
I recently branched out and started using coconut oil. So much better for you than others!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds delish! We have a costco membership too so I may have to try it - plus I love avocados! And oil! And I have terrible skin!
ReplyDeleteSounds great! I haven't experimented with oil much...we stick to olive oil for the most part!
ReplyDeleteI love coconut oil! I also tried safflower oil this evening and used a non non-stick pan and it may be a little more black now. Whoops! The food (I cut chicken breasts in half and marinaded them) was amazing and worth the mess! Safflower oil I believe also has a high smoking point. The only downfall about is the splatter. It made a huge mess and I even had a splatter screen on my pan. I would love to try avocado oil!
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