Take the RapeseedOilBenefits.com challenge: non-testers add your feedback - you could win a £150 voucher NOW CLOSED

[KatieBMumsnet]

Did you know rapeseed oil, sometimes labelled vegetable oil, is one of the healthiest and most versatile cooking oils you can buy? That's the message from RapeseedOilBenefits.com, a not-for-profit campaign that aims to inspire people to use this cooking oil.

Take part in the RapeseedOilBenefits.com challenge and add your feedback here by to be entered into the prize draw:

~ Official testers (those selected by MNHQ) can win a £250 supermarket voucher of their choice
~ Non-official testers' who add a comment can win a £150 supermarket voucher of their choice

The challenge is to buy two bottles of rapeseed oil - one labelled 'vegetable oil' and the other labelled 'cold pressed' - and then to use these in place of your normal cooking oils for two weeks and tell us what you think. (If you already use rapeseed oil, feel free to take part in this challenge too.)

If you have any questions about rapeseed oil, go to RapeseedOilBenefits.com to ask the nutritionist and check out their guide to rapeseed oil FAQs.

Do try their easy and tasty recipes while you're there.

Please add your feedback here on the following:

~ Let us know what you think of rapeseed oil and if you knew about the benefits already or not

~ Have you tried out any RapeseedOilBenefits.com recipes? How did you and your family find them?

~ Please add any other comments, recipes, tips or ideas you have too - we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge

Thanks

MNHQ


Please note comments made on this thread may be reproduced by Rapeseed Oil Benefits (AHDB)
Closing date: 19 August 2013, winners will be selected at random from all posting a comment: either a tester or non tester - prizes as above.

[wavesandsmiles]

Before we attempt a bit of a Sunday afternoon baking session using the recipe booklet and ideas from the website, we had a light lunch, and put the cold pressed rapeseed oil to the test.

Salad dressing:
I used to serve with a really basic salad of romaine lettuce, tomato and cucumber together with pitta bread and falafel.
I used an approximation of 3 parts cold pressed rapeseed oil to one part balsamic vinegar, and seasoned it with salt and pepper, before adding a little whole grain mustard.

In the past I would have used an extra virgin olive oil for this kind of dressing. It is nice to know that already this is a healthier alternative due to the lower amount of saturated fat in the oil.
The salad dressing was a huge hit. My DCs kept ?accidentally? pouring too much onto their salad! There was no overpowering taste from the oil and it definitely seemed lighter than olive oil, so it seemed to do its job very nicely. I?ll enjoy trying out different flavoured salad dressings using cold pressed rapeseed oil as a base, and hope that the others are as big a hit as this one was.

[emily80]

Just bought my 2 bottles, I went to my local sainsburys and they only had one of each so I didn't get a choice, I bought Sainsburys Extra Special British Coldpressed Rapeseed Oil (very fancy looking) and Sainsburys Vegetable Oil (very cheap and unhealthy looking). I usually use olive oil so will see how these compare.

[bluebump]

I just bought my two bottles. Tesco had a good range of the cold pressed ones and one normal organic bottle so i'm all set ready to go!

I'm going to have a browse of the website and also re read the River Cottage Veg book as Hugh FW uses a lot of rapeseed oil I noticed.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

I've just been to Sainsbury's and bought the two bottles. The vegetable oil version was only £1.50, but I was surprised how expensive the cold-pressed one was - I bought the Saisbury's Extra Special British one at £4. I thought it would be a lot less. The bottle looks very nice though.

I'm looking forward to trying this, but my first bit of feedback actually comes from DH, who said "it looks so nice until you read the name". I tend to agree. I think a name change would be a very good idea.

[LillethTheCat]

Just marking place now to bring some feedback tomorrow night

[BlackeyedSusan]

also had a trrip to tesco today.

£1.25 for tesco own brand vegetable oil rapeseed and £3.00 for cold pressed. (tesco finest) it was the cheapest cold pressed per 100ml.

i am having a coffee before starting on the washing up cooking.

[RappyNash]

Not an official tester, but I use cold-pressed rapeseed oil as the omega 3:6 ratios are better than olive oil.

However, there is no way I'd use the nasty processed stuff sold under the vegetable oil label. It takes a heck of a lot of yuck to make rancid oil taste, well, not rancid...

[BornToFolk]

I made the muffins today! They were very easy and turned out well, really tasty and moist. I used the cold-pressed oil as per the recipe.

I also made potato wedges for dinner. I'd usually use the ordinary vegetable (i.e. rapeseed) oil but thought I'd try the cold-pressed one to see if it made any difference. It didn't! So I won't be trying that one again!

To be honest, I'm a bit meh about the flavour of the cold-pressed stuff. It's nice enough but quite bland. That makes it great for cooking with but I'm not sure how I'll like it as a dressing, when I'd normally use a flavourful EVOO.

[GetKnitted]

Thanks for the voucher! We got a bottle of bog standard vege oil (£1.25) and a far posher bottle of extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil. We've cooked with the normal vegetable oil before, and it was fine tonight in our risotto, better perhaps than the olive oil would have been because of the increased omega oils.

I tasted a bit of the cold pressed oil on a spoon, and have to say I thought it tasted (very mildly!) of grass... I see others said 'nutty'. I will have more to report when the bread comes out of the bread maker.

