Cooking with Hemp Oil

Hemp Seed Oil Usages. 

More and more people are turning to hemp products for cooking, and I have been using hemp seed oil for a while now. I started using it before it became trendy, when I was all about marijuana. 

Yes I was, repeat was, a long time pot smoker who thought the Hemp salad in a Cheech and Chong movie I watched once looked like something I would love to try. 

Well, we all know I would have had to move to Amsterdam in order to do that, since I live in the US. So when I found legal hemp oil for cooking, I jumped all over it!

Cooking with hemp oil isn't like cooking with regular oils made for cooking. Hemp oil has a really low viscosity and will burn really fast if used like normal cooking oils. It can be used in conjunction with other cooking oils as long as you mix them properly. 

A 1-2 ratio works best, when mixed with a unflavored vegetable oil. You can mix it with Olive oil if you wish, but that seems to take away from the nutty flavor of hemp oil a little more than you might appreciate.

Speaking of the nutty flavor, I love hemp oil that is cold pressed and dark. This has the most flavor and captures the hemp taste and smells like you you might expect from hemp. Although purely non-narcotic and actually very good for you, hemp oil has a flavor that some people might not enjoy. 

Comparable to pistachio and sesame oils with concern to flavor and consistency, hemp has many qualities that you can utilize for oil based dressings, butters, vinaigrette's and rubs. It can be added to just about any application for a nutty fresh flavor.

Personally, I've used hemp oil for sautee dishes, in various salad dressing, and also as a topping for steaks, mixed with dried legal hemp. 

Yeah, believe it or not, I used to make a Grilled Hemp Steak for the masses in Santa Fe, NM. Back when I was a 20 something Chef working at the Oasis Grill. Mind you, I used to get tipped out in more doobies than money back in the day there.

Hemp oil is a great flavoring additive for anything where a nutty flavor might be wanted and a healthy oil that has great benefits for health food eaters. I recommend buying a bottle to taste it and finding out for yourself just how good hemp oil is and where you can utilize it's flavor. 

Very aromatic and buttery, with a strong nutty almost like pistachio taste, yet less overwhelming. Cold pressed hemp oil can be found in 16oz bottles up to 1 gallon jugs. If you're working in a place where the clientele would appreciate this, you should try it.

I'll share some recipe ideas and close by saying, Hemp oil should be thought of as a gourmet oil with great benefits and substantial flavoring. 

Do not pass it up as just a hippy food or a trendy item, it has real uses and should be thought of as a oil that can be used anywhere. I know many Chefs who keep this locked in their office and will actually sneak it into a recipe without even telling anyone where the flavor comes from.    

Recipe ideas:
Lime Hemp Seed Vinaigrette.
Lemon Grass Asian Dressing with Hemp oil and honey.
Garlic and Cracked Black Pepper Rub with Hemp and Olive oil.
Sesame and Hemp oil tossed noodles with shrimp and chives.
Hemp dusted Ravioli in a red pepper hemp oil pesto.
Ginger Mayo with Hemp oil and goat cheese.
Pasta Hemp Salad.

   
Just a few items to get your mind working... I think you will enjoy working with Hemp oil and you might find yourself commending me later for sharing this oil with you! Thank you for reading!

Chef Jeffrey Kaufman