Earlier this week, I posted a new recipe for Fettuccine with a Pineapple Cream Sauce. It’s super tasty. But I have a confession… that recipe wasn’t made by me, it was made by, well, a robot.

As you probably know, we’re currently in the midst of an AI-revolution. These AI tools from MidJourney, OpenAI, Stable Diffusion, Google, and countless others are getting extremely good at writing text and generating images – and they are improving at light speed. Given my background as a web app developer and food blogger, my first question was whether they could generate recipes as well, and I found that with some clever prompting and back-end work, the answer is a resounding yes. AI can generate really amazing recipes.

I began to come up with a vision for a recipe website that would serve two equally powerful purposes 1) allow users to enter a meal idea and get back a fully-functional recipe, and 2) catalog these AI-created recipes in a user-friendly format so that they could be saved, searched, and discovered by other users in a massive collection. Over the last few months, I have been working to make this vision a reality and today I’m excited to introduce DishGen.com – the infinite AI-powered recipe generator.

In fact, I just made a video that goes over this project if you’d prefer to watch –

[P.S. This video is from my YouTube channel which covers the space between art and technology. It’s not a cooking specific channel, but I’m working on a lot of new content on those topics, so if you’re into that kind of thing, please subscribe.]

As a recipe developer, building this tool was both exhilarating and terrifying. Over many years, I managed to generate about 350 recipes. With AI, I can create hundreds of recipes in an hour. In fact, this project hasn’t even officially launched but already over 1,000 recipes have been created in the last week! Together, the amount of great recipes we’ll be able to create and save on DishGen is truly staggering.

How it Works

DishGen is a free service. You can access it at DishGen.com and you don’t even need to sign up to try it out right now. Though, I highly recommend you create a free account – it gives you a much larger monthly search quota and allows you to bookmark the recipes you create.

Right from the homepage, you can use the input box to simply type in anything. There’s a ton of rotating suggestions on the homepage. You can try things like “A high-protein vegan breakfast smoothie with antioxidants” or “No-bake keto peanut butter cookie bites with flaxseed” or “A crowd-pleasing vegetarian entree for my potluck this weekend” – the possibilities are endless.

The recipe you get back will be 100% AI-generated. It’s not searching the internet to find results or copying and pasting other content, it’s truly generating a new recipe on command. It also writes a title, short description, and tags that fit the recipe. It’s kind of surreal.

Sometimes, it may not be what you were looking for, but that’s fine. It’s not perfect. You can refine your prompt to be more specific and try again until you get it exactly right.

Tips for Getting Better Results

Like all new tools, there could be a bit of a learning curve to get the best results, so here are a few tips to get the most out of DishGen –

1. Be Specific. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that this is not a search engine like we’re all used to. I’ve noticed that a lot of early users have been typing in generic prompts with one word or ingredient. “curry” or “chocolate” will get you nowhere. The more detailed your prompt, the more likely you are to get a recipe that fits your vision. I think of it like a chef that will make me anything I want. If I just say “potatoes” I’m probably not going to get something as great as if I was more detailed.
2. Include Ingredients. Ask for the ingredients you want the recipe to contain. You can search for multiple ingredients at once by separating them with a comma. I use this to find creative recipes for items I already have in my kitchen to reduce waste.
3. Ask for Constraints. You can include things like “with less than 10 ingredients” or “keto friendly” or “for picky eaters” or “that makes 6 servings” to return a more specific result.
4. Mash up cultures and ideas. I’ve had a lot of good results with things like “a dish that feels Italian but includes Hawaiian ingredients” so feel free to be adventurous and see what happens!

There’s also an advanced recipe generation page which guides you through the process to get even more accurate results.

DishGen is a Community

As cool as it is to generate recipes, I don’t see that as this platform’s primary feature. Instead, the real power of DishGen is its ability to catalog a near-infinite array of recipes. For this reason, I put a ton of emphasis on features that allow users to search, filter, bookmark, rate, comment on, and post photos of these recipes.

With such a large volume of data, the most critical part of this platform is having users who not only generate recipes, but make the recipes and report back to give them a rating, leave comments, and upload photos. that data can then be processed and the best recipes can rise to the top. In the not-too-distant future, I suspect we’ll have a staggering collection of amazing recipes that is freely accessible by anyone.

With that in mind, I wanted to make this a free service for everyone because the more all of us use it and report back on the recipes, the better it will be for everyone. The only limitation currently is that accounts do have monthly “credits” that limit the number of recipes that can be generated. This is necessary because it is cost/resource intensive to access these AI tools. However, I am quickly working on a reward system that will allow users to earn permanent quota increases by trying the recipes they generate and providing comments and photos.

I’m not sure where this AI recipe revolution is headed, but this is just the beginning. I’m hopeful that DishGen can make cooking faster, easier, healthier, less wasteful, and more successful for home cooks around the world – it’s really an extension of the One Ingredient vision that has been here all along. It’s a pretty exciting time!

If you have any questions about this tool, you can post them below. The service is also in beta and I’m sure there will be some bugs and glitches. If you do find anything unusual or have issues, please do report them via the DishGen Contact page.

