Sauté without Oil?? What!

Did you know you can sauté without oil? I had no idea! The dietician at the hospital suggested this when I met with her last year. She showed me graphs and charts of all the different cooking oils and none of them are really healthy, especially when you are looking for a high-heat oil. And, no, coconut oil, despite all the advertising is NOT good for you... it has a ridiculous amount of saturated fat.

But... the idea of sautéing without oil had never even crossed my consciousness. Oil was just a necessary evil, I thought... Turns out, you can actually sauté with water. Yep... who knew? Just use small bits of water at a time (1 to 2 Tablespoons) and it works really well.

We cook a lot of curries and we usually start by sautéing onions. All we do is add a bit of water to the pan, let it heat up and then toss in the onions. As the water evaporates, just keep adding more water in little bits and keep stirring. It's cut down on our oil use drastically... at least for frying and stuff. We still use olive oil in salads because that has healthy fats, or so we are told.