Is it alright to heat olive oil up in a wok pan for stir-fries? or is this unhealthy?!
All this trans-fats, mono saturated fats etc has always confused me.
Is what i'm doing unhealthy & should i take it easy on the olive oil when making a stir fry? Or am i grand?
Answers:
No it won't be a good idea to use olive oil for proper wok cooking. Olive oil has a low flash point/smoking point meaning it burns easily (particularly in the 400-700 degrees used for proper wok cooking especially in restaurants). Use peanut oil instead which Asian/Chinese chefs/cooks use.
However if you are just going to quick (stir) fry at lower temps using a wok instead of the usual fry pan, "regular" olive oil ( not the virgin or extra virgin), should be okay. What you can also do is use a small amount of peanut oil to stir fry then dress up/drizzle the dish with some extra virgin olive oil after cooking.
By the way, olive oil, good for you though it may be, is still fat. Too much of this good thing is still bad in the end.
Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils you can use; however, it's not really suitable for a stir-fry because a stir-fry should be done over a fairly high heat, and olive oil will begin to smoke and taste bad at those temperatures.
However, grapeseed oil or refined peanut oil are both great for stir-fries. Peanut oil is more authentic, while grapeseed oil is as healthy as olive oil.
It depends on who you talk to. Some "experts" say it is unhealthy, that all oils are and they recommend sauteeing with pineapple or other fruit juice. Never tried it so don't know how well it does or doesn't work. For fats though, olive oil is supposed to be healthy than a lot of other oils. I don't like the taste and prefer to use grape seed oil instead which is good for cooking but you can't taste it which is the way I like it.
Olive oil is good for you, it removes cholesterol. The only fat you want to avoid is saturated fat.
Obviously oil has a massive amount of calories to using too much isnt good. A couple of tablespoons it fine though
It is very healthy, but as some people mentioned it shouldn't undergo high heat. A good alternative if cooking with higher temps is coconut oil.
Olive oil is perfectly fine, better yet if it isn't extra virgin olive oil which can break at high temperatures.