DishGen Created the Best Vegan Cookie Recipe I’ve Ever Made

Okay! So this tool can generate lots and lots of recipes but the question is, are they any good?

A true story – this week, I was looking for a killer vegan cookie recipe. I don’t make a lot of dessert and I don’t have a great crispy cookie recipe, like a sugar cookie, so I simply asked DishGen for a vegan cookie that is crispy and has no processed sugar and it came back with this – Crispy Almond Butter Vegan Cookies.

This recipe seemed to make sense and I had all the ingredients, so I immediately got up and made it on the spot. I just followed along exactly and had the cookies in the oven within 8 minutes.

No joke, these are the best cookies I’ve ever made. Everything was perfect. It nailed the quantities of ingredients, the batter had just the right consistency, just the right amount of baking powder for a tiny rise, and they came out crispy on the outside and a little softer and melty on the inside. Though it’s mostly almonds, it’s just slightly nutty and so delicious. It even nailed the number of servings. Amazing.

As a recipe developer, this was a surreal experience for me. It would have taken me infinite attempts to come up with something like this, and I probably would have never stumbled on the almond butter + almond flour combo that worked so well.

These cookies do have a stupendous amount of fat and some coconut oil which I wouldn’t normally use, but you’ll have to take that up with the robots .

Makes: 16 cookies

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In another bowl, whisk together almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.

4. Mix wet ingredients into dry until well-combined and dough forms.

5. Use a cookie scoop to portion dough and roll into balls, then flatten into discs.

6. Arrange on the baking tray and bake for 12-14 minutes, until lightly golden.

7. Cool for 5 minutes on the tray then move to a wire rack for further cooling.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted any new recipes lately. Why? Well, while running this blog, I was also writing code and developing software on various smaller projects. But in early 2021, I built a cryptocurrency-based online game that took nearly all of my efforts and I didn’t have as much time for One Ingredient Chef, unfortunately. That project was ultimately acquired by another company earlier this year and now I have a bit more time on my hands.

In fact, that’s how we get to this recipe today – I recently started working on a food-related web app that I am super excited to share with you. I think it’s absolutely revolutionary, and it very much ties into today’s recipe… how? Well, you’ll have to wait until later this week when I can reveal it :). But for now, it feels GREAT to be back creating recipes, so onto the fettuccine!

I recently made this and thought it was so delicious that I had to share it. Infusing a bit of sautéed pineapple into a classic cashew cream sauce works surprisingly well. The sweetness and acidity cut through the richness of the sauce and create a delicious balance of flavors when tossed with some pasta. It’s totally random, true, but the flavors are incredible. And the best part? It is one of the fastest and easiest meals I’ve made in a while. With some soaked cashews, you can have dinner on the table in under 20 minutes.

What really makes this work is the order of operations. We’re not just blending some pineapple into the cashew cream. Instead, we sauté* the finely-diced pineapple in a skillet. This allows the pineapple to brown and develop some really deep flavors. Then, when we add the cream sauce right into the skillet at the end, the sauce is infused with the flavors and tiny nuggets of pineapple.

*I actually used a tiny bit of olive oil for this even though I normally don’t cook with oil. It allowed the pineapple to brown and develop better flavors, but if you’re oil free, water will work fine.

Makes: 4 servings

Prep Soak the cashews for at least an hour before blending into cream.

Step One

In a blender, combine soaked cashews, water, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Step Two

Boil a pot of water and begin cooking the fettuccine according to package directions.

Step Three

In a skillet, heat olive oil (or water) over medium heat. Add diced pineapple chunks and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Step Four

Add the cashew cream sauce to the skillet with the pineapple and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Try to time this so that the fettuccine is just about al dente at this point.

Step Five

Drain the fettuccine and add it into the skillet with the cream sauce – or vice versa, add the sauce into the pot with the pasta – and gently toss to coat.

Serve immediately with a garnish of parsley and black pepper.

As you may have heard, I recently created a brand new event called the One Ingredient 30-Day Challenge where I invite you to join me in eating a completely “One Ingredient” diet for 30 days to start 2021.

These type of 30-day challenges can be powerful – when I first envisioned the One Ingredient Diet way back in 2013, it was a 30-day challenge like this one that changed my life, inspired me to start this blog, and the rest was history!

To help you succeed with this challenge, I put together the deepest and most comprehensive program to date  – an online course that walks you through this challenge day by day, with 30 daily videos, 55+ recipes, a place to get support in real time, and more. If you’d like to learn all about this course, see the link below:

I opened registration for this course just last week and already dozens of students have joined. It’s going to be an incredible experience for all of us and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Today, as we’re just over 3 days from the new year, I wanted to share what I consider to be the top 10 reasons you may want to join this challenge in 2021…

1. To start 2021 with a big win for your health

After coming off the holiday season where many of us gain weight by eating an unhealthy diet, “losing weight” and “getting in shape” is always the #1 new year’s resolution for good reason. The thing is, it almost always fails, doesn’t it? Not this time. After going through this challenge, you’ll be in an amazing position to actually succeed with those resolutions once and for all. Starting the year with this intensive, 30-day challenge of eating nothing but real, unprocessed food will have positive ripple effects that change the course of the entire year.

