Thanksgiving is all about the food, and here at Old Town Olive we couldn’t be happier. Any excuse to get in the kitchen and whip up tasty goodness is fine by us, and what could be better than an entire day dedicated to eating traditional comforting flavors in honor of all we have to be grateful in life?
Don’t leave your fancy olive oils on the shelf during your Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Keep them handy! Below are some suggestions for ways you can incorporate flavorful healthy fats into your meal in place of some of the more common saturated fats.
Main Course
Presumably, you’re serving turkey. Most people do since it’s delicious and beautiful and makes for excellent leftovers (turkey salad, stew, enchiladas…). To craft a gorgeous herb-roasted turkey, take ¾ cup of your best extra virgin olive oil and stir in garlic, basil, ground sage, salt, and black pepper until it smells mouth-watering, then baste your turkey with it thoroughly throughout it’s time in the oven. Or maybe try it with lemon infused olive oil and rosemary. Or butter infused olive oil.
And save those amazing drippings for gravy!
If you’ve gone renegade and are doing a pork roast, rub it down with olive oil and fresh garlic, then cook it with rosemary. Cornish game hens? Give them the same herb treatment as suggested above for turkey. Beef tenderloin? Brush it down with olive oil, then sprinkle it with salt, pepper, and marjoram.
Side Dishes
Stuffing is a staple, but you can easily take your favorite stuffing recipe to the next level by making it with infused olive oil instead of butter. If you love the taste of butter but don’t love the saturated fat, you can always go for our butter infused oil, but consider adding complex depth with our wild mushroom and sage oil, or give stuffing’s herbal flavor a boost with our Tuscan herb infused oil.
For your mashed potatoes, start with the starchy sweetness of good young spuds, then up their flavor by adding butter infused oil (if your family is traditional), or our garlic infused oil. Delicious!
Cube up your sweet potatoes onto an oiled baking sheet and drizzle them with a mixture of olive oil, honey, and cinnamon. Give them a shake of salt and pepper and let them bake!
Breads
If you’re buying your bread, just get the good artisan kind and serve your favorite extra virgin olive oil for dipping. If you’re using frozen dinner rolls that you take home and bake, brush their tops with your favorite infused oil, then sprinkle them with asiago cheese before you pop them in the oven. Easy! And it gives them an extra touch of homemade goodness.
If you’re making your dinner rolls from scratch, try adding a classic herbal flavor like our rosemary infused oil to the dough instead of butter, and crush a few garlic cloves into the dough as well. Savory baked perfection!
Desserts
Thanksgiving usually involves a lot of pie. Instead of your usual butter crust, try this olive oil crust instead:
- ½ cup butter infused olive oil – put in the freezer until it’s solid
- ½ cup cold milk
- 2 ¾ cups flour, sifted
- 1 tsp. salt
Mix the salt and flour together in a bowl. Add the solid olive oil and the milk all at once and cut it in like you would if it was butter and ice water instead. Work it until it is just incorporated, then shape the dough into two discs, wrap them in plastic and put them back in the fridge for 15 minutes. Once they are cold, make your pie like usual.
Don’t skimp on flavor this Thanksgiving! Call on the healthy, delicious extra virgin olive oil sitting right there in your cupboard to make this holiday meal extra special.