Joy of Cooking With Olive Oil

How to incorporate different types of olive oil in your everyday cooking

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Because olive oil is so versatile in the kitchen, I've learned to really enjoy and savor cooking with olive oil. You can use it to make salad dressing, dress up your sauteed sirloin tips and even learn to substitute for butter when making your favorite pastries and cookies to make it healthier.

We'll discuss tips on which olive oil can be used for different types of dishes and learn many ways to incorporate different types of olive oil in your everyday cooking.

For instance, EVOO may be great to use in your salad dressing but not great for frying.

Therefore, it's good to learn how to choose the right grade of olive oil for your cooking.

Best Ways Olive Oil Can be Used

Cooking	Best Oil(s) To Use
Salad dressings	Extra-Virgin Olive Oil(EVOO), Virgin Olive Oil
Sauteing	Virgin Olive Oil, Olive Oil
Frying*	Olive Oil
Baking	Olive Oil
Marinating	EVOO, Virgin Olive Oil
Making Pastries	EVOO, Virgin Olive Oil
Grilling	Olive Oil
Making Soups and Stews	EVOO

You can reuse the leftover olive oil after frying for another time but no more than 5 times.

Helpful Chart to Convert Butter To Olive Oil

I'm sure if you've been used to cooking with butter, particularly for making cookies, cakes and pastries, it's hard to think that you can substitute butter for olive oil. Every cooking show that I've ever watched on the Food Network that features baking, I have never seen any of the hosts using olive oil as a substitute for butter.

If you're interested in making a healthy change without compromising your taste of course, you might want to try substituting butter or margarine for olive oil. You might even come to embrace cooking with olive oil over time and make it a natural habit.

So, in order to make it easier for you to switch over, here is a conversion chart that might be helpful for cooking with olive oil...

Butter	Olive Oil
1 teaspoon	3/4 teaspoon
1 tablespoon	2 1/4 or 2 1/2 teaspoons
2 tablespoons	1 1/2 tablespoons
1/4 cup	3 tablespoons
1/3 cup	1/4 cup
1/2 cup	1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
2/3 cup	1/2 cup
3/4 cup	1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon
1 cup	3/4 cup

Last Minute Tips In Cooking With Olive Oil

It's great to know that olive oil can be versatile enough to be used as a key ingredient in preparing and creating almost any type of meals.

You can use it to drizzle on your salad to marinating meat for grilling. If you want to get the most benefit out of your olive oil, be sure to follow the general guidelines...

• Extra-virgin olive oil can be used raw to add flavor and intensity to your meal. You may just appreciate the flavor even more.

• Save the extra-virgin olive oil for seasoning after the food has been already prepared to intensify the flavor. Best use the virgin olive oil or olive oil for cooking.

• Extra-virgin olive oil is great as a dipping sauce for your bread rather than butter. Most of the fancy restaurants typically serve EVOO with bread as an appetizer rather than butter.

  You can also just brush on your favorite EVOO on your garlic bread and broil to get that authentic garlic bread. Just sprinkle on some chopped garlic or garlic powder for added color and flavor.

• You can use olive oil or light olive oil for deep-frying and you should generate a beautiful golden brown color.

• Olive oil is great for frying or deep-frying meat, fish or vegetables. Just use plenty of olive oil to prevent food from sticking or burning. It's a great way have delicious food that's also good for your health.

• Olive oil is our all around favorite cooking oil! Not only is it healthy for you but it also tastes the best out of the rest of other oils.

  But in cooking variety is key! There's nothing wrong with incorporating other oils for different types of dishes.

  Canola oil is great substitute for all purposing cooking oil. It's also great for salads and baking.

  There are also a wide variety of flavored extra-virgin olive oils that add not only flavor but other health benefits.