2. To make healthy eating faster & more convenient

One of the biggest challenges people face when eating healthier is time! It’s just not fast or convenient to cook healthy meals at home… or is it? Because I know many of you struggle with this, the course is laser-focused on helping you build routines, cook in bulk, and other “hacks” that make it faster + easier + cheaper to prepare healthy meals at home than to drive through Burger King. This one-month investment in learning these systems will save you hours in the kitchen every week for years to come.

3. To lose weight

The best thing about a whole-food, plant-based diet like this one is that you can pretty much eat all you want and still lose weight. How is this possible? It’s all about calorie density. Once you remove the processed oils, sugars, and additives, you’re left with real food which has way less calories per bite. With natural food, weight often returns to natural levels without any struggle.

4. To fight cravings for sugar and junk food

If you’re like many people, cravings / addictions for sugar or other junk food is a major cause of failure with any healthy eating program. It turns out, there is incredible science now that shows how you’ll begin to prefer the type of food you have been eating recently. This study, for example, gave people a low sugar diet for 30 days and after that month, the sugary food that used to taste “normal” now tasted overly sweet.  It was studies like those that inspired me to make this a 30-day challenge. Because, if you give your body 30 days to reset, you’ll begin to actually prefer low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar foods and it becomes much easier to sustain those changes over time.

5. To put “diets” behind you once and for all

The One Ingredient “Diet” is really not a diet at all – there’s no portion control or calorie restrictions of any kind. Instead, it’s a common-sense approach to eating that keeps you full and satisfied with delicious, nutrient-dense food. There is no restrictions or willpower needed, and that makes it sustainable (and enjoyable!) over the long term. No on-again, off-again nonsense here.

6. To master some new recipes

Most days of the challenge include two recipes that make sense for where you are. Early days focus on simple, easy meals. When we talk about cooking in bulk, I include recipes that can be made in bulk, etc. You don’t have to make these as part of the challenge, but if your cooking is in a rut and you’re looking for fresh recipe inspiration, you’ll find tons of it here!

7. To lower your odds of diet-related diseases

Of course there is nothing we can do to guarantee good health, but the data is clear that those eating a low fat, high fiber, nutrient-dense diet of whole plant food tend to have less heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other health conditions. These diet related diseases are the biggest causes of death in the Western world and our dietary choices can lower (sometimes dramatically) the chances of contracting them. Who wouldn’t want those statistics on their side?

8. To boost your knowledge of health & nutrition

Ever wonder why oil is so bad for us, or how much fiber we should be eating, or why salt is such a big issue? A number of the daily videos in this course are focused on the basics of plant-based nutrition so that you can build a deeper understanding of HOW and WHY this type of a diet works so well – and what nutritional issues to watch out for along the way.

9. To get support on this healthy-eating journey

You can absolutely take steps to unprocessed your diet on your own, but it can be really hard to do it alone! This course has two things that make your odds of lasting success that much greater: 1) the daily videos, each day not only teaches you new information that you’ll need, but there’s an inspirational “quote of the day” and encouragement to keep you going. 2) Each daily lesson has a discussion area where you can ask questions and interact with me and other challengers in real time to get the support and encouragement you need to make this work.

10. To make healthy eating stick long-term

What I love most about this course is that it is designed to help you build and maintain healthy eating habits for the LONG term. This isn’t some 30 day “cleanse” after which you fall back into your old habits! Rather, the course teaches you how to shift your lifestyle to make healthy eating sustainable over time. In fact, the final week is entirely focused on helping you solidify these  lifestyle changes needed to continue unprocessed eating for years into the future.

***

Hopefully that list helps you gain a clearer understanding of whether this program might be the right thing for you to join this year. If you have any questions about this new challenge, feel free to post them in the comments below or message me here and I’ll get back to you!

If you’d like to learn more and watch the intro video, check out the challenge here:

Click Here for the One Ingredient Challenge »

Either way, Happy New Year! I hope your 2021 is better than 2020 (which is a pretty low bar!)

Wow. I have to say, I was really shocked by this bean dip. For something so simple and quick to make, the flavors are incredible and the presentation is really cool.

At its core, this is just a humble mashup of canned black beans, frozen corn, and some spices all cooked together…

But we have to talk about that cheese. What looks like some kind of broiled mozzarella is, in fact, simple cashew cream! I’ve known for a while that cashew cream tends to harden and solidify when heated, so I decided to exploit that here. Once you’ve made the bean dip, just drizzle little pools of the cream on top and place under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. The entire surface of the dip becomes slightly hardened, toasty, and beautiful.

Top with some other delicious stuff like guacamole + cilantro, and it’s an incredible, nutritious, easy 15-minute meal…

Makes: 3+ meal-sized servings

Prep Soak the cashews for at least an hour before blending into cream.

Step One

In a BIG skillet, warm a splash of water and throw in a diced white onion and the spices (2 teaspoons chili powder blend, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt) and allow them to simmer until the onions turn translucent. (In a way, this is like a curry where it’s essential to spice the onions at the start in order to bring out maximum flavors.)

