A Seasonal Look At Cooking With Essential Oils

Now that summer is officially here, our home gardens are in their heyday. Spring's greens have already sprouted and given us the first gifts of the season, like bitter dandelion leaves, soft lettuces and nutrient-rich spinach. Now it's peas and squash, strawberries and raspberries. Last season you risked it and planted watermelon (and oh, what a harvest you had!). This summer you're branching out to cooking herbs and thinking of buying a backyard composting bin for all of your fertile scraps. No matter what you're growing in your garden or on your deck, the abundance of summer makes us want to eat healthy and pay attention to the earth, the real root of our nourishment.

Most of the year, we get our fruits and veggies from farms that are states, and sometimes even continents, away from home. Each summer, however, we put on our gloves, pull out the tools and accept the call of the home garden. The fruits of this fulfilling labor let us create dazzling, healthy meals. As anyone who's ever harvested a basket of summer fruits and veggies from their own garden can attest, these simple ingredients produce the most extraordinary meals. If, however, your summer produce needs an added splash, you can cull a wide range of flavors from a surprising source: your essential oil repertoire.

When buying aromatic oils, you should always strive to use medicinal-grade oils. These oils come from huge amounts of plant material, so it's wise to use high-quality oils from reliable sources. Of course we already consider this when we buy aromatherapy products for use on the skin. However, committing to therapeutic-grade oils has a secret plus: you can use these oils in food as well. If you've never seen your aromatherapy collection this way, just remember that smell has more control over our sense of flavor than even our taste buds! Keeping that little fact in focus, here are some hassle-free ways to use essential oils in your summer cuisine.

Before we get too lost in our senses, though, let's discuss using essential oils internally. Aromatic oils are all plant-based material. Granted, you probably wouldn't want to chew on myrrh resin for fun, it is still a natural product. It's safe in small quantities, but it might make you wish you'd stuck to regular chewing gum. Although some essential oils are definitely not safe to take internally, like birch or wintergreen, many oils can be ingested for medicinal and gourmet reasons. Most of the essential oils available on the market are labeled as GRAS by the FDA, meaning they are Generally Recognized as Safe. These oils are not technically used as food additives, but they are considered safe for consumption. When trying to determine if an aromatherapy oil is good for cooking, think of this: essential oils of kitchen spices and fruits will most likely enhance your meal rather than ruin it. The only thing to remember is that some oils, like peppermint, oregano and cinnamon, can be hard on the mucous membranes. Use these diluted and in small doses, though, and they will add zing to your dinner.

How can essential oils improve your summer harvest? Let's first consider one of the gifts of the Mediterranean region: the citruses. Oils like grapefruit and lemon blend beautifully with olive oil for simple, tangy dressings. All it takes is one drop of oil per tablespoon of oil, and your salad will be transformed. Love guacamole? Try a few drops of lime oil mixed with ripe avocado and serve it with corn chips or jicama slices. Still munching on this spring's spinach? Mandarin orange essential oil, which smells heavenly, is refreshing drizzled on greens. How about beverages? Oils add dimension to juices and fizzy waters, too. By mixing grapefruit, mandarin and lime in equal parts, seltzer water is transformed into a healthy citrus soda without the sugar found in commercial brands. As with all aromatic oils, though, don't overdo it. Thankfully, a little bit of oil goes a long way.

What about the bevy of essential oils derived from well-loved cooking spices? Sweet marjoram, basil, ginger, thyme, oregano and bay can all be used to enhance food. Try blending sweet basil oil in with a tomato-mozzarella-Italian parsley pasta, or put a drop of ginger oil in your summer bok choy and carrot stir fry. Like your coffee with cardamom, Arabian-style? One drop of this oil transforms regular coffee into a delectable treat (hint: try this drink iced!). Cooking spice essential oils tend to be surprisingly strong, so again, don't be lavish with them. Too much oregano or thyme oil will definitely ruin an otherwise balanced dish, so be careful. It's also usually a good idea to wait to throw the oils in until the food is nearly done cooking, thereby reducing the chance of evaporation before you're able to enjoy your creation.

Essential oils can also be used when making sweets. Vanilla and cacao essential oils infuse foods with their distinctly delicious flavors without the addition of refined sugar. And, different from extracts, essential oils do not contain alcohol, the substance used to distill food flavorings out of plant matter. For many, a couple of drops of vanilla bean essential oil in a cookie recipe tastes better than the sugary, chemical concoctions we find in commercially-made desserts. The same goes for cacao. Think baking chocolate! Dark, bitter yet definitely "chocolate." Lucky for us, the chemical constituents of chocolate that make us feel happy are best found in the darkest cacao. Toss a couple of drops of cacao essential oil in your yogurt and experience the elation of a chocolate high without the guilt!

We think of summer cuisine, and its accompanying picnics and patio parties, year-round. The season's harvest helps us eat right and participate in the cultivation of our own food, a rare treat for many living in urban environments. Using aromatic oils to add variety and spice to our diet is easy and often enables us to forgo unnecessary trips to the grocery for specialty items. This summer, when a friend stops by unannounced and you're down to rice milk and coffee, don't despair. Take a drop of grapefruit oil and turn water and ice into a refreshing citrus drink. After all, that's how it's done in the summertime!