Refined taste, unrefined Bija culinary oils
Last night, after a huge hail storm that threatened to flatten my newly planted vegetable garden, I took advantage of one of our last cold spells for the year and made a huge pot of red-lentil and vegetable soup. It was simple and delicious, but after the first few bites I realized it needed something (and it wasn’t salt). Drizzling oil. Bija (an offshoot of Flora, the company that makes Udo’s EFA blends) just launched a new line of unfiltered and unrefined culinary oils, including almond, walnut, pumpkin seed, extra-virgin and old-grove Greek olive, sesame, sunflower oils. (Lucky me, they sent me each!) Extracted using a low-temperature water-and-salt technique, the oils are packed with nutrition that would otherwise be destroyed or filtered out in conventional processing. Translation in the kitchen: rich, complex flavor. Perfect for adding to soup (I used the old-grove Greek olive). I also created a stunning (if I may say so myself!) salad dressing by blending together the pumpkin seed oil, some brown rice vinegar, minced shallot, and a dash of umeboshi plum vinegar. And I stashed the almond oil at work, to drizzle on morning toast. Yum.
Related Topics: Food, Nutrition, From the Editors
May 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I have tried these as well and consider them to be the best i ever had. I do have a difficult time finding stores that have them available to purchase.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Darin, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Does your store-of-choice carry Rapunzel oils? They are also very high quality, very tasty.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I agree - these are the most delicious oils I think I’ve ever tried but I’ve only ever seen them at Expo West - they’re incredibly hard to find in stores. Rapunzel oils are excellent, though maybe not quite as delicate as these. You can get the Rapunzel oils at www.shopOrganic.com if you can’t find them locally.