Step Two

Add two cans of black beans and one can of diced tomatoes (including the liquid from all cans) into the pan along with 1 cup of corn (preferably the frozen fire-roasted kind), 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a few sprigs of chopped cilantro (save some for topping). With a large fork, mash and stir repeatedly, every 3-4 minutes, and continue to cook for 15+ minutes until the tomatoes no longer taste raw and acidic.

Tip: Depending on how much liquid you have, you can thicken the dip in two ways: 1) Mashing more of the beans to release more starch and 2) adding more nutritional yeast.

Step Three

Meanwhile, make some cashew cream. Drain the soaking cashews and add them to a blender with 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, a pinch of salt, and just enough fresh water to make a thick cream. Blend until totally smooth. Then, stir in about 60% of this cream into the dip itself – reserving the other 40% for garnish.

Also give the dip a taste and feel free to add additional spices as needed, because the dip is basically done at this point.

Step Four

Finally! When the dip is done, turn on the broiler to high and place an oven rack just beneath it. Carefully add a few of those “pools” on top, as shown, and gently place in the broiler for 1-4 minutes – watch closely and remove just before it burns.

Top with chopped cilantro, slivered green onions, or even some mashed avocado. Serve with corn tortillas or homemade baked tortilla chips by slicing some “one ingredient” corn tortillas and baking until crispy.

I’ve actually never had a poke bowl… I stopped eating fish long before the poke craze took over America a few years ago, but from what I gather, the only rule is that poke bowls have raw fish. Beyond that, anything goes, it seems.

Well, I guess that means we’re breaking the only rule of Poke, because we’re using tofu instead of fish. However, the tofu in this recipe is thinly-sliced, served cold, and almost “pickled” in rice vinegar, soy, sesame, and nori for some ocean flavors (as are the cucumber and red cabbage). These cold ingredients are placed atop warm brown rice with a sliver of avocado and an amazing sesame cashew cream on top.

This is honestly super delicious and quite unlike anything I’ve ever made before. I have SO MANY rice bowl recipes, but this one is kind of special. The fishy flavors of the nori make it feel like a seafood bowl, and that sesame + cashew cream is insanely good.

It seems like a lot of ingredients / moving parts here, but it’s actually very simple to make – with no “cooking” required if you have some pre-made/leftover brown rice. It came together for me in about 15 minutes even as I was developing the recipe as I went along.

Recipe Note: I didn’t provide measurements for the seasonings like vinegar and soy sauce because we’ll be using them in several places and it would be too tedious – especially since exact measures aren’t needed.

Makes: 2 bowls

Prep: make some brown rice and soak 1/3 cup cashews for an hour before blending

Step One: Pickled Vegetables

Thinly-slice the cucumber and red cabbage, then add them to a bowl with a marinade of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil. I’d start with about 1.5 tablespoons vinegar with 2 teaspoons of soy and 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame. Toss to coat and pop these in the fridge to pickle for the 10-15 minutes it takes to finish this recipe

Step Two: Pickled Tofu

Cut the tofu however you’d like. I sliced it into random thin slices which worked well, but you can make small cubes as well. Then marinate it in a very similar mixture as above – rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil – but also a generous dash of smoked paprika and some broken up pieces of nori to infuse some oceany flavors…

Step three: Sesame Cream Sauce

In a blender, combine the raw cashews, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, and just enough fresh water (1/2 cup?) to make a cream sauce. Blend until totally smooth.

Step Four: The Poke Bowl!

Add warm brown rice to the bottom of each bowl, then top with the tofu and pickled vegetables. On top of that, add sliced avocado and slivered green onions, and finally a generous drizzle of the sesame cream sauce, some sesame seeds, and (optionally) more sprinkles of nori.

Wine Pairing Ideas for Vegan Poke Bowl with Sesame Cream Sauce

Bright Alsace Pinot Gris or a restrained California Chardonnay are two ways to accompany this Vegan Poke Bowl with sesame cream sauce; the Pinot Gris highlights rice wine vinegar and tofu, while the Chardonnay offers a r.

Clos Windsbuhl Pinot GrisDomaine Zind-HumbrechtPinot Gris · Alsace, FranceView »Rinconada Vineyard ChardonnaySandhiChardonnay · Santa Barbara, Central Coast, CaliforniaView »

Wine pairings selected for this recipe by CellarCharts – the AI wine discovery engine created by Andrew from One Ingredient Chef

I developed this incredible mushroom gravy a LONG time ago and I’ve been making it at every family holiday since then… It only recently dawned on me that I had never fully shared the recipe with you guys! Other than a quick mention in a biscuit recipe, I had been inadvertently keeping it a secret all this time.

That’s a shame because, I’m telling you, it’s the best vegan gravy I’ve ever made. It starts with mushrooms, soy sauce, and tahini, which is one of my favorite flavor combos. That gives it the salt and fat to be really tasty, but then the richness of the tahini with the umami from the mushrooms is just incredible. Let it simmer for a while with some herbaceous notes from the rosemary and it’s the perfect gravy. I can (and do) eat this stuff by the spoonful.

All the people at your Zoom Thanksgiving will love it! (what a time to be alive…)

Makes: about 2 cups

Step One

In a saucepan, warm a splash of water over medium-high heat and toss in the roughly-chopped mushrooms (any common varieties work fine like crimini or button, but extra credit if you add a shiitake or oyster as well) and a minced shallot (yellow onion works in a pinch). Cook these in the water for 5 minutes until the mushrooms reduce considerably.

