To get the most bang for your buck, only use cold-pressed extra virgin olive oils for seasoning a finished dish or making salad dressing and use plain olive oil for cooking. Virgin olive oil and bottles marked “olive oil” are also excellent choices and will be gentler on the budget. For example, extra virgin olive oil is the least strained during production, which means that it is the richest in beneficial nutrients and the highest-priced variety. The nutritional profile of olive can change depending on how it was processed and stored. Once a bottle of olive oil is opened, the flavor begins to expire within four months. ![]() Like many oils, olive oil is perishable so don’t let an open bottle languish in the back of the pantry. Olive oil retains its nutritional value after production if it is kept in a cool, dark environment so refrain from keeping olive oil on the countertop and store bottles away from light and heat. Olive oil also contains polyphenols – plant compounds that offer anti-inflammatory benefits and support heart health. Olive oil is a good source of healthy fats and the antioxidant vitamin E, which supports healthy immune and neurological development in growing babies. Try using olive oil in place of butter in baking, drizzle your favorite flavor on fruit or grains, or take a cue from Greek lathera, a catch-all term meaning “the olive oil ones” that is used to describe any vegetable cooked in olive oil. Hundreds of varieties of olives are grown globally, from Australia to Chile to Israel to South Africa to New Zealand, which means this staple food offers a world of flavor to use in your sweet and savory cooking. The innovation created more than food historical texts show how olive oil was widely used as medicine, as fuel for lamplight, and as a symbol and tool in rituals and ceremonies. The plant’s exact origin is unknown, but archaeological evidence suggests people living in the region learned to press olives for their oil as early as 8,000 B.C. Greek philosopher Homer referred to olive oil as liquid gold, which is a fitting way to describe the healthy fat extracted from the fruit of the olive tree – an ancient plant that originated in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea millions of years ago.
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