CBD has been gaining popularity due to its incredible benefits. It has been shown to help reduce pain, improve sleep, decrease inflammation, help with anxiety or depression, and have many long-term benefits like preventing cancer and Alzheimer’s symptoms. What is especially great is that CBD is completely safe to use and consume.
One way to easily incorporate CBD into your daily routine is to add it to foods. By learning how to cook with CBD, you are opening a whole new world of possibilities! Take a look at a few ways to add CBD into your favorite recipe and some tips and tricks to cooking with CBD oil so that it is effective, beneficial to your health and delicious!
Table of Contents
Skip the Heat
CBD is quite sensitive to heat and can lose some of its beneficial properties when exposed to high temperatures. While many people do bake with CBD, the oil is fairly protected in a baked good as it is surrounded by other ingredients and fats that keep it safe.
Also, something baked in an over may only reach an internal temperature of around 100 degrees F while CBD oil in a sauté pan over direct heat can reach temperatures upwards of 200 degrees F. This direct heat will cause the oil to breakdown something you do not want to happen if you want to get the full health benefits of the oil.
When cooking with CBD oil, you will often find that the oil is added at the end of a recipe, using it as a drizzle over a plated meal or as a final ingredient added to a mix that has already been cooked. This is to help the CBD remain potent and is something you should definitely practice if you want to incorporate CBD into your cooking.
Use Fats
CBD oil and cannabinoids in general bind well with fats and other oil-based ingredients. If your recipe calls for a fat, mix the CBD oil into the fat before you begin cooking. The fat will act as a vessel for the CBD to safely enter the recipe, staying powerful and incorporating into the other ingredients well. This recipe from The Ultimate CBD Cookbook is a fantastic way to make your own CBD butter, an ingredient you can then use in place of regular butter. Check it out at the end of this article and then give it a try- adding CBD to your cooking has never been easier!
Correct Dosage
Since you know how great CBD oil is, you may be tempted to use a lot of it. After all, if a little is god, isn’t a lot even better? Not exactly. When you start using CBD, you want to be sure you are getting the proper dosage. Beginners should start by consuming smaller amounts of CBD and work their way up to a more powerful dosage. Also, CBD can have a stronger taste as well as being an expensive ingredient. You don’t want to be pouring too much of it liberally into your food!
Check out dosage information (there is a great chart in this cookbook) and stick to the recommended guidelines, especially when you start cooking with CBD oil.
Start With Baking
You may find that CBD infused desserts and baked goods are more common, and that is because they have a much more subtle taste. CBD oil can be slightly on the bitter side, especially brands that are lower quality. Mixing it into something sugary and sweet will cover up this taste while still giving you the benefits of CBD.
In addition to simply adding CBD oils to baked goods, you can get even more benefits by cooking with hemp flour. Hemp flour is made by crushing hemp seeds and extracting the oil, leaving behind a dry and powerful powder that can be used in a wide variety of baked goods.
Hemp flour is a fantastic source of essential fatty acids, fiber, and protein. It has a slightly nutty taste which is delicious in many recipes. So, when you are thinking of baking with CBD oil, why not also consider baking with hemp flour. More nutritional benefits are always helpful! Try one of the awesome recipes found here that will make you love hemp flour from the first bite.
CBD Coffee
Another very easy and popular way to incorporate CBD into your diet is to add it to your coffee. While this may not necessarily be considered “cooking,” it is still a great way to consume CBD. It has been found to lessen the negative effects coffee can sometimes have like causing jitters and headaches. CBD coffee will help you wake up yet stay calm, focused, and give you some great antioxidant powers early in the day.
CBD is an oil and will not mix right into your coffee easily. If you add a few drops of the oil right into your hot beverage, it will likely just float on top, and you will get a big mouthful of the oil on your first sip. To fix this problem, many people will blend the CBD into the coffee using milk frothier or actual blender. This can help emulsify the oil into the coffee, making it much more enjoyable.
As you can see, cooking with CBD can be fantastic and a perfect way to add such a beneficial compound to your daily diet. Follow these tips and invest in a good CBD cookbook to help you get started. Stock your pantry with high-quality CBD oils (and maybe some hemp flour too), and you will be ready to cook! Take note of how quickly you notice the benefits of the oil, and you are likely to feel amazing almost right away!
How to Make CBD Butter:
Preparation Time: 2 minutes
Cooking Time: 2 Hours
Yield: 2 ¾ cups
Ingredients
- 2 cups of organic butter
- 1 cup distilled water
- 2 ounces CBD oil
Directions
- First, chop the butter into small cubes.
- Next, put the butter, water, and CBD oil into a pot and heat on low. (Low temperature is essential so as not to cook out the valuable contents of the CBD oil.) Stir occasionally, especially in the beginning as the butter is melting.
- After approximately two hours, remove from heat and allow to cool.
- When the melted butter mixture has reached room temperature, pour into an airtight container and refrigerate.
- Once the butter solidifies, it can be used just like any other butter!
Helpful Resources:
Top 7 Proven Health Benefits of CBD Oil
Top 10 Hydro-NGB CBD Oil Health Benefits