Step Two

Drain the brownish cooking water from the mushrooms and add in all the tasty stuff right on the mushrooms – 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, a tablespoon of soy sauce (save more for later), and a generous grind of black pepper. Let these cook for 2-3 minutes until the soy sauce is basically seared onto these umami-bomb mushrooms.

Step Three

Add about 12 oz of veg broth into the pan and bring it up to temperature, then whisk in 3 tablespoons of tahini, a tablespoon of nutritional yeast, and a teaspoon or so of finely-chopped rosemary. Keep stirring / whisking until it becomes a smooth mixture.

Step Four

At this point, the gravy will probably be quite thin. In the past, I’ve thickened it with either cornstarch or whole wheat flour and both work. Here, I suggest adding about 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to a small dish, pouring in some of the broth, and stirring until smooth, THEN stirring that back into the gravy mixture to prevent clumping.

After 5 minutes of thickening, remove from the heat and taste. If it’s still too thin, add a teaspoon more cornstarch. If you’d like to boost the flavors even further, add a drizzle more tahini, soy sauce, and/or garlic powder.

This can be served immediately, but it also keeps extremely well for 3+ days sealed in the fridge.

Every year, I try to learn more about nutrition and update my own diet to apply what I have discovered. Oil has been one of the big areas of improvement in my own cooking. Five years ago, my approach to oil was like, “I know oil isn’t very healthy, but a little in moderation is okay.” and a lot of my recipes from back in the day have ingredients such as a tablespoon of vegetable oil or even 1/4 cup of coconut oil (!) in some baked goods and desserts.

Today, my thinking and understanding of the research has evolved to the point where I basically avoid all oils, nearly all the time in my own cooking. In fact, other than an old jar of coconut oil that I rarely use, I don’t even have oil in my kitchen.

I find my previous uses of oil to be unacceptable. I may even go back to a few of my more popular old recipes and “remaster” them to be made without oil. But in the meantime, I felt like it was my responsibility to write this article that shows you how to take a recipe with oil (including mine) and rebuild it by substituting the right oil-free ingredients that get you as close to the original as possible.

This is a challenge because (as we will see) the uses of oil are numerous and pervasive, so let’s start with a little background to understand why oil is a problem and why it’s used so frequently. Then, we’ll dig into specific techniques and hacks that can help you replace oil in virtually any recipe.

The Problems with Oil

First, why? What is the problem with oil? Why do I now consider it to be unsafe and unhealthy even in moderation? What caused me to change?

There is a lot of conflicting noise on the effects of oil. Many nutritionists point to data that says that olive oil is actually good for you, but these studies are often flawed because they compare various types of fat against each other rather than simply oil vs no oil. Notice how the FDA words their recommendation (emphasis mine):

Supportive but not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that daily consumption of about 1½ tablespoons (20 grams) of oils containing high levels of oleic acid, when replaced for fats and oils higher in saturated fat, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. To achieve this possible benefit, oleic acid-containing oils should not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day.

In other words, if you replace your daily butter with olive oil instead, you MAY get some benefits! Well, duh! Just because something is better than butter doesn’t mean it is good for you!

Ultimately, oil has NUMEROUS health issues, such as: increasing inflammation, increasing risk of cardiovascular disease, increasing risk of type-2 diabetes, raising cholesterol and triglycerides, and being the most calorie dense “food” on the planet (240 calories in 2 tablespoons!).

Going deep enough to back up those claims is beyond the scope of this article, but if you’d like to do that, the following resources will give you a more rigorous scientific look at the subject:

• Olive Oil and Artery Function (NutritionFacts.org)
• Olive Oil Vs. Nuts (NutritionFacts.org)
• What’s Wrong with Olive Oil? (Pritikin)
• Is Oil Healthy? (Esselstyn)
• How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind (Doug Lisle)

Why Oil is Everywhere (Biology and Chemistry)

Oil is everywhere. It’s hard to find any packaged food, restaurant meal, or even at-home recipe that doesn’t contain oil. Why? It comes down to both biology and chemistry…

On the biology front, Michael Moss in his incredible book Salt, Sugar, Fat, explains how the processed food industry uses those three nutrients to control our tastebuds and create irresistible, addictive foods.

We were designed to crave fatty foods, and since oil is pure 100% fat by definition, oil is one of the most effective tools that food scientist can use to make things taste great and get us hooked.

What’s incredible about the combination of salt, sugar, and fat is that scientists can omit one and then boost the others to compensate. So, in our current low-carb craze, they can drop the carbs/sugar and simply increase the fat and salt to keep addictiveness at a maximum.

Think of the most addictive unhealthy foods and they have large amounts of Salt, Sugar, and Fat (think orange chicken fried in oil and coated in a salty & sugary sauce). Or, they omit one and have even higher amounts of the other two (think potato chips with no sugar but ridiculous fat and salt).

