Bounty Chocolate
Fun Flavoring Summer Dishes With Essential Oils by Ginger Robbins
Now that summer is officially here, our home gardens are in their heyday. Spring’s greens have already sprouted and given us the first gifts of the season, like bitter dandelion leaves, soft lettuces and nutrient-rich spinach. Now it’s peas and squash, strawberries and raspberries. Last season you risked it and planted watermelon (and oh, what a harvest you had!). This summer you’re branching out to cooking herbs and thinking of buying a backyard composting bin for all of your fertile scraps. No matter what you’re growing in your garden or on your deck, the abundance of summer makes us want to eat healthy and pay attention to the earth, the real root of our nourishment.
For much of the year, our produce is trucked in from far-flung farmlands. Once summer arrives, though, everyone gets the opportunity to claim their birthright as gardeners and cultivators of their own food. What’s best, local summer harvests allow us to experiment with simple, nutritious meals. With very little effort, a meal of fresh vegetables and summer fruits can become a decadent feast. And if your simple cuisine asks for a hint of the exotic, you can harvest a bouquet of flavors from the most unlikely of places: your aromatherapy medicine chest.
You already know that when using essential oils, it is always important to find therapeutic-grade oils. Because oils are concentrated substances, distilled from mass quantities of plant matter, you want to find the highest quality oil you can. While this makes sense when you think of essential oils being absorbed into the body through the skin, always sticking with therapeutic-grade oils has an added benefit: these powerful oils can easily be incorporated in cooking, too. Never thought of it that way before? Scent has a stronger influence on our perception of flavor than our taste buds do! With that in mind, here are a few simple ways the repertoire of essential oils can add a splash of flavor to your simple summer menu.
Before we get too lost in our senses, though, let’s discuss using essential oils internally. Aromatic oils are all plant-based material. Granted, you probably wouldn’t want to chew on myrrh resin for fun, it is still a natural product. It’s safe in small quantities, but it might make you wish you’d stuck to regular chewing gum. Although some essential oils are definitely not safe to take internally, like birch or wintergreen, many oils can be ingested for medicinal and gourmet reasons. Most of the essential oils available on the market are labeled as GRAS by the FDA, meaning they are Generally Recognized as Safe. These oils are not technically used as food additives, but they are considered safe for consumption. When trying to determine if an aromatherapy oil is good for cooking, think of this: essential oils of kitchen spices and fruits will most likely enhance your meal rather than ruin it. The only thing to remember is that some oils, like peppermint, oregano and cinnamon, can be hard on the mucous membranes. Use these diluted and in small doses, though, and they will add zing to your dinner.
Now that you have the beginnings of a delicious summer harvest, take a moment to consider how essential oils might enhance the bounty. Citrus oils, like lemon and grapefruit, mix well with olive oil for salad dressings. Just add a couple of drops to two tablespoons of oil to zest up a summer salad. Lime essential oil can be blended with avocado for guacamole, and mandarin orange oil makes a great addition to spinach salad. And don’t forget beverages! Citrus oils give juices and bubbly waters a great twist. Using equal parts lemon, lime and grapefruit, club soda becomes a refreshing citrus drink without the sugar or artificial sweeteners found in soda. Just remember, as with all essential oils, less is more. This rule applies to cooking, too, so use a light hand when sprinkling in these potent flavors.
Ever thought about those essential oils derived from the bouquet of cooking herbs you’ve planted in your garden? Oregano, ginger, thyme, marjoram, bay and basil are ideal for cooking. If you love basil (and most of us do!) add a few drops of oil to a simple pasta of red pepper, olives and red onion, and your taste buds will dance. Or maybe you’re a stir fry fanatic. Ginger oil, which is extremely powerful, adds kick to Asian food and is great for aiding digestion, too. Ever considered trying coffee with cardamom? A single drop of cardamom turns coffee into a feast for the senses. Try this blend iced on hot afternoons for a refreshing treat or even after meals. When cooking with these oils, though, remember that an excess of oil could potentially make your food inedible because they are so strong. Go easy, and consider tossing the oils in right at the end of cooking so they don’t evaporate prior to mealtime.
Not surprisingly, essential oils also enhance desserts. Two of the most well-loved dessert flavorings come as essential oils: vanilla bean and cacao. The aromatic oils, however, do not come laden with sugar, nor are they soaking in alcohol, the process used to create extracts. If you find yourself craving a sweet vanilla, try blending your essential oil with honey instead of sugar and see if your craving is curbed. The same can be said for cacao. This bitter, dark essential oil is not a Candy bar, but it signals the brain the same way Chocolate does. A decadent way of indulging your sweet tooth without jeopardizing your diet is to drip two drops of cacao or vanilla into yogurt and eat like ice cream.
Summer eating is something we look forward to all year. Whether it’s the promise of picnics with friends or simple feasts for two after a long day’s work, the bounty of the season makes eating a variety of fruits and vegetables easy. The addition of essential oils, an equally simple flourish, adds variety to dressings, sauces and beverages and extends our menu without necessitating a last-minute trip to the store. The next time you find yourself with unexpected house guests and nothing fancy for them to drink, don’t despair: take fresh water over ice and a top it with a drop of orange essential oil. Now you’re savoring the ease of summer!
About the Author
For more resources on how to use essential oils and flower essencestherapeutically, visit the Ananda Apothecary.
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