Friendly Fats for February

by Wendy Gordon

Everybody's familiar with olive oil, but how about other monounsaturated oils? Both avocado and walnut oils are relatively expensive and are fun as a change of pace. They are sold in many gourmet food shops and natural food stores.

This Southwestern-themed dressing tastes great over a mixture of butter lettuce, thinly sliced oranges, black olives and more avocado:

AVOC ADO VINAIGRETTE

• 1/2 cup avocado oil
• 2 T cilantro, minced
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. dark brown sugar
• dash sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2 T rice vinegar
• juice of 1 lime

1. Blend ingredients (an immersion blender works well). Mixture tends to solidify when refrigerated, so let it warm up to room temperature before tossing with salad.

Or, let avocado oil lend a rich taste to a vegetarian pasta:

PENNE WITH SPINACH AND WALNUTS

• 1 lb. penne pasta
• 1/2 lb. white mushrooms, washed and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch spinach, washed and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
• 1/4 cup avocado oil
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• black pepper to taste

1. Cook penne pasta to al dente.
2. In a large saucepan, sauté garlic and mushrooms in avocado oil until garlic is fragrant and mushrooms are tender. Add spinach, cook until wilted.
3. Toss pasta with spinach mixture, walnuts and cheese. Serve immediately.

This homemade mayonnaise is good with chicken salad. You can also use it as a dip for oven roasted potato wedges:

WALNUT OIL MAYONNAISE

• 1 whole egg (room temperature)
• 1 egg yolk (room temperature)
• 1 heaping tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp paprika
• healthy grating of black pepper
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3/4 cup walnut oil
• juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons

1. Place 1/4 cup of walnut oil and other ingredients in blender (an immersion blender works especially well for this purpose). With blender operating, slowly stream in the rest of the oil until the mixture is emulsified.