The other reason oil is everywhere is about chemistry. As we will see repeatedly in the rest of this article, oil is a magical ingredient. There’s no other edible liquid you can heat to 400º to instantly cook food and also create a beautiful crispy texture… Oils can help processed food stay moist and shelf-stable for years… Saturated oils in particular can create some pretty unique textures that aren’t otherwise possible.

In other words: oils are a powerful tool in the food scientist’s toolbox that can be used to achieve a variety of goals – in addition to also making the food taste great. It’s a win-win for them, but a loss for our health.

Put the biology + chemistry together and it’s obvious how you end up with the ingredients in a Hostess cupcake. It has 250mg of sodium, 19g of added sugar, and FOUR different kinds of oil/fat (palm oil, hydrogenated tallow, cottonseed oil, and sunflower oil) which are engineered to provide the fat we crave, but also the texture/stability needed from processed food.

It’s important to understand all of this because knowledge is the first step towards replacing oils in our cooking. Only by understanding what the oil is actually doing can we begin to create an oil-free substitution, right?

Let’s put this information into practice now. We can break it down into the two primary ways you’ll encounter oil in recipes: oils added to baked goods, and oils used to actually cook / fry food:

How to Substitute Oil in Baking

Oil is used in baked goods for three primary reasons: flavor, moisture, and texture. Let me quickly explain each of these functions…

Flavor: We just explored this. Adding oil to baked goods increases the fat content, which makes people happy.

Moisture: Compare a cake with oil to one without oil and the oily cake will be luxurious and soft; the one without will taste like stale bread.

Texture: This is especially important with saturated fat (coconut oil, butter) which has a special property: it is solid at room temperature but melts when heated. This enables saturated fat to do magical things in baked goods. Example: Mix cold butter into puff pastry dough and the pastry cooks before the tiny bits of butter can melt, leaving little pockets of air. The crust becomes light and flaky.

Using that information, what can we do to replace oil in baked goods and end up with similar flavor, moisture, and texture?

Texture is hard because nothing but saturated fat behaves like saturated fat, unfortunately. This means things like flaky pastry are practically impossible. However, flavor and moisture are still very much in play!

When you run into a recipe for baked goods that calls for oil, go through these options and pick the substitution that best matches your situation:

Option 1: Skip the Oil (Easy Way Out)

If a recipe calls for a tablespoon of oil across an entire batch of 12 muffins, for example, you can feel pretty confident that it’s not adding much and you may be able to completely omit the oil with no consequences. However, if the recipe has something like a CUP of oil, then we need more aggressive solutions…

Option 2: Fruit Purees (Meh)

The most common way to replace oil in baked goods is by using applesauce or mashed banana. Other fruit purees work too, but most of them add more flavor – apple and banana are neutral enough to not overpower other flavors. This is a fine option, but all it really does is add moisture back into the recipe so that your cake isn’t so dry that you choke on it… As far as flavor and texture, it doesn’t do much to make the dish palatable. For that, I have something much more interesting…

Option 3: Pureed Fruit + Nut Butter + Dates (My Secret Weapon)

When making baked goods like cakes, rolls, muffins, etc. I like to take things a step further than just a fruit puree. I typically start with the fruit puree, but then add nut butter and blended dates as well. Why? If you remember our triad, this brings some healthy fat back into the mix from the nut butter and also boosts the sweetness to compensate for the reduction in fat.

Typically, I’ll make a 1:1 replacement by starting with 2-4 tablespoons of nut butter, 1-3 dates, and then fill out the rest of the measure with either applesauce or mashed banana. For example: 1/2 cup vegetable oil might be replaced with 2 tablespoons almond butter, 2 dates, and however much applesauce is needed to round out the half cup.

The dates do need to be blended, but here’s how to handle that: in most recipes you add the oil to the wet ingredients like milk, vanilla, etc. So instead of adding them to a bowl, add all the wet ingredients to a blender along with the puree + almond + date mixture and blend until smooth, then continue on with the recipe.

In most cases, the end result is more moist and sweet, with a better mouthfeel since it retains a hint of the fat that the oil would have brought to the table. Try it. I think you’ll be surprised at how well it works.

How to Substitute Oil in Frying / Sautéing

Beyond baked goods, the primary use of oil is to fry or sautéed dishes. Here, the oil has two main functions: to heat/cook the food and to add flavor.

Just like before, fat adds flavor and makes the food taste better. However, the biggest reason for using fat in cooking is to create a super-hot liquid so that the food 1) cooks fast, 2) gets all crispy and delicious, and 3) doesn’t stick to the pan.

Once again, let’s look at all the options you have to recreate those effects without oil:

Sauté Veggies: Use Water

Just use water. Seriously, it’s that simple. When a recipe tells you to sauté the [onions / tomatoes / broccoli / whatever] in a tablespoon of olive oil, just use a 1:1 replacement of water. The end result will be nearly identical.

Deep Frying: Air Fry or Bake

Deep frying is a brilliant invention. Because you can heat oil to 400+ degrees and this oil completely coats the surface of the food you put into it, it’s a fast and powerful cooking method. Unfortunately, some of that oil ends up on the food (and your arteries).

Unlike sautéing, it’s not as simple as just using water. Water boils at 212º which is far lower than the 400+ smoke point of frying oil and your water-soluble food will just fall apart into the water at those temperatures.

