Let us leave olive oil to the Italians, and instead embrace the beauty of British oils! From Kentish cobnut to Northumberland rapeseed, here are our five favourite producers.
The Groovy Food Company
There’s also ‘omega cool oil’, a clever organic blend of Omega 3, 6 and 9 which is pressed from flax, hemp, pumpkin and evening primrose seed oils. Drizzle over salads, blend into smoothies, or just dip your bread into it. There’s a ‘high five cooking oil’ too, which is a healthier alternative to other cooking fats, made as it is from a fusion of five cold pressed virgin seed oils.
£5.99 for a 500ml bottle of ‘high five cooking oil’.
Yellow Fields
Yellow Fields sticks to simplicity when it comes to making their oils... they just squeeze the seeds (only once) and bottle the oil. There are no chemicals used, and the oil isn’t bleached, so whatever colour the crop is, that’s the colour the oil will be (the harvest last year, for example, gave a slightly greenish oil, but now they’re back to a rich golden yellow colour).
The softness of the rapeseed when mixed with balsamic vinegar makes a great salad dressing, and it can be used in cooking too – rapeseed oil arguably makes better roast potatoes than goose fat does. Check out the recipe section of their website for more ideas on what to do with your bottle.
£6.70 for a 500ml bottle, including postage.
Cotswold Gold
Cotswold Gold is run by two young lads, Charlie and Lawrence, and is made solely from oilseed rape grown on their farm in the Cotswolds. It’s an extra virgin rapeseed oil, making it low in cholesterol, a good source of omega 3, and GM free. It also has less than half the saturated fat of olive oil.
They do an infusions range too, including basil, chilli, garlic, rosemary and smoked rapeseed oils. There’s also truffle oil, and a brand new selection of ‘drizzle’ dressings, available in red pepper, raspberry and tomato and basil flavours.
£4.95 for a 500ml bottle of extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil.
Kentish Cobnut Oil
It’s solely cobnuts, a valuable source of nutrients, which are used to make their roasted cobnut oil, and their cold-pressed cobnut oil (the first oil they ever produced). It’s a labour-intensive product, as each nut is hand-picked before going through the process of drying, shelling and then pressing. It takes over a kilo of picked nuts to produce each 250ml bottle of oil.
As well as having all the usual health properties that come from eating nuts, cobnut oil is also secretly good for the skin and apparently has anti-ageing properties. Plus because it’s a light oil with a fine texture, it’s easily absorbed by the body.
It takes twice as many cobnuts to produce a bottle of roasted cobnut oil than it does regular cobnut oil, creating an indulgent oil which is deemed too good for cooking with. There's also a walnut oil available and you can buy all three via their online shop here.
£9.95 for a 250ml bottle of Cobnut Oil.
GOOD OIL, Hemp
Like rapeseed oil, it also has half the saturated fat of olive oil and it can contribute to the health of hair and skin, as well as improving cholesterol, the immune system, and joints. It also contains zero trans fats, and has been known to treat ADHD, cardiovascular disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.
It’s nutty in flavour and you can cook with hemp oil as you would with olive oil. It’s also great for dressings, and GOOD OIL claim that it’s the best oil to use for roast potatoes (you can view all of their recipe ideas here).
GOOD OIL makes an ‘original’ and ‘mild and light’ bottle, both of which are available in 250ml and 500ml bottles. They also do a range of other hemp products, including hemp milk and flavoured seeds. You can buy online and find your nearest stockist here.
£4.49 for a 250ml bottle of GOOD OIL original.
And one more for luck... Mr Hugh's cold-pressed rapeseed oil
The Mason family, who make the oil, have been farming in Norfolk for over 200 years. Hugh took over the running of the business from his father, Maurice, when he was 22 and even the combine harvesters and tractors are considered part of the family. Check out some of Mr Hugh's rapeseed oil recipes here.
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