How to Make Fried Foods Healthier for You

Eating fried foods is a guilty pleasure that we all have in life! However, frying is not the healthiest way to cook food. There are ways to make the food you love taste great while not slathering them in grease! Here are a few methods for you to try if you find that you are reaching for the deep fat fryer after a long day.

How to Make Fried Foods Healthier

Change Your Cooking Oil

Do you like to cook your food in corn oil, sunflower oil, or vegetable oil? You may want to make a change to olive oil to fry your foods. While olive oil has many health benefits, it is actually more stable at high temperatures when compared to its other oil counterparts. This means you can use it for longer in the fryer while still maintaining the nutritional values of the food. The best olive oils to use is Virgin or Extra Virgin olive oil.

Change Your Frying Device

Instead of using a deep fat fryer, you could shallow fry your foods. You’ll use less oil. Another option would be to use an air fryer. An air fryer works by circulating hot air around the food by coating the surface of the food in a thin layer of oil. You only have to use a small percentage of oil in comparison to your normal frying methods. The trick is to get a quality air fryer as many brands don’t deliver on taste. Be sure you get one that gives you that crisp fried feel to your meals.

Change Your Batter

If you are a big lover of fried chicken or a nice battered cod you know the importance of having a good batter for a great tasting meal. If you make a clever swap from normal flour to gluten free, this will absorb less grease. The gluten in flour helps stick to food well meaning it will absorb more oil.

Use Carbonation

This is another way to improve the quality of fried foods. If you use a carbonated liquid like club soda/fizzy water or baking soda in the batter, this is a way to release gas bubbles which will reduce the amount of oil that’s absorbed into your food. So if you combine this with the gluten free flour it’s a better way to be a bit more healthy in your fried meals.

Is Your Oil Temperature Just Right?

This is something that a lot of people overlook when they’re trying to make a fried meal that is healthy. You need to make sure that the oil temperature is between 325° F to 400° F.

If your oil isn’t hot enough, the food won’t cook as fast as normal. This gives it more chance to soak up oil. If you fry at too high a temperature, your oil will burn or smoke, which doesn’t make your meal taste good at all!

There are many different options to the dry frying method, so try one of these methods and see if it improves your overall health and quality of your foods.