Instead, an air fryer is your best option! Air friers circulate superheated air to create a similar effect to the superheated oil of a deep frier. It’s not perfect, but it works quite well. I use my air fryer at least 2-3 times a week to make fried tofu, crispy hash browns, or oil-free french fries. It’s a worthwhile investment and I would recommend one if you can find the counter space.

If you don’t have an air frier, baking also works quite well for most deep fried foods. Simply preheat your oven to a pretty high temperature and bake the french fries / tofu / whatever until crispy.

Pan Fry Without Oil

Pan frying is in-between sautéing and deep frying. A recipe might instruct to heat 2 tablespoons of oil and sear each side for 5 minutes, for example It is important to recognize why you use oil in pan frying. Most often, it is to prevent sticking (in addition to adding tasty fat and crispy texture).

The best solution to pan frying is to omit the oil and use a nice non-stick pan (perhaps ceramic or one of the copper ones if you’re worried about the toxicity of teflon). Or, if you have enough experience to know that something definitely won’t stick (i.e. most veggies), you can simply pan fry in water instead of oil.

Case Studies Using My Recipes

As mentioned, some of my older recipes do use oil, so let me show you how I would remake those today using the guidelines outlined above.

Cornbread Muffins

This is my favorite example because I actually did remake these. Originally, my strawberry cornbread muffins had 1/4 cup canola oil (!) and 1/4 cup sugar. In a new blueberry cornbread muffins recipe, I omitted both the oil and the sugar by using something similar to my “secret weapon” technique above: dates and almond butter blended into the almond milk (no applesauce needed here). I love this example because the oil-free blueberry muffins are absolutely a better, tastier recipe.

The Perfect Vegan Pancakes

One of my first and most popular recipes, this one includes a tablespoon of coconut oil across 6 pancakes, which makes it a good candidate for option 1: skip it. Here, you can safely omit the oil and no one would ever know. In addition, the recipe steps call for a dab of vegetable oil to prevent sticking. We discussed this as well. If you’re using a non-stick pan at high heat, you should be able to get by without sticking. (Yes, I see that these are also drenched in maple syrup, but let’s work on one problem at a time, okay? )

Chickpea Curry

Here we have 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil which is used to sauté the onions. Sounds familiar, yes? See the “sauté veggies without oil” section. Simply cook those onions in water and you’ll never notice a difference.

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Ultimately, substituting oil is a very case-specific kind of thing. There is no one-size-fits-all formula to substitute oil because its uses are so diverse and dependent on the specific recipe. That’s why I wanted to go deep enough in this article to share the basics of how/why oil is used, and give various suggestions to get you started. When substituting oil, best approach is always to ask yourself, “what is the oil doing in this recipe and what can I do to best recreate that effect?”

If you have any questions or additional oil-free tips, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

This is based on the idea of General Tso’s Chicken, but as far as the dubious origins of that recipe, I’ll let Wikipedia handle it:

General Tso’s chicken is a sweet deep-fried chicken dish that is served in North American Chinese restaurants. The dish is named after Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty statesman and military leader, although there is no recorded connection to him nor is the dish known in Hunan, Zuo’s home province.

So, it’s not really Chinese and has no connection to General Tso. Cool.

I did some deeper digging into the historical record and was shocked to discover that General Tso was a vegan! He was even one of the founding members of the Qing Dynasty’s chapter of PETA. It’s true (well, as true as the rest of the General Tso story).

Today, we’re going to set the record straight and remake his famous chicken recipe the way he would have liked it – with TOFU! Because he was also a hardcore oil-free, WFPB kind of general, we’ll air-fry (or bake) the tofu with a crispy breading to avoid oil and use all natural ingredients for our delicious sauce that coats the crispy nuggets and broccoli (because Tso was never one to skimp on his cruciferous veggies).

Now, if you are that person who once left a comment on my recipe saying “I clicked because it said One Ingredient and this has nine ingredients!!” (LOL) you should probably turn away now because there are quite a few ingredients here. We’re making a breading and a sauce. And, it’s a two-step process of first cooking the tofu in an air-fryer (or oven), and then sautéing it with the broccoli – but it’s still <30 minutes and your effort will be rewarded...

Makes: 3-4 entree servings

NOTE: You can either cook the tofu in an air fryer at 370º for 10 minutes, or bake at 370º for about 15 minutes until crispy.

PREP: Make some brown rice, for serving.

Step One

Break the tofu into small chicken-like chunks as shown. This is way cooler than just cubing the tofu because it gives you a more authentic look and more surface area for the batter. Then, make a breading from the cornmeal, flour, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Dip each piece of tofu (it should still be moist) into the batter and place in your air fryer (or a baking sheet in the oven). When all the pieces are coated cook at about 370º F until the batter has become really crispy and golden.

Step Two

While the tofu cooks, turn your attention to the sauce. There are about as many variations of General Tso’s sauce as there are Chinese restaurants in America, but this one sticks with the basics: equal parts soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and maple syrup, with some minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and smoked paprika. Add all of this to a small bowl and stir until well mixed.

