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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Top 5 Reasons Why You Need GHEE in Your Life

Do you use ghee in your life? Do you love ghee as much as the next cave(wo)man-wannabe? Do you even know what ghee is? Are you tired of being asked questions? Are you my mommy?

Booyah! I mean, MOOyah
In a nutshell, ghee is one of the best things to cook things in. You probably have cooked with olive oil, canola oil (...:::gasp:::...pre-paleo?), and if you've been in the Paleo world, you've switched over to perhaps coconut oil and bacon grease. Ghee is related to butter, so the consistency and taste will be familiar to you (the taste is a little nuttier). Here are my top 5 reasons why you need ghee in your life:

5. BETTER TO COOK WITH 
Ghee is a highly saturated fat, so it has a high smoke point, thus making it better to cook with over olive oil. (and by now you definitely know better than to cook with canola or corn oil)

4. LACTOSE FREE 
Ghee is clarified butter, meaning the milk solids, sugars, and water have been removed. So those sensitive to dairy can usually withstand ghee.

3. STORAGE FRIENDLY
Since the milk solids, sugar, and water are eliminated, ghee is solid at room temperature and can be stored in a cabinet vs. your refrigerator. (although there's nothing wrong with the fridge)

2. MAKE IT AT HOME 
If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you can make ghee at home. Ideally you'll use grass fed butter such as Kerry Gold. Here are instructions from Tribe of Five. (BTW, this is just a great site in general to check out if you are interested in all things paleo nutrition aka real food)

1. DELICIOUSNESS 
Yes, that's a word. Since ghee is clarified butter, it tastes a lot like butter. In other words, I'd rather have my asparagus and sweet potatoes cooked in ghee instead of coconut oil.

If your not the diy'er, or just want the convenience of buying a jar of ghee, you can find it in most Indian food stores, or head to the interwebs and grab it off Amazon. Here's a link to my Amazon store where you can find different sizes of ghee. The picture below is a smaller 13oz. jar, but in my experience, it's worth just saving money over the long haul and buying the big jar.

time to order a new jar!
Links you probably won't click, but you should:
Mark Sisson on "Cooking with Animal Fats"
Paleo Diet Lifestyle on Ghee

Thoughts on ghee? Have you heard of it or used it?

5 comments:

  1. Agree -I (wo)manned up and just got the big jar of ghee and am happy I did! It definately is delicious! Another place to look locally are Indian stores, in addition to very inexpensive sipices they should carry Ghee as well.

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  2. You can also find this at Gary's World of Wellness in Eagleville.

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  3. I've heard of it but never knew what it was. Somehow, I doubt they carry it at my local Public, however.

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  4. Before I look like a fool and go and ask for some of this - is it pronounced with a 'hard' G or a soft G (i.e., like "gee whiz!")?

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  5. haha, the G is like in "gully" and the H is silent.

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