Four Popular Healthy Recipes Using Olive Oil

 Olive oil is not only healthy, but can be used to cook various tasty food items. Here are some of the popular low calorie recipes where you may use olive oil.

Olive oil has certainly earned itself considerable popularity, especially among health-conscious consumers. The oil carries a number of properties which are beneficial for health and even helps to fight various diseases. The question which may now arise in your mind is, ‘As much as olive oil is good for health, is it possible to prepare tasty food with it?’. The answer is yes. There are several delicious yet low calorie recipes you may prepare using olive oil. In fact, the oil is even used to add flavour to various food items. Let us have a look at the popular recipes using olive oil:

• Marinade: In Mediterranean diet, olive oil is often used to marinade fish, meat, vegetables or poultry. Soaking these in a marinade of olive oil not only softens them greatly, but also adds various nutrients to the food.

• Salads: Olive oil is also used to prepare the dressing for salads. All you need to do is mix three parts of olive oil with 1 part of vinegar. If you wish, you may add seasonings such as salt, pepper, etc. to the vinegar and then add olive oil to it. About a tablespoon of this seasoning is sufficient for two cups of salad. This is one of the healthy recipes for making Mediterranean salads, which are well-known for their heavenly taste.

• Pasta: You may use olive oil to make your pasta healthy and tasteful. The recipe remains the same as the usual one for pasta, the only change being that you would be using olive oil to cook it. Once the pasta is almost ready, take some extra olive oil and heat it over medium heat. Once it’s sufficiently warm, add some garlic and a pinch of salt to it. After cooking it for about ten more seconds, stir the tomatoes, chopped scallions and parsley in. After you have drained out the cooking water, pour the warmed olive oil sauce into the pasta and coat it.

• Sauces: Olive oil is widely used to prepare sauces. While making the sauce, you just need to add some olive oil to it. The oil, would enrich the sauce with various nutrients and make it healthy for consumption. Moreover, olive oil ensures better blending of sauces. Mixing olive oil into sauce and whisking thoroughly would help to blend the watery ingredients of the sauce with the oily ones.

Olive oil is known to be a healthy oil for cooking due to its amazing health benefits. Contrary to most of the other oils, olive oils contain good fats. These do not cause weight gain. Rather, these monounsaturated fats are great anti-oxidants and help to keep the bloodstream clean. Consumption of olive oil can improve the heart health, help to fight cancer, kill bacteria, etc. There are several variants of olive oil, each with its own taste and health properties. These include pomace olive oil, virgin olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and more. Depending on your requirements and preferences, you may go for any of them.