The Ultimate Guide to Argan Oil for Eating
A quick guide to this article:
- What is argan oil for cooking or eating?
- How do you make argan oil to eat?
- What does argan oil to eat taste like?
- What are the argan oil health benefits?
- How to cook with argan oil?
- Easy recipes with argan oil to eat
- youforher’s pure roasted argan oil for eating
1. What is argan oil for cooking or eating?
Can you eat argan oil? you may ask… Of course you can!! It's not only used for your skin and hair beauty routine.
Pure roasted argan oil for cooking is a delicious healthy superfood oil, filled with nutrients such as essential fatty acids (omegas 3, 6 and 9), vitamin E and antioxidants. It comes from the argan tree, natively grown only in Morocco, used for centuries by local Moroccans. It is a wonderful oil for the food lovers, the superfoodies, healthy eaters and those on any of the special diets like keto, paleo, gluten free and vegan. Argan oil for cooking is roasted, cold-pressed, virgin oil, and 100% pure!
2. How do you make argan oil to eat?
Argan oil is created from the argan tree (Argania spinosa), a very tough and rare tree that is only grown in southwest Morocco. These trees strongly support the ecosystem of Morocco, preventing desert encroachment, as well as providing shade and a food source for the local wildlife. The trees are now protected within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve to ensure its conservation and ensure that they are harvested sustainably. When the fruit from the argan tree are ripe and fallen, they are collected and left to dry naturally in the sun.
After drying, the fruits are cracked open by hand to reveal the tough argan nut inside. This nut then is cracked open, by using stones and skilled artisan hand strength, to reveal the golden kernel inside. Yes. These nuts are manually cracked opened by hand with a stone! The higher price of argan oil is due to this laborious, time consuming process of extracting the kernel.
Sounds like a lot of work? It is! It takes one Berber woman around three days to make just one litre of argan oil. But this is the best method to maintain the high quality and high nutrient content of the oil.
Fun fact: In the past Moroccans used to retrieve the nuts by collecting the excrements of goats who love to eat the argan fruit… thank goodness we don’t have to use this method anymore! ;)
The kernels are then gently roasted before being cold-pressed into oil and passed through filters to remove the residual solids.
Worth knowing! The leftover products in this entire process are reused! That means zero waste. :) The nutrient-packed dried fruit and leftover solids from cold-pressing are used as local animal feed, and the leftover shells from the nuts are used as firewood for local ovens.
3. What does argan oil to eat taste like?
Argan oil for eating has a very unique flavour. It’s smooth and nutty, and gives the impression of a silky, creamy-like texture. You may think it reminds you of hazelnuts. What’s great is that the oil is really diverse. It’s not too powerful, so it doesn’t take over an entire dish flavour, but gives enough flavour to leave a subtle hint of delicious roasted nuttiness.
4. What are the argan oil health benefits?
We believe the argan oil benefits to health really make it an amazing superfood. Packed with nutrients such as vitamin E, antioxidants, omegas 3, 6 and 9, argan oil is scientifically proven to help with improving many health issues. It’s known to help prevent heart health issues, lower bad cholesterol levels, help improve weight and digestion issues, and help prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s, just to name a few! The antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties also help fight the signs of aging.
5. How to cook with argan oil?
Argan oil is best eaten at room temperature to maximise the most nutritional benefits, similar to that of olive oil. It is delicious as salad dressings or dips to have with fresh bread. A recent discovery of ours is how delicious argan oil is with desserts! Either drizzled over the top of a dessert or ice-cream, or added as a core dessert ingredient to replace coconut oil or butter.It’s also great for low-medium heat cooking any vegetable or meat dish with spices. If used for cooking with heat, it is best to add the oil towards the end of the cooking to add depth and flavour. It is an incredibly versatile oil, adding a delicious nutty richness to any dish, both sweet and savoury. The possibilities of its use are truly endless, here are some of our favourite ways to cook with it:
- As a dressing on salads, on its own or mixed with lemon and olive oil (or other typical dressing ingredients!).
- As a stand-alone dip with fresh bread.
- As a dip mixed with other ingredients such as honey, peanut butter, or tahini.
- As a breakfast condiment (mixed with honey and nut butter).
- As a marinade for grilled fish or meats.
- As a marinade for roasted veggies.
- As a flavour enhancer drizzled on top of any meat or veggie dish. It especially goes well on top of curries!
- Cooked within baked goods, such as cookies, brownies and cakes.
- As an ice cream topping on its own, or on top of yoghurt.
- Within salsas.
6. Easy recipes with argan oil to eat.
Here are a few of our favourites, but check out our recipe blog here for many more!
Super Simple Yoghurt Argan Dessert
Easy to Make Family Roast Chicken Dish with Culinary Argan Oil
Healthy Pancake Recipe with Pure Argan Oil
7. youforher’s pure roasted argan oil for eating.
At youforher we supply 100% pure cold-pressed virgin argan oil for eating and cooking. Our high quality oil is made with love by local cooperatives in rural Morocco. Wherever you’re buying your oil from, ensure the oil you buy is 100% pure, cold-pressed and made in Morocco to get the real deal!
You can buy youforher’s argan oil for cooking here.
