If you are following the whole foods vegan lifestyle, then you will want to avoid oil. Those who follow this path believe that oils only take away from an otherwise healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can avoid oil while cooking but still make delicious meals. Each of these methods will keep your foods full of their natural flavor without compromising your whole foods lifestyle.
Water Steaming or Sautéing
Vegetables are easily stir fried or steamed in water instead of oil. Because they already have a high water content, you won’t require a lot of water for sautéing vegetables on your stove top. Even though it might take a few times before you are able to perfect this, it is well worth the learning curve. After all, unlike oils, water does not contain any calories, meaning there is less of a chance that you exceed your daily calorie limit.
This makes water a simple, healthy and money-saving alternative to oil when cooking. When first trying the water sauté method, don’t step away from the stove while cooking, or the water can evaporate and burn your vegetables. You will want to keep a cup of water handy so you can add more when you need to.
Vegetable broth
Along with water, vegetable broth is one of the most popular and healthy oil replacements when sticking to a whole foods diet. Make sure you purchase only organic vegetable broth. The typical veggie broth offered by your local grocer is full of preservatives and extremely high in monosodium glutamate (MSG) and salt. Organic vegetable broth adds a wonderful natural flavor to foods, and is much healthier than most oils.
Replace Oil With the Right Cookware
Believe it or not, the right nonstick pot or pan can make cooking without oil virtually effortless. Avoid Teflon, and choose a stainless steel pan instead with a heavy bottom. You may want to select a ceramic titanium or enamel-coated cast iron product as well. You can also line your traditional bakeware with parchment paper when cooking in the oven.
Fruit Purée
Baking is not out of the question if you want to remove oil from your diet. A healthy and delicious fruit purée makes the perfect substitute for butter, oil or shortening. Mashed bananas or natural applesauce are two excellent oil alternatives for baking.
When you are first starting a new food journey, it can be a little intimidating. And finding out that you have to abandon the cooking methods that you are used to makes things even harder. Fortunately, with a bit of effort, you can find easy workarounds to most, if not all, of your healthy eating challenges.
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