Ghee

There are several great cooking oils out there in the world of Whole30. My go-to oils have traditionally been olive oil and avocado oil. Olive oil is great for low-medium cooking, while avocado oil works well in high heat situations. Avocado oil can be pricey, though so I was interested in finding an alternative. I decided to try ghee but was shocked at the sticker price! Some ghee brands were better than others but they all ran anywhere from $8 to $13. I decided to learn how to make my own using my favorite baking butter, unsalted Kerrygold. At just over $3.00 at my local Trader Joe’s, this home made ghee is the cheapest and best tasting ghee I have had. Making ghee is very similar to making clarified butter, just add a bit more time. Essentially, when the butter is heated, the milk solids separate from the “butter oil”. Straining the milk solids so that all that’s left is a dairy free butter oil is what makes ghee. The wonderful thing about making your own ghee is that you can control for the amount of nutty taste you can add by varying the length of time in the cooking process. Any time I want to add a beautiful golden crust when sautéing, I use ghee. Many Whole30 recipes call for coconut oil but recent literature has shown that coconut oil is not as healthy as once thought after all. So I tend to rotate between olive oil, avocado oil and ghee. Many olive oils that come from Italy are not olive oil  and I recommend staying away from imported olive oil (See article here). The best olive oil on the market is California Olive Ranch. Super high quality with a gorgeous peppery bite. When looking for a deal on Avocado oil, I make a run to Costco and pick up a giant bottle of Chosen Foods Avocado oil for about $8.

Homemade ghee