Step Three

When the tofu is crispy, sauté the final dish. In a large pan, add all the sauce along with some broccoli florets (ideally already cooked – frozen and microwaved is great), chopped green onions, and the crispy tofu nuggets. Toss repeatedly until coated and allow to simmer over medium heat (tossing occasionally) for 5-7 minutes until most of the sauce is absorbed and everything is warm and delicious.

Serve with a garnish of sesame seeds and a side of brown rice. Store any leftovers in the fridge for 2-3 days (they are amazing!)

Wine Pairing Ideas for General Tso’s Tofu and Broccoli

For General Tso’s Tofu and Broccoli, try a crisp dry Riesling to match the dish’s sweet‑tangy sauce, or a unoaked Chardonnay for a rounder, fruit-driven approach.

Mainque ChardonnayBodega ChacraChardonnay · Patagonia, ArgentinaView »Hollenpfad im Muhlenberg Riesling Trocken Grosses GewachsDonnhoffRiesling · Nahe, GermanyView »

Wine pairings selected for this recipe by CellarCharts – the AI wine discovery engine created by Andrew from One Ingredient Chef

I’ve been experimenting with creative ways to incorporate some of these ingredients into my recipes lately and I think I hit on something really cool here. The idea is that you make a big batch of acai bowl, with all the ingredients you’d want (banana, berries, acai powder, almond milk, flax, etc.) and then you freeze this into ice cube trays so you have an instant acai bowl on hand anytime the craving strikes. Just blend with a little almond milk, top with some fruit and seeds, and you’re ready to go in 2 minutes!

Now, WHY would you want to do this instead of just making one bowl at a time? A number of reasons:

1. To save time. You can do all the “hard” work of measuring and preparing the ingredients in one big batch so that each bowl just needs to be quickly blended when ready.
2. If all you have is acai powder instead of the frozen acai puree, this is ideal because it essentially turns the powering into frozen puree, if that makes sense.
3. Texture! Becuase *all* the ingredients are frozen into cubes, you end up with a thick frozen texture almost ice cream which would be very hard to do if the ingredients were separate.

My base recipe here is pretty cool – it uses flax and almond butter to boost the creaminess, plus lots of blueberries which combine with the acai powder to add ridiculous amounts of antioxidants, and banana to round it all out. What’s great about this recipe is that you can throw in whatever you like in your acai bowls and it should work fine.

Let me show you how I make the cubes…

Makes: 2 bowls

Step One: Blend

Add all the ingredients (minus the toppings, of course) to a high-powered blender and blend until completely smooth. Go easy on the almond milk to start – you want this to be quite thick because you’ll be adding more almond milk when you actually make the bowls in the end – so add just enough to blend smoothly.

Also, the dates are optional. This recipe isn’t overly sweet, so if you’d prefer your bowls on the sweeter side, throw in some dates as well.

Step Two: Freeze

Pour into ice cube trays (cover so they don’t absorb weird freezer tastes) and let them freeze for at least 6 hours. Then, break them out of the cubes and story in zip-top bags until ready to use.

Step Three: Acai Bowl!

Now, when you’re ready to make the actual acai bowl, take the desired number of cubes (this batch makes 2 normal sized bowls) and add them to a blender with just enough almond milk to get things moving in the blender (1-2 tablespoons at a time). When it’s totally smooth, pour into a bowl and top with fruit, toasted oats, seeds, or whatever your inner #SmoothieBowlArtist desires…

I guess it’s officially savory oats week here on One Ingredient Chef! After that incredible and shocking savory oats risotto, I’m back to take savory oats in a whole different direction…

Imagine if you took all the traditional holiday stuffing flavors, but instead of using dried bread as the base, you used rolled oats. WHY would you want to do this?

Well, oats are healthier than white bread. Also, the texture of oats works quite well in stuffing. But most importantly, speed! This entire recipe (I’m not kidding) can be made in about 7 minutes. It’s so fast, it even beats out my 8-minute black bean soup, but falls way behind the two-minute taquitos

The flavors here are so delicious. All the celery, onion, sage, cranberry, and nuts you’d expect from stuffing, with the soft and starchy oats lightly sautéed in broth. I don’t think of this as a replacement for stuffing itself, rather, it’s so fast that it would make an awesome breakfast as you’re getting more inspired by holiday flavors, or even a full dinner alongside some air-fried tofu and greens, perhaps.

I’m telling you guys – savory oats FTW. They have been surprising me again and again this week…

Makes: 4 servings

Step One

Begin by mincing the onion and celery and adding them to a large skillet with a splash of water and a dash of salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until the onions and celery soften and turn translucent.

Step Two

Then, add in the oats with about a cup of broth and stir until absorbed. Wait a few minutes and repeat. Unlike the oat risotto where the oats became very soft and flowing, here we want them to retain some shape and texture, so add just enough broth for the oats to fully cook and soften without falling apart. This may take about 3 cups, but it really depends.

Step Three

In between tending to the oats, prep all the other ingredients: finely-chop some sage, loosely-chop some parsley, get some dried cranberries and nuts ready. Then, when the oats are cooked to your liking, add in all these ingredients with a generous amount of black pepper and a dash of salt to taste.

Done! Serve immediately with an extra sprig of parsley and sprinkle of black pepper as garnish.