Many people aresurprised to learn that it’s easy to cookgreat foodwithout oil or butter. Besides being healthier, it’s not hard to make the switch to oil-free cooking. You’ll still steam, poach, boil, and stew your dishes the same way. Here is a breakdown of how to sauté, stir-fry, bake, and roast without added fat.
Why Cook Without Oil?
Someoilsare advertised as health foods. But no oil is really healthy, not even coconut oil, flaxseed oil, or olive oil.Oilis purely fat (with all other nutrients stripped away) and contains more calories per gram than any other food. Read more on this subject from the FOK experts here.
It’s extremely easy to cook without oil using nonstick pots and pans, because the food doesn’t stick. If you want to avoid Teflon, then use a good-quality, heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan. Enamel-coated cast iron and ceramic titanium pans are also good options.
Use nonstick or silicone ovenware for easy release when roasting vegetables or baking preparing oil-free desserts. Or you can line your standard bakeware with parchment paper, as nothing sticks to it.
When cooking a dish that requires the final result to be dry, use a flame diffuser (aka flame tamer), which provides even heat without creating burn rings at the edge of the pan as the food cooks down. A diffuser is also useful when you want to cook something on the stove without giving it your full attention, so you can focus on other tasks. It is also useful when your pans are not of good quality or you’re making a dish that requires a low, steady heat.
Choose Your Oil-Free Cooking Method
Sautéing and stir-frying—The most common question I get on this topic is how to sauté or stir-fry without butter or oil. The trick is to use small amounts of water or broth, adding just a small amount (1 to 2 tablespoons) at a time. Do this as often as needed to cook and brown the food, without steaming it. Also, remember to toss and stir the food periodically with a wooden spoon so that it doesn’t burn.
Baking—You can use a fruit purée as a healthy (and delicious!) substitute for fats like oil, butter, or shortening. Some of my favorites include applesauce, mashed bananas, and puréed dates. In some instances, nut flour or nut butters can serve as substitutions or additions.
Roasting—There’s no need to coat your vegetables or other foods with oil before roasting them in the oven. They might take a little longer, but they will eventually brown and roast nicely. Before placing them in the oven, I like to season my vegetables with spices, herbs, and either a little vegetable stock or a light water-soy sauce mixture.
Deep frying alternative—It may take a little getting used to, but I’m confident that you will come to enjoy the not-greasy but still delicious (and far healthier) choice to bake your potatoes and veggies instead of deep frying them.You can even bake up delicious (eggless) breaded patties or veggies by lightly dipping them in a slurry of arrowroot powder or cornstarch mixed with either water or unsweetened, unflavored plant milk, and then coating them with whole-grain bread crumbs or cornmeal. Use nonstick, silicone, or parchment-lined baking sheets to achieve a crispy outer crust.
Experiment with Oil-Free Condiments
Sauces—For dishes that normally use butter or heavy cream, you can create plant-based versions by puréeing beans, lentils, or vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, or potatoes, along with nut or soymilk, nutritional yeast, miso, and/or nut butter.
Salad dressings—For tasty oil-free salad dressing, you can whisk or blend some vinegar, spices, and herbs with fruit juice and a bit of pulp (for sweet dressings), or with nut or seed butter (to add a little creaminess to savory dressings). Here are three recipes to get you started: Cheesy Caesar Dressing, “Magical” Applesauce Vinaigrette, Classic Dijon Dressing.
Learn more essential healthy cooking skills and become a plant-based home chef in 90 days with Forks Cooking Course. The online cooking course includes 55 hours of content that you can consume at your own pace, live Q&As with chef-instructors, quizzes to track your progress and more.
These methods naturally cook with liquid and do not require added oil. Steam your veggies, and save boiling for pasta. Steaming minimizes nutrient loss and retains texture, whereas boiling means losing vitamins and minerals to the cooking water.
Simply sauté your ingredients in water or broth (for soups and stews), or coconut milk (for curries) before adding your other ingredients. This works because you'll be adding additional liquid to cook your ingredients later anyway, namely water, broth, or coconut milk.
Water can only be heated to 100C before it starts to evaporate. So although the pan gets hot, the frying medium (water) will never get any hotter as it disappears (literally!). It's easy to saute veggies in a couple of tablespoons of water.
✓ Use fat free broth or fat free milk in mashed potatoes, soups, gravies and stews. ✓ Season food with herbs, spices, lemon juice, red wine vinegar or salsa rather than butter, creams and sauces. ✓ Use low fat cooking methods, such as broiling, grilling, roasting, baking, microwaving, poaching and steaming.
The cooking method does not oil is baking and steaming like pan-frying, stir-frying, and deep-frying. Explanation: The baking the cake and bread does not include oil. The steaming rice, momos does not include oil.
The most common way to replace oil in baked goods is by using applesauce or mashed banana. Other fruit purees work too, but most of them add more flavor – apple and banana are neutral enough to not overpower other flavors.
It's extremely easy to cook without oil using nonstick pots and pans, because the food doesn't stick. If you want to avoid Teflon, then use a good-quality, heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan. Enamel-coated cast iron and ceramic titanium pans are also good options.
Both of these fruits can be used as a partial substitute for vegetable oil in baked goods. We don't recommend a full swap — try half fruit and half oil or butter — for the best results. (Fat is still needed to create moistness.)
In the pan: You can easily fry meat with no cooking oil in a griddle or a normal, nonstick pan. The natural fats of the meat are enough to cook it, but if you want to add a little something to help it on its way, try a splash of sparkling mineral water.
While oil-free foods tend to be healthier, you don't have to remove oils completely to maintain a healthy diet. Like anything else, moderation is key — you can consume oil in small amounts to retain a balanced diet. Remember that it's important to incorporate healthy fats naturally into your diet.
Here's the water-sauté method I use for most situations. Add the chopped vegetables and two tablespoons of water to a skillet or pan and turn the heat to medium or medium-low. It will take a few minutes for the vegetables to start sizzling. Use more than two tablespoons if you have a large pan.
Address: 2033 Gerhold Pine, Port Jocelyn, VA 12101-5654
Phone: +8524399971620
Job: Central Manufacturing Supervisor
Hobby: Jogging, Metalworking, Tai chi, Shopping, Puzzles, Rock climbing, Crocheting
Introduction: My name is Edmund Hettinger DC, I am a adventurous, colorful, gifted, determined, precious, open, colorful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
