Benefits of Ghee
As a lover of Indian food, I have dabbled with the use of ghee over the years. There are many benefits of ghee, which I will touch on later, however I recently had the pleasure of being taught how to make my own ghee from scratch.
As a nutritionist, I love understanding the origin of foods and, time permitting, will generally try to at least experiment with making as much of what I consume, from scratch. In our busy, fast paced world, this sometimes isn't always a luxury I have, but I will always give something a try at least once in order to more deeply appreciate the food and enjoy sharing it with loved ones knowing that my love went into making that particular item/dish. I was surprised at just how simple making your own ghee is!
My Vedic teacher requested I source 500g of unsalted butter. I found some grass fed, organic butter and put this into a heavy base saucepan. Heating slowly and stirring, over time the water was distilled from the butter fat and the butter sugars separated and sunk to the bottom of the pan. Testing to ensure all the water had evaporated, we then strained the clarified butter from the sugar solids and presto, I had a jar full of beautiful golden ghee!
The best part, my teacher showed me, is to mix a tsp of organic sugar or rapadura to the butter sugars, placing the mixture into the fridge to set and then you have a delicious sweet treat an hour later! There was no part wasted and I was so surprised by how scrumptious the sweet treat was, not dissimilar to golden syrup.
Ghee has a long shelf life and doesn't require refrigeration. It also had a high smoke point so is great to cook, bake and fry in, as it won't produce the nasty rancidity that many other fats we can buy from the supermarkets today do. It's not light sensitive and doesn't oxidate as easily so is much safer. Ghee is also a saturated fat (hence is solid at room temperature), is a great source of vitamins A, D, E and K, and can help to reduce inflammation.
So next time you're deciding on which fat is safest for your family, consider making your own ghee or purchasing a good quality version from your local health food store.
