If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love roasted veggies.
Almost every weekend, on either a Saturday or Sunday, you can find me spending a few hours slicing and dicing, followed by seasoning and roasting veggies.
Having all of these veggies ready to go in my fridge makes grabbing a healthy snack, or pulling together a quick dinner, so much easier.
On my kitchen counter, I have my partner in roasting crime, my avocado oil.
Now if you asked me a year ago, should you use oil in cooking, I would say definitely no, avoid it at all cost. I can also tell you about a year ago, I’d never enjoy some roasted sweet potatoes after a long run.
So why do I use avocado oil? Well it’s all based on the smoke point.
If you haven’t heard the term, don’t worry. Until recently, I hadn’t either.
The smoke point is just the point at which oil starts to smoke and burn.
This is important because if you roast something at a temperature that is higher than an oil’s smoke point, the food will likely burn.
For this reason, I almost only use avocado oil when roasting my veggies. It has a smoke point of 500. I generally roast everything at 480, so this stuff is perfect.
In contrast, most extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of 400 degrees.
And it takes far longer to roast something at 400 than at 480!
If you’re looking for a good avocado oil to try, I recommend Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil. You can buy a big bottle at Costco. Walmart and many other grocery stores carry smaller bottles, too.
I’ll generally use 1 tablespoon of avocado oil for a head of cauliflower, a bunch of carrots, or an eggplant.
If I’m roasting four sweet potatoes at a time (I slice them so they are silver pancake size), I’ll use two tablespoons. But I never go over that.
When you spread the 130 calories per one tablespoon of avocado oil over a ton of veggies, the calorie impact per serving is almost nothing.
But the taste- A game changer.
So next time you want to add more veggies to your diet, consider roasting a few batches of some of your favorites on your day off so you have some to enjoy throughout the week.
And give avocado oil a try. Roasting everything closer to 500 degrees instead of 400 degrees will make the whole process a lot quicker!
