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.

Made a veggie spaghetti bolognaise with the cold pressed yesterday and it was lovely. I find it really easy to cook with, maybe it's the higher burn point than olive oil, but it doesn't tend to smoke or overheat at all. I'll definitely continue to buy it, probably alongside my usual olive oil.

Still using my oil/s here too. Cooked a full breakfast using oil for my fried eggs and DH thought they were great. Also used some for my onion and spices for a curry.

We made banana muffins! We had some 'on the way over' bananas and I was not sure what to do them or with the kids. (They were jumping all over the living room like crazies). There were no cake recipes in the Easy and tasty recipes sent with the voucher, I suppose because they are not really healthy! But the kids wanted cake and I wanted to get rid of the bananas. So I found this recipe online for easy banana cake- sounded good to me as I am not a good cook. (allrecipes.co.uk) I replaced the butter with the cold pressed rapeseed oil (used a bit less). We decided to use the mixture in small cases like muffins. My youngest had great fun measuring out the ingredients. They turned out great, we ate some while they were warm. Then we had fun decorating the rest with the even more unhealthy chocolate icing and sprinkles, Yummmmmm.

birthday pancakes with cold pressed rapeseed oil coming up... dh bought 3 bottles from aldi

My favourite meal with rapeseed oil rather than olive oil so far is Fajitas. We eat a lot of mexican food and if you put too much olive oil in the pan you end up with greasy soggy peppers. did not have this issue with rapeseed oil. It was a lot lighter tasting and the spices didn't clump up as much as they usually do....

I tried baking a cake the other day with rapeseed oil too...It was delicious...I was going to take a picture but I just ate it instead....HOW IS THIS HEALTHIER AGAIN? :p

I've just made the cheese scones from the leaflet, with DSes (4 & 2). It was a rainy day activity! I found the oil (veg version) great to work with, as it was easier for the boys to mix in than butter would have been, not to mention less messy. It was also very convenient for today as we had run out of butter & eggs & this way I didn't have to buy any! I also used the oil to grease the baking sheet, and that worked well. Also I was pleasantly surprised how little oil was needed.

Can't comment yet on taste, but they look & smell delicious.

Today I have done a recipe from the booklet - Oat Topped Mackerel with Roast Tomatoes.

We all enjoy fish in our house and I do like to try to eat a variety, must admit I am not usually a big fan of Mackerel, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Enjoyed this dish quick and easy to do and on the table quick, which is great with the kids being off school.
We had the dish with more salad veg and new potatoes.
This was a winner in our house will do again and again. :)

Just over a week into the challenge and we now have almost a full bottle of vegetable oil and NOTHING LEFT of the cold pressed! I used them both for the same dish at the start (mushrooms with smoked paprika) and the cold pressed was so good that I've been using it in everything. It has a lovely fresh nutty smell to it, as opposed to the vegetable oil which smells of nothing much. I wouldn't usually buy either but I will be buying the cold pressed again. I looked at the recipe booklet, but most of the recipes were what I would class as Autumn/Winter dishes and we were in the midst of a heatwave, so I have only cooked the bacon/mustard/new potato salad (I made it with quorn bacon as we are vegetarians) It was gorgeous! In fact I made it twice in two days as we were having friends round and they loved it too. I like the look of the tear & share scones, so we will probably make those soon too.

I made ricotta hotcakes with charred aubergines in creme fraiche, and again the flavour was better. Mostly I've just been frying onions, tomatoes etc or making salad dressings.

I normally cook everything with olive oil and make salad dressings with extra virgin olive oil. I'll definitely buy cold pressed rapeseed oil after this. Before the challenge, I wouldn't have bought it if it came with a free cream cake - sorry, but the name 'rapeseed' is so offputting. (connotations of violent crime at worst, and hayfever at best) However I think I can get over that because it tastes lovely, seems a bit better for you and comes from Yorkshire so I can feel better about food miles. I don't know how you're going to get people over this - it's a great product, but saddled with a terrible name and unfortunately women not only do most of the food shopping but are most likely to recoil from the word 'rape'.

The bottle of vegetable oil is most likely to be used for making playdough or for end-of-the-month-oh-god-we're-skint cooking.

Can someone please tell me how they are making cakes with the rapeseed oil? Are you replacing the butter with the same weight of oil or is there some magic formula?

Really would like to give one a go as the cheese scones came out really well, but I'm nervous about making an actual cake. TIA.

