What Cooking Oils to Use and How to Use Them

Trader Joe's has a wide array of cooking oils for you to choose from. But, where to begin?! There's avocado, sunflower, grapeseed, olive and canola oil, coconut oil-- you name it, they have it. 

The question you might be wondering upon looking at the shelf is, what do I need and what would I use some of these oils for? Before we get started, it's important to understand smoke point. 

Smoke point is the temperature at which a particular oil begins to breakdown and thus start to smoke, stink up the kitchen and release what's called free radicals. Oils that have low smoke point are better for drizzling and dipping, not for cooking with-- as they are adverse to high temperatures than those with high smoke points. 

Also, if possible-- it's also a great rule of thumb to go with expeller or cold-pressed processed oils, which is the process of extracting the oils by pressing it out of the seeds rather than using chemicals. Trader Joe's grapeseed oil, for example, is one of the expeller pressed brands. 

1. Extra-Virgin Olive Oils (EVOO)

As mentioned above, EVOOs have a very low smoke point, thus are not good for cooking with. You'll lose the aroma and flavor of the oil and stink out your kitchen. You're also wasting the money you spent on the EVOO, because you're burning out all the antioxidants and flavors that come with that oil. 

EVOOs are great for drizzling, dipping and great to mix in salads. There's a delicious Foccacia bread in the bakery section at Trader's-- take that and heat it up or eat it at room temperature with a little dipping bowl of your favorite EVOO. You can even sprinkle a little grated parmesan and a pinch of black pepper to kick it up a notch! 

Now for my favorite and preferred EVOO at Trader Joe's. My all time favorite would have to be the Trader Joe's Premium 100% Greek Kalamata Olive Oil. It's fruity, tangy and a little spicy. I dip all my breads in this, mix it in my salads and drizzle in on my burrata and tomatoes. 

2. Trader Joe's Cold-Pressed Avocado Oil

Unlike EVOO, avocado oil has a high smoke point and can tolerate high heat. It also, however, serves well for dipping and drizzling. Trader Joe's avocado oil takes on the aroma and flavor of the avocado 100%. If you cook with it, you won't be able to pick up that flavor quite as much, just keep that in mind. 

Trader's avocado oil is cold-pressed, meaning it's left unrefined retaining all it's natural flavors and aromas. The oil is literally pressed from the fruit/seed. Worth trying-- great bang for your buck! 

3.  Trader Joe's Grapeseed Oil

A fantastic oil to use for cooking, as it has a high smoke point and is much better than cooking with your

basic canola oil (canola oil not only isn't as healthy according to online research, but it doesn't have as high a smoke point). As mentioned earlier, it's expeller pressed (the brand at Trader Joe's), thus chemicals aren't used during the process of oil extraction. 

4. Sunflower Oil

Sunflower oil, like anything else, is something you want to use in moderation for health purposes. There are pros and cons with this oil. In addition, there are different variants. In my findings, the positives are that high oleic sunflower oil is more beneficial as it promotes lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and higher HDL (good) cholesterol. 

That said, oils not high in oleic are seemingly high in omega-6, which is not good for your health. It also may emit toxins in your body that are harmful. Things to look out for, and like I said- use in moderation. Sunflower oil sold at Trader Joe's, I will say, is high oleic sunflower oil. 

5. Canola Oil 

What can I say about this oil that we all don't know already? It's cheap and easy to find. It takes on the flavor of that which you're cooking. It has a relatively high smoke point. That said, it contains GMOs up the wazoo. Nobody wants that. Not when it's so easy to cook with another healthier option that does the same, such as grapeseed or sunflower oil, which also have high smoke points and take on the flavors of the foods you're cooking with.  

Typically these oils are refined, meaning they've been bleached and/or deodarized, which gives that high smoke point and ability to take on the flavors of other foods. Chemicals used during this process give are the major concerns-- so all in all, it might be cheap, but why compromise your dietary standards?

6. Coconut Oil

100% fat, 90% of it is saturated. There are two types-- virgin and refined. Virgin is pure and unrefined.

Refined of course has additives and goes through that chemical process we talked about above. Know what you're using before you get cooking or baking. 

For instance, virgin coconut oil has a low smoke point-- lower than refined. So, you might use virgin for baking versus stove top, high heat. You'll get that coconut flavor more with the virgin oil, being it's low smoke point, than you will with the refined. However-- Trader Joe's Organic Virgin Triple Filtered Coconut Oil, being it's triple filtered, has a more mild coconut flavor. 

To sum up, virgin coconut oil is also loaded with antioxidants, which helps to combat free radicals of the body.Though, the downside to coconut oil, again, it's pure saturated fat. So, like the sunflower oil-- moderation is key. 

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