Looking to incorporate CBD into your meals? Check out these great tips from Lazarus Naturals ambassador, natural food chef, superfood expert, and bestselling author Julie Morris. We highly recommend following her website and Instagram for more great health and wellness tips.
When you go shopping at the grocery store (or online), you're more than likely you used to buying the things you need in categories: Primarily, there’s food and then there’s supplements.
These categories also persist in the kitchen. Your supplement shelf may be stacked full of vitamins and herbal compounds – things you take. And your pantry is stocked with varieties of foods – things you eat. But in some cases, these categories can actually blend together: Supplements can be made from foods and conversely, you can use some of your “supplements” as ingredients in the meals you prepare. Excitingly, such is the case with CBD.
While CBD is often sold as a supplement, it can be used extremely successfully in recipes to embolden them with healing function, and in many cases, even adding extra flavor. While there are some definitive “rules” to using CBD in recipes, the overall applications are widely flexible. It’s fun to make your CBD routine the most delicious part of your day by boosting your favorite recipes. Here’s how:
Use edible CBD
As there are different ways to use CBD, you’ve likely noticed many types of products made with it. While it may seem obvious, it’s worth mentioning that CBD balms and creams are designed for topical use only and not digestion. Their CBD content is designed to encourage optimum skin absorption and is often combined with other ingredients that are great for the skin, but should not be ingested. For the most flexible and easy-to-use culinary form, stick to CBD tinctures that are suspended in a fat base for recipe use.
Keep temperatures low
Most experts recommend avoiding exposing CBD to heat over 320-356°F … which I like to translate as “keep at or below 320° F, just to be on the safe side! High temperatures can burn off CBD’s active compounds, reduce effectiveness, and even draw out unwelcome bitter flavors. If you’re not using CBD in an uncooked recipe, be sure to keep baking temperatures on the lower end of the spectrum, or simply mix the tincture into your food once your dish has finished cooking.
Use flavored blends to enhance recipes
While unflavored tinctures will have little impact on the taste of your recipes, Lazarus Naturals flavored tinctures have the potential to not only provide you with the CBD you need – they can actually enhance the flavor and deliciousness of your recipes as well! You can think of them a bit like mild flavoring extracts, and use them in similar ways like to enhance smoothies, low-temperature baked goods, sauces, and desserts. If you’re new to using flavored CBD tinctures, try the High Potency Wintermint CBD Isolate Tincture – an especially versatile and easy-to-use flavor which adds a refreshing hint of mint to all kinds of savory