We tried the middle eastern lamb and quinoa patties and the seeded cheese tear n share scones using ingredients we already had in the house, delicious, quick and easy, my kind of cooking.
I'm a real olive l oil fan and occasionally try various nut oils, I wasn't keen on using the rapeseed oil but I was pleasantly surprised, it has a nice flavour and seemed quite 'delicate' in comparison to our usual olive oil. We have used it in place of olive for the last few days.
I have used it as an emergency treatment for my sunkissed tresses as well as my sunkissed skin and it has definitely improved the texture of both, I love having multi-functional kitchen products.

First off, thank you very much for the voucher, which I used to buy oils from Tesco. I bought Tesco's own bog-standard vegetable oil as the non-cold pressed option. Can't remember the exact price, but I remember thinking it was very cheap. As for the cold-pressed, I bought a bottle of Mr Hugh's because it is made relatively near to where I live and the bottle looked nice. It was also on offer, which was a bonus!

So far, I have used both oils and have to say that although the cold-pressed looks the most appealing packaging-wise, I am finding the cheaper oil to be lighter and better suited to frying and baking things in the oven. I have drizzled it over baked fish, chicken and potatoes and all have come out well.

There is a definite difference in colour, with the cold-pressed being a lot more orange. I think the appearance of the bottle has a lot to do with how healthy people perceive the oils to be. I would always gravitate towards the glass bottles with pretty writing and good advertising slogans, but have found that the oil in the manky looking plastic bottle is really quite nice!

The cold-pressed has a lovely nutty flavour and is good in dressings and with bread, but I found that it has an awful, strong smell if you burn it. This happened to me when I put a bit in a frying pan to warm up whilst chopping up some courgettes to lightly fry. I momentarily forgot that I needed to keep an eye on it and when I turned round it was smoking and smelt really bad; reminded me of old oil that had had fish fried in it! So that has put me off frying with it again.

However, I do think I would buy both oils again as they are cheaper than my usual olive oil and I wasn't aware of the health benefits. I am also interested in replacing butter with oil when baking and will be looking up a few cake recipes to have a go at. I am also going to make the cheese scones, just haven't got round to it yet. Will come back with more feedback when I've been a bit more adventurous!

Not that nice on a cabbage salad, much prefer the veg oil.

I used the rapeseed oil to fry lambs liver, and it really made a huge difference. The liver was so succulent and non greasy and it melted in my mouth, and really improved the taste of something I don't really enjoy eating, but have been advised to eat as I have anaemia.

Just made a chorizo and potato stew using the cold pressed oil. It was yum !! I'm definitely sticking to this oil now as I prefer it to olive oil . It cooks better and tastes better :-)

Tonight I tried using the veg oil for the first time, maybe I'm a bit of an oil snob, but I'd been avoiding using it as it looks quite cheap and unhealthy! Anyway, I was quite surprised - it doesn't smell of anything and didn't seem to flavour the food, just cooked it nicely and my spicy vegetable cous cous was great and not at all greasy as I'd feared.

I'm also interested in how to substitute oil for butter in cake recipes? I'm making buns for my son's party on Saturday and would like to try using oil instead of butter in them.

A message from RapeseedOilBenefits.com

"Thanks to everyone who?s taken part so far ? we?re really enjoying reading your posts!

This thread will be kept open until 19 August 2013 to give you plenty of time to get your feedback on here to be entered into our prize draws.

We're really glad to see so much enthusiasm about rapeseed oil as you learn about its benefits ? UK farmers and producers will be very happy I'm sure.

Many of you have spotted celeb chefs singing the praises of this oil ? James Martin, Raymond Blanc, Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the Fabulous Baker Brothers and more!

We'll keep updating our frequently asked questions page - and please do try our recipes and let us know what you think - there's loads on the website and we'll be adding to these! If anyone would like a copy of the recipe booklet mentioned in this discussion thread ? you can get a recipe booklet here."

I sauteed some onions in the cheap stuff, they were fine, made onion gravy, still fine, tasted the oil and strangely it tasted of nothing.

I currenly use rapeseed oil and never knew! So I have been cooking as normal by replacing my usual rapeseed oil with the cold pressed. I have done several meals in my Actifry and have noticed that the colour is more yellow and there is a distinctive nutty flavour, which is not unpleasant. The family haven't complained which can only be good! I much prefer it in the salad dressing to olive oil as it does seem a lot lighter and a lot tastier. I am now converted.

Thank you for my vouchers. I bought vegetable(rapeseed) oil and extra virgin cold pressed oil the other day from Tesco.

So far I have cooked pork meatballs with the standard oil, used it to cook the onion, spoces and brown the meat. It was excellent, great taste, I was actually easily converted as I have been worrying about cooking with olive oil since I read it was not good for you. So now I know the benefits of rapeseed I will stick to that. And tell my friends who cook too! The kids did not notice any difference in taste either.

