Rapeseed Oil Benefits challenge feedback thread – chance to win supermarket gift cards!NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

Here's what RapeseedOilBenefits.com, a not-for-profit campaign aiming to inspire people to use this cooking oil, say about the challenge:

“Did you know rapeseed oil, sometimes labelled vegetable oil, is a healthy choice of cooking oil? It contains less saturated fat than other commonly used cooking oils and fats (e.g. approx. 50% less than olive oil). Recent UK dietary and nutrition surveys estimate that as a nation we’re eating too much saturated fat so we need to look for ways to cut down. Current UK government guidelines advise cutting down on all fats and replacing saturated fat with some unsaturated fat. Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats such as rapeseed oil in the diet has been shown to lower blood cholesterol, which may reduce the risk of heart disease. It’s also a rich source of vitamin E.

Rapeseed oil is the only commonly used culinary oil that can be widely found both grown and bottled in the UK. It's also produced in other countries in the EU and worldwide. It comes in two forms: artisan cold-pressed and refined, which is often labelled vegetable oil. As well as its nutritional benefits, it’s competitively priced and has many culinary benefits, like its excellent, light, non-greasy flavour profile, and its versatility – from crispy roast potatoes, to healthier baking, to vibrant salad dressings.

Struggling to keep up your New Year’s resolutions? Give rapeseed oil a try, involve your family too if you can, and add your feedback here to be entered into a prize draw."

Here's what's involved:

~ Official testers (those already selected by MNHQ) who add a comment here between Monday 13 March and Sunday 2 April can win a £250 supermarket gift card

~ Non-official testers (open to all UK MNers) who add a comment here between Monday 13 March and Sunday 2 April can win a £150 supermarket gift card

• The challenge is to buy two bottles of rapeseed oil – one refined, often labelled 'vegetable oil' and usually in plastic bottles, and the other labelled 'cold-pressed' and often in glass bottles – and then use them in place of your normal cooking oil for two weeks and tell us what you think by adding your feedback here. Involve your family too if you can. If you already use rapeseed oil, feel free to take part in the challenge too, as Rapeseed Oil Benefits would like to know what you think also, to help them inspire others to use this cooking oil.

• If you have any questions about rapeseed oil go to RapeseedOilBenefits.com and check out the Guide to Rapeseed Oil pages and the FAQs, or use the Contact Us form. To help you get cooking with rapeseed oil, try these delicious Recipes created by professional home economists and dietitians, designed to show that healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring – it can be surprisingly good!

Please add your feedback below 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, photos, recipes, tips or ideas you have too – we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge.

Thanks
MNHQ

Closing date: Sunday 2 April. Winners will be selected at random from all posting a comment: one ‘official’ tester and one ‘non-official’ tester – prizes as above.

Please note: posts on this thread may be reproduced by Rapeseed Oil Benefits (AHDB).

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Used the vegetable oil for churros. They were delicious

Tester - haven't noticed much/any difference taste-wise but the oils are pleasant enough to use and not smelly.

Cooking with rapeseed oil caused my family's hypothyroid symptoms to worsen, as well as my children's behaviour and my energy levels.

Rapeseed oil is high in omega 6 fatty acids, which are known to have inflammatory and anti-thyroid effects, and it doesn't contain any of the fat soluble vitamins A, D or K (not sure about vit E). We had big improvements in everyone's health and behaviour from switching back away from rapeseed to animal fat eg butter, ghee, beef dripping.

I couldn't find any vegan recipes on the site, and only two vegetarian ones - not a problem for meat-eating me, but it would be an issue for some people.

Tester. I used the vegetable oil for my roasties and was not keen. Nowhere near as crispy.

I'm going to try a few recipes from the site this week and will report back.

I am enjoying this test. I had no idea that you could get swanky pressed rape seed oil and we had it on our salad last night. I liked it more than olive oil. The taste.

I have made brownies with the oil and they were just as nice as my usual ones that use butter. http://www.rapeseedoilbenefits.com/recipes/chocolate-cranberry-brownies-recipe/

I am also using the rapeseed oil in by deep fryer.

