Reader question: Hi Elizabeth, I attended your 3rd breakout session at the NMO conference in LA last Wednesday 11/6. My name is Lora, I was sitting in the front row with my pregnant sister (she asked you about pesticides after the presentation…). Anyway, all of your books had been taken by the time I attended your session, so I bought one on Amazon. I was surprised that some of recipes called for Canola Oil. I might’ve misunderstood, but I thought you mentioned that Canola Oil was created by a chemical company (the name Canola even resembled the company’s name?). Can you please clarify for me? I was telling a friend at work that Canola Oil was bad, but then when your book was delivered to me over the weekend I saw it in your recipes. As a side note, I made my first ever all-organic shopping trip with my husband over the weekend and am committed to making-over our meals! Thanks for your insight. ~ Lora E., Phoenix, AZ
Hi Lora. You’re right: there is a disconnect there. I wrote the cookbook in 2000 and I’ve learned a lot about healthy eating since then that has changed my mind about things like canola oil. During my cooking demonstrations I usually mention something to this effect, that I used to cook with canola oil but no longer believe it is good for human consumption.
The copy of the cookbook you are holding was published by Clarkson-Potter in January, 2009, which means I finished the actual writing of that version in late 2007. It is still in print (more than 50,000 copies sold) which means that until I’m otherwise notified by the publisher, I cannot make any changes to the current text.
Aaahhh… the frustrations of the printed page! It’s much easier to publish e-books because you can change text at will; once the plates are pulled for a print run of a book the text is set in stone.
So, the long and the short of it is that I used to cook with canola oil but I no longer think it is a good choice because it is a GMO grain. Here’s a blog post I wrote about my disillusionment with canola oil.
Let me know if you have any troubles as you prepare Glorious One-Pot Meals and remember that your oven needs to be fully preheated to 450 F before putting the pot inside. There are video cooking demonstrations here to help get you started.
Thanks for writing and happy cooking!
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Elizabeth, in this blog post you don’t mention what oil you would suggest to use in place of canola. What oil do you recommend for the one-pot recipes?
I use almost any oil in Glorious One-Pot Meals: coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower seed oil, grapeseed oil and sesame oil are my standards, but I also use Macedemia nut oil, avocado oil, walnut oil, or even palm oil on occasion. Because GOPMs cook in a closed vessel, you do not need to worry about oxidation or flash points of oil. I usually choose my oil based on the flavor it will or won’t add to the recipe.