10 Delicious Ways to Have Ghee
Ghee or clarified butter has been an Indian staple since ages but the whole world is waking up to its unique nutritional properties lately. The fact that it’s incredibly delicious doesn’t hurt either.
While Ayurveda has long since recommended ghee for various ailments, modern scientific research has also shown that ghee reduces the risk of heart disease rather than raise it, despite being high in cholesterol. It’s also a great source of butyric acid, vitamins A and K and CLA.
Ghee is great for hydrating and nourishing the skin and hair and if you can believe it, aids in weight loss. Most importantly, it has an extremely high smoke point, which means you can use it in cooking without worrying about damaging free radicals.
A healthy adult can have three teaspoons of ghee per day to reap its health benefits. Here are eight ways to include ghee in your daily diet:
- Stir some into steaming hot rice.
Picture by Grishma Ravi, CC BY-SA 4.0
Rice always tastes better if you add some warm ghee to it. Or, roast some jeera in ghee and pour into rice to make a quick jeera rice.
- Use instead of oil for added taste and nutrition.
Ghee can be substituted for oil in a majority of cases. And if you enjoy the flavour, it’s a much healthier alternative when fat is required in small amounts. So use ghee rather than oil to make light stir-fried vegetables and in gravy-based curries.
- Add a generous dollop over rotis and parathas.
If you’re skipping the ghee on your phulkas to lose weight, you’re doing it wrong. Adding a dollop of ghee on your phulkas and rotis might help your case. Using ghee to roast parathas is also much better than oil.
- Make the tadka for dal with fragrant ghee.
Everyone will want a second helping of your simple dal if you make a flavourful tadka with ghee, mustard and cumin seeds and curry leaves. Pour over steaming hot dal for the perfect finishing touch and a lingering aroma.
- Use ghee for roasting pavs instead of butter.
If you’ve run out of butter while making pav bhaji, use ghee to roast the pavs instead. They might actually taste better and in any case, there’s enough butter in the bhaji already. In case you didn’t know, ghee scores over butter on multiple fronts.
- Have a spoonful before going to bed.
If you don’t like the way ghee alters the flavour of your favourite foods, have a spoonful by itself before going to bed. Taken in this manner, ghee is known to reduce body heat or pitta, as it is known in Ayurveda.
- Use ghee to make delicious, flaky sweets.
We Indians don’t need much schooling in this regard but if the cost factor encourages you to turn to oil while making sweets, stop. It’s worthwhile spending a little more and using ghee to make your halwas, sheeras and burfies instead.
- Blend with herbs and use as a rub for fish or chicken.
Not a big fan of Indian cuisine? Mix warm ghee with fragrant herbs and seasonings and use this as a wonderful rub for fish and chicken. In fact, it might even go well with pasta sauces.
- Make flavourful soups with ghee.
Skip the butter and stir in ghee into creamy soups to make them brim with flavour and aroma. Be it a tomato, cream of onion or mushroom soup, ghee will never fail you.
- Use ghee instead of butter while baking.
Any time a baking recipe calls for butter, you can use ghee instead. You’ll soon be churning out wonderfully moist cakes, muffins and pancakes with the splendour of ghee.