I definitely intend putting it through its paces though, because I would quite like to switch over, simply because an oil labelled 'cold-pressed' has made me consider the alternatives which apparently (though my research has not been very thorough) could include oils extracted at high temperatures, or using chemical solvents or anti-frothing chemicals... yuk!

[confusedofengland]

Got my voucher yesterday & purchased the 2 bottles of oil.

TBH, I was surprised to see that the 'vegetable oil' I normally use is actually rapeseed oil. I hadn't really thought about what it was from before.

DH cooked a cottage pie, satueeing the meat & onions in a little cold-pressed rapeseed oil (about 1 tbsp). He found it less greasy than other oil yet more flavoursome - nutty/peppery. The dish was certainly less greasy than we have had it before.

Tomorrow I plan to try a salad dressing with the cold-pressed oil - my usual basic dressing of oil, balsamic vinegar & mustard, usually made with olive oil. Will also see about trying one or two of the recipes from the booklet.

So excited to be a part of this challenge! I am always looking for ways to make my family's diet healthier with minimal effort, which this appears to be. Plus, I love a freebie, so thanks MN

[wavesandsmiles]

We baked this afternoon

Seeded cheese scone tear ?n? share
Ridiculously easy and quick to make! A huge benefit is discovering that there is 50% less saturated fat content by using rapeseed oil in place of butter.

Recipe was taken from the HGCA booklet which I received with my vouchers.
The scones were light, and really delicious. I cooked them for 15 minutes instead of the recommended 10 ? 13, and that seemed to get them just right in terms of a golden colour. We used pumpkin and sunflower seeds which were delicious in the scones. We just used the ?cheap? rapeseed oil, so I think that this was a really good value as well as healthy recipe. Might try them again in the next few days using the cold-pressed oil to see if that makes a difference.

I must also find out what cold pressed actually means.

Does anyone know if there is a standard measurement to use to replace butter/marg with oil in baking recipes etc? Given the health benefits of using rapeseed oil over butter, would be handy to adapt existing recipes.

[GetKnitted]

wavesandsmiles, I looked it up today, apparently it is exactly what it sounds like... they squash the seeds when they're cold (the seeds, not the farmers) to get the oil out.

[RappyNash]

Seriously, getknitted - what they do to the processed stuff is rank. And really not good for you.

[BlackeyedSusan]

we,ve had... oh fuck the fridge freezerrr has broken stir fry, using the most temperature sensitive ingredients from the fridge first. so lots of pepper a couple of carrots a red onion and some nearly defrosted lamb from the freezer, which was probably cooked for far too long as i had to rush round to a neighbour with carrier bags of food, and then drive across the city wth my entire supply of frozen vegetables.

[manfalou]

Non tester but Rapessed oil is currently on offer at Aldi and after seeing the challenge decided to buy just the one bottle and have been using it a couple of days... using it in the teal acti-fry to make some sweet potato chips... very nice! Never thought about using it for a salad dressing (buy ready made stuff cos i'm laazzzzyyyy ;) ) ... however might just have to give it a bash!

[gazzalw]

What really pleases me is that it's a 'home-grown' commodity that has a very low carbon footprint. We should all be buying British where possible and this is a classic example of a product type that we all use in cooking and should be selecting over imported oils...

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Just used the vegetable oil version when I was making some eggy bread for DD.

I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of "smoking" from the oil when it was very hot. Usually I have to have the extractor hood on high when I use olive oil.

Didn't notice any difference in flavour and I was very relieved it didn't taste like sunflower oil which makes me want to heave.

Also, after I had poured some in the pan, there was a drip on the bottle. Out of habit I caught this with my finger and licked it, as this is what I do with olive oil. I instantly thought "oh no, I'm going to regret that" but I didn't. It didn't taste of much at all and was certainly not unpleasant.

Pleasantly surprised so far.

[RappyNash]

Here's an interesting starter link:

thepaleolist.com/2013/05/13/is-canola-oil-paleo/

Processing the oil to render it colourless and flavourless involves mucho heat and chemicals. This process largely destroys the beneficial omega 3s.

Not totally convinced it's a good cooking oil pressed or chemically extracted tbh. Think I'll stick to using it cold on salads etc

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Are you from the Olive Oil Fightback group, Rappy?

[RappyNash]

[RappyNash]

Tbf I don't use olive oil to cook with either. I use ghee, coconut oil and sometimes lard.

[snowballinashoebox]

I am following a low carb diet and am shaking my head a little at the recipes calling for low fat everything.

Interesting link rappy I don't like the look of the £1.50 bottle of veg oil at all.

I do agree that it is great to be able to buy British cold pressed oil. Will make a salad dressing with it today.

[NotAQueef]

Voucher has just turned up (or so I'm told as not at home) so will go shopping tomorrow night and report back then.
Am most interested in trying to Cold Pressed oil

[aristocat]

I have purchased my oil from Sainsburys, the 'normal' oil was £2 and the cold pressed one was £4. Thanks for the voucher.

I have tried the recipe from the booklet Seeded Cheese Scone Tear 'n' Share and it was delicious. I used the vegetable oil in therecipe and will definitely make these again.
My recipe for Carrot cake uses oil as an ingredient so will be making that soon.

[NotAQueef]

aristo I was looking at the carrot cake recipe earlier but thought in the picture the sponge looked really dry - look forward to hearing your feedback.