I'm still enjoying using the cold-pressed organic rapeseed oil, but (having read SmokyMountain's post on Sunday) I've now looked into the process required to refine the oil into the cheaper 'vegetable oil' version, and have had a bit of a rethink about that one.

Though it costs more, the extra price for the cold-pressed kind seems to me to be worth paying. I personally like the flavour, and now think it would be preferable to avoid the extra chemicals and all the other processes that appear to be used in making the cheaper refined oil. I think it would be hard to avoid totally, however, as it seems to be widely used in many commonly bought products. (I noticed that it was one of the ingredients in my packet of Walkers crisps today, for example). Not sure I want to use such a highly processed product in my daily cooking on a regular basis, despite it being apparently healthier in some aspects.

Really enjoying the challenge, just discovered that my local grocers will refill 500 ml glass bottles of unrefined rapeseed oil for £3!
Yorkshire puddings rose well in the refined oil, normally use sunflower oil.

Would definitely be buying this again.

I'm an official tester and have been using the oil for just over a week.

I find the cold pressed oil to have more of a nutty taste and prefer to use it in salad dressings. I find it is really lovely especially with tomatoes and herbs.

In terms of hot food, I've tried an omelette (mozz, tomato and basil) with the refined rapeseed oil and scrambled eggs with the cold pressed oil and much preferred the former. I took a photo of the scrambled eggs but decided not to post because it looks terrible, mainly down to my lack of photography and food styling skills!

We made really really lovely roast potatoes with fresh tarragon tonight, using the refined oil and they have a lovely texture and flavour (although the nuttiness came across more strongly on the roasties - they really soaked up the oil which DH put on with a heavier hand than I would have done).

I'm planning to do a cake with the refined oil at the weekend, will feed back again once I've managed it. DD hasn't had much of an opinion on the food I've tried out so far but I suspect she will have thoughts on the cake.

I have been using rapeseed oil for a couple of years now. I replaced my usual olive oil with British cold pressed rapeseed oil partly because it was British, partly because it was on promotion at the time, and I stuck with it because I really like the silky texture and slightly nutty taste. I use it in all the ways I would usually use olive oil - salad dressing, homemade houmous etc.
The 'usual' refined rapeseed oil I use for things like roasting or stir fries - all good, in that I don't feel like I taste the oil - but am never sure if that's because I try and use small amounts of because it is a lighter taste.
Anyway, I'm a fan. And I love the bottle that my cold pressed rapeseed oil comes in, which is part of the pleasure too if I'm honest!

Official tester: I have been using refined rapeseed oil and cold pressed rapeseed oil for two weeks now and I will definitely continue to use it. I already used refined rapeseed oil for cooking and I do prefer it to olive oil. I prefer rapeseed oil as it is cheaper than olive oil and has great health benefits too- there is no reason not to use it in my opinion. I have used the cold pressed rapeseed oil for salad dressings including the recipe of salmon and avocado salad with lemon dressing which was delicious. I really like the taste of the cold pressed oil in the salad dressings. I would never have thought to use anything other than olive oil in a salad dressing as I would have thought it would make it taste too cheap and oily but there isn't any noticeable difference for me so I will definitely continue to purchase the cold pressed oil. It doesn't smell when frying at high temperature which I like. I also made the creamy pesto mushrooms with halloumi on toast which was amazing!

Official tester here. I purchased both my oils from Sainsburys and have been using them now for 2 weeks.

I wasn't aware of the benefits of rapeseed oil before this challenge and had never even considered buying it if i'm honest. I was an avid olive oil and sunflower oil person! But I am now a convert and will carry on buying rapeseed oil!

The flavour is so much better and more delicate than other oils I have tried and not as strong as olive oil, which can be a bit overpowering on some dishes. I've used it for everything, from frying bacon and eggs to roasts and I have to say everyone in the family is very happy with it. I did tryout a rapeseed oil recipe - Salmon and Avocado salad with lemon dressing and it was very easy and very tasty. I used it as a starter and just made smaller portions for everyone. I'd definitely recommend having a try at that one.

I shall continue to use Rapeseed oil from now on, as the flavour is preferable and also its better for us!

None tester here.
I've not heard about the health benefits previously, so was very impressed by them.
I used the rapeseed oil for frying and roasting and I have found no difference to other oils. If anything the eggs seemed less greasy. I'll certainly continue with that going forwards.

