Healthier oil for frying?

[MamitaM]

I'm slowly trying to find healthier meals and ways of cooking.I like olive oil, but I've read that you shouldn't use it for frying b/c it loses some of the nutrients or something, I can't remember how it was worded , but you lose something. I also don't really like it for frying b/c it heats to fast and gets soaked up and then I need to add even more. So what oils are really good for frying and sauting veggies in? 

[Amatullah0]

olive oil also has a low smoke point(it burns easily). Coconut oil seems like the MDC go-to for frying, or ghee(I make my own from butter), oh, and, although I don't use it, I hear lard is another good one. Plain butter is good for making eggs in. In some dishes, you can eliminate the need for oil if you use a good cast iron pot/pan/wok(non-stick)

I still do my deep frying in corn or canola oil though.... I wonder if you could use coconut oil for that? way too expensive for me to use it for that though.

ETA: I don't use extra oil in my CI skillet when frying eggs, but I would probably use oil for veggies. When I'm not using CI, I tend to use a LOT more oil than necessary, just to keep food from sticking. 

Edited by Amatullah0 - 1/10/11 at 2:01pm

[Chamomile Girl]

I deep fry in coconut oil, and yeah, its way pricey.  Luckily I only deep fry like once a year.  But I've gotta say that onion rings made in coconut oil are .

[MamitaM]

I think I'm going to try the coconut oil soon. I do use margarine for frying some things sometimes, but I think real butter or oil may be healthier. I didn't know that cast iron pans didn't need oil when you fried/sauted veggies in them. I'll look into that as well b/c I'm vegetarian and do need a way to add more iron to my diet. I know that cooking with a cast iron pan helps that.

[cristeen]

I still always have to add oil to my CI skillet.  And don't forget that your body cannot properly absorb the nutrients from your veggies without fat.  Might as well use it to cook them in.

Since you're veg, I'd pretty much stick with CO.  I keep both refined and unrefined in the house.  The refined is what I use for deep frying.  It's cheaper and it doesn't have the coconutty flavor.  The unrefined I use for every-day cooking of things that have plenty of flavor of their own.  I can almost never taste the coconut flavor.  I'll also sometimes use it in conjunction with butter - the CO helps keep the butter from burning, and the butter lends it's yummy flavor. 

[treemom2]

I cook with butter or coconut oil.  I save my olive oil for drizzling.  I'm not veg, so I also cook with rendered animal fats when available.  

[dejagerw]

We use safflower oil.

[staceychev]

Coconut oil here, too. I've tried to move away from seed oils as much as possible. We're mostly butter and CO here, with some olive oil for occasional cooking but mostly salads. That being said, I'm all about sauteeing and pan-frying, but not too much on deep frying. The deepest my oil gets is enough to do one side of an italian style cutlet. 

[nicolelynn]

Sesame oil is probably the least processed, safest, time tested plant oil after olive and coconut oil. It's been used for hundreds and maybe even thousands of years in India, China, etc. The refined kind is safe for high temp trying, but I agree coconut oil is not processed at all so is probably best. I use refined sesame oil when I really don't want the coconutty taste in something.

[Arduinna]

For frying, I generally use either lard or peanut oil.