Oil Free Recipes

We stopped cooking with oil several years ago so we have lots of oil free recipes.

I feel like I should start by explaining the difference between oil and fat since we often get comments that our bodies can’t survive without oil. This is inaccurate. Our bodies can’t survive without fat, but we’re much healthier when we get fat from whole plant foods rather than from processed, refined fat like oil. The studies funded by the olive oil industry that show the benefits of olive oil on arterial function, compared olive oil to other even less healthy fats like beef and chicken, which are loaded with saturated fat. If you compare olive oil to no oil, the negative effects of olive oil are easily observed.

If weight loss is your goal, cutting out oil is essential. Ounce for ounce, oil packs more calories than any other food. It’s the most calorie dense food we eat! And because it’s mostly processed refined fat in liquid form, it doesn’t take up any space in your stomach so it’s not filling in the slightest.

According to Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Michael Greger and most of the plant based experts, oil is not healthy. It’s highly processed plant fragments that impairs arterial function and causes cell damage. It’s best to avoid it as much as possible [source].

Some of our plant based recipes still use oil to sauté veggies from before we went oil free, but we’ve removed it from most. Any time you see oil used for sautéing, just substitute it with vegetable broth, water or wine and you’ve made yourself an oil free recipe. And please let us know about any recipes that we need to update to remove the oil.