I then made feta, olive and cucumber salad and used the cold pressed oil. But this I did not like. I'm used to the taste of very good extra virgn olive oil and I felt like I had poured cooking oil on my salad. Probably psychological but I will stick with olive oil for salads.

We have also done grilled lamb chops with the veg oil on and this was very good. Will report back once we have cooked more! I will try cooking with the cold pressed oil too.

I am a little behind on comments so will have a quick catch up!

Firstly, so pleased to be chosen! Thank you!

I had no idea at all about cold pressed rapeseed oil or even that the oil I had been using was rapeseed, so this has been enlightening from the start. As a result, when I went to the supermarket to buy my 2 bottles, confusion ensued. I could not find it for the life of me. I looked everywhere and finally found it on the top shelf. Why is it up there pushed back and out if reach for the 5 ft nothings amongst us!?

Anyway, I finally got a bottle down, the most expensive Farringtons MellowYellow, and I immediately loved the colour of it! I opened it as soon as I got home and smelled it, and tasted it. Such a lovely flavour, slightly nutty and subtle. I convinced dp to try it, and he was pleasantly surprised.

I have been cooking with it over the past week and plan on making the scones tomorrow. It worked well in my chocolate orange cake, and I am using it in my nieces birthday cake as she is dairy intolerant and I make cakes with oil in for her. Well keep you posted!

As far as salads and frying goes, I adore it. It doesn't seem to smoke as much and when used as a dressing I much prefer the flavour. I am definitely going to make this a regular part of my shop. I am intrigued to see what the cheaper cold pressed oils taste like as I went for the most expensive as I had the voucher!

Thanks for the voucher and i have really enjoyed this trial :-)
~ Let us know what you think of rapeseed oil and if you knew about the benefits already or not
I had never even heard of this oil before this trial...i must lead a very sheltered life lol. I have done a bit of research into it and notice that it is a lot better and healthier for us. Normally i just use plain vegetable oil.

~ Have you tried out any RapeseedOilBenefits.com recipes? How did you and your family find them?
Me and my daughter baked the carrot cake and it was delicious!

~ 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
We wont ever be using any other oil again :-)

Thank you for my voucher, which I have used to buy some bog standard Tesco Vegetable Oil and some of Mr Hugh's Cold Pressed Rapeseed oil.

I am fascinated by this challenge, as since I have looked into this I realise that my normal preferred oil - Crisp n Dry - is 100% Rapeseed oil and I have been buying this over and above sunflower oil for a number of years on preference of taste (I now know I could also add vegetable oil to the options as it is basically the same thing).

The real revelation has been the cold-pressed rapeseed oil, which has such an amazing colour and flavour. I used it last night on some oven roasted chicken - not veering away from my usual recipe - just oil, garlic, salt and pepper - but it came out with this real depth of flavour. I have also tasted some with some balsamic and ciabatta and olives - and I love the nutty flavour it has, which is what gave the chicken the extra depth I think.

Anyway - I can wait to try some new recipes from the booklet to see what they are like.

We have been cooking with vegetable oil for ages and I hadn't realised it was rapeseed oil. I find it really good - versatile, high smoke point, no discernible flavour.

I spent the voucher today on a couple of bottles of cold pressed oil - one Tesco own, one Mr Hugh's extra virgin cold pressed. I like the flavour of both of them. Will try making salad dressing - don't normally make this as I don't like the flavour of olive oil (can't stand olives). I will also try it instead of butter in bread, mash and scrambled eggs, as recommended up thread. I like the idea of being able to reduce the saturated fat content. I also fancy trying the cheese scones.

Still hoping to hear how to bake cakes with it - someone must know!

I have managed to convert two other families to Rapeseed Oil during this challenge! I seem to have become quite evangelical about it!

I made the Bestest Chocolate Cake in the World with my Tesco own brand! It was so light and 'dry' - I thought it may have turned out greasy and oily tasting but no, it was really lovely! I will pop back with the recipe - I got it from the bbc website (googled something like 'easy best chocolate cake'!). Sane principle as muffins except you add boiling water at the end).

I would probably use the more expensive brands - I don't trust cheaper ones to be pure or from 100% reliable suppliers (horsegate anyone?).

I am yet to try it in a dressing - I love the taste of oilive oil so am not sure how rapeseed will measure up!

I fried some turkey breast using it, then tossrd in pre boiled new potatoes with some herbs. DS really liked the taste.