For the cold pressed oil, it's not something I use a lot of anyway (as in olive oil either) however I did find when we mixed it with balsamic vinegar for a dip with breads, there was very little taste difference and in fact for the health benefits will be a swap we continue with.

Overall very impressed with both products.

Non tester

Have tried it and was impressed! More in the sense that no-one could tell the difference but knowing it's healthier is a result!!

Official Tester

I've been meaning to write all week and say we started our testing 10 days ago. We bought the oils in the photo from Sainsburys. We have used the refined one on salads and the kids have said they like it more due to its mild flavour, more so than the olive oil I usually use. We swapped the Vegetable oil for our usual sunflower oil and swapped the refined Hillfarm one for our olive oils. We have made pancakes, fritters, roasted veg with them and drizzled them over roast chicken. To be honest, I have no complaints from anyone in our household. Will write again in a few days.

Roasted some new potatoes in the 'normal' tonight. V nice but I think I might have used a bit too much oil.

I have made the roasted pepper, courgette and chicken recipe from the suggested rapeseed oil recipes.

It was fabulous I did cook my chicken about 20-30 mins though - served ours with Jacket Potatoes!

Here is the recipe.......

      4 chicken breasts, skinned (approx. 500g)
	2 red peppers, cut into quarters and deseeded (approx. 350g)
	2 large courgettes, sliced lengthways into thick slices (approx. 230g)
	3 sprigs of thyme plus extra for garnish
	2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
	1/2 lemon
.	Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6.
.	Cut each chicken breast in half horizontally into 2 thin breasts. Set aside.
.	Place the red pepper, courgettes and 3 sprigs of thyme in a roasting tin, drizzle with 1 tbsp rapeseed oil and season well. Cook for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.
.	Remove from the oven, add the chicken breasts to the tin, squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken, drizzle with the remaining rapeseed oil and season well
.	Return to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and there is no pink meat. To serve, layer the chicken pieces and roasted vegetables in a stack and garnish with thyme.

I brought 2 bottles 1 cold pressed and 1 refined....i couldn't really tell the difference between the two.
I used the cold pressed one to add to home made pizza dough and it turned out well. I used it the next day to make roast potatoes and the oil had quite a high smoking point which was great....the roasties were fantastic. I had made bread the day before and used some of the cold pressed oil as a dipping oil with balsamic vinegar it tasted good.
I have used the refined as I fried onions for a stew and also for frying eggs.
I couldn't find much difference cooking wise between the two oils.....but I will certainly be using it instead of olive oil in the future.

Forgot to say....
Official Tester

Non Tester

I didn't really know anything about Rapeseed oil, so looking forward to hearing the feedback from testers.

I use oil a lot, and although I try to use coconut oil for most things, the children don't like the taste of it.

Enjoying the challenge so far. Found the cold pressed too strong for drizzling of salads / pasta etc but very nice for roasting veggies. The refined oil is great for frying & gives lovely crispy roast potatoes. I would definitely buy the refined oil again. I'd buy the cold pressed if I saw it on offer but not sure I'd choose it over olive oil for dipping etc

^official tester

I have got the bug for making salad dressings now.

Made up another batch today.

I use the cold pressed oil for this.

~ Let us know what you think of rapeseed oil and if you knew about the benefits already or not.
I knew that rapeseed oil has many health benefits, but I wasn't aware of them in detail until I read online.
I used the cold pressed oil to make salad dressing, after reading on this thread - lovely! And I used the vegetable oil to bake an orange and ginger cake from the Rapeseed oil Benefits site (changed the lime for orange in the recipe). The cake was lovely.
I also made braised pigs cheeks, browning the cheeks in the oil before braising.

I like that the oil has a high smoking point - I hate the smell of burnt oil when frying. we all like the mild flavour of the cold pressed oil and DH and I have been using it in place of olive oil.

Photo of the cake and braised pig cheeks.

Oh official tester and I meant to say - DH made some delicious roast potatoes with chorizo and garlic - they were really crisp and tasty!

Non tester here. I've used rapeseed oil for years and love it, use it for most things. Roast potatoes cooked in it are nice but beef dripping is the best for these in my opinion!!!