I bet you thought essential oils were used to make your home smell pretty?
Scent is just one of the marvels essential oils; but what are they exactly? Essential oils are potent naturally occurring aromatic compounds extracted from various parts of plants, flowers and trees. These compounds provide plants with protection against environmental threats. In addition to their intrinsic benefits to plants and being beautifully aromatic to people, essential oils have long been used for food preparation, beauty treatment, and health-care practices.
Because cooking, eating, and drinking are such a natural part of our everyday lives, it is no surprise that essential oils are also useful in the kitchen. With so many options for spices, seasonings, and extracts on the market that can help enhance our food, you might be wondering, “Why should I cook with essential oils?”
Essential oils provide any meal with powerful flavour (even with a single drop!), but they also allow you to enjoy any internal health benefits that the essential oil may hold, as well as providing a natural way to flavour your food and offering convenience when fresh ingredients are not available.
Potent Flavour In A Drop
Essential oils are naturally potent because they are highly concentrated. 45 lemons are used to produce 15ml of lemon essential oil – that’s 3 lemons per ml of oil! A single drop may be enough to add an extra kick of flavour your favourite dishes.
Health Boost
When taken internally, pure essential oils provide a simple way to promote wellness. Depending on the oil, you can use essential oils to promote healthy digestion, cleanse, support healthy body functions, provide antioxidants and other internal benefits.* Cooking with essential oils provides a fun, creative way to use oils internally and reap the benefits and potent flavour they have to offer.
Safe, natural ingredients
While there are plenty of spices, seasonings and extracts available, many of the commercially available options may contain highly processed or questionable ingredients. As mentioned, essential oils are taken directly from natural sources, and do not include processed or harmful ingredients so you can know exactly what you’re putting in your food. (Read safety information below.)
Convenience
While some people prefer to use raw or fresh ingredients to flavour their food, these kinds of ingredients aren’t always readily available. Perhaps you don’t have time to get to the store to buy fresh basil or you cannot find fresh ingredients throughout the year.
As it only takes a tiny amount of essential oil to add flavour to any dish, you can save money by not having to replace your ingredients as often; you also don’t have to worry about fresh ingredients going bad if you don’t use them up before they rot. While using fresh ingredients is still a wonderful way to enhance your cooking, essential oils provide a convenient way to add flavour when you need it.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Not all essential oils are safe for consumption.
Due to their chemical makeup, some essential oils should never be added to food or used internally in any amount. Here’s a list of approved essential oils safe for internal consumption.
Remember that not all essential oils are created equal, and some companies will use fillers or synthetic ingredients in their oils. By using (CPTG) Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade essential oils in your cooking, you can enjoy the benefits of natural flavours and ingredients. Before buying essential oils, research the company’s sourcing and testing processes.
CPTG means the essential oils has passed several rounds of vigorous testing to ensure the final product does not contain any contaminants or harmful substances.
Sourcing high quality essential oils
This is definitely a topic in itself and today I will share 3 main points on what helped me choose the right essential oil company.
Purity:
independent and in house testing for purity must be done to ensure the product is free from harmful substances and synthetics.
Sourcing of raw materials:
the company ethically sources its raw ingredients and promotes the growth of each member of the supply chain from the farmer to the end user.
Traceability:
that each bottle of essential oil can be traced back to its source. This ensures consumer safety.
dōTERRA® uses the CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic® grade testing process to ensure that essential oils are safe to use. During several rounds of rigorous testing, essential oils are closely examined to ensure that they don’t contain any contaminants or harmful substances.
TRY THIS ROSEMARY LEMON HUMMUS
with doTERRA(R) Lemon and Rosemary essential oils
Servings: 12–15
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Ingredients
1 can organic chickpeas (1⁄2 liquid drained)
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons organic cold pressed olive oil
2 tablespoons Tahini
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon
2 drops doTERRA Lemon essential oil
1 drop doTERRA Rosemary essential oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
Directions
Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth.
Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes and serve with sliced cucumbers, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, crackers, pita bread, Maltese ftira.
About the Author: Hannah Cremona is a doTERRA Wellness Advocate. Essential oils, although natural, are very potent and must be used carefully and properly. For advice on how to use essential oils and recipes to try, contact hannah@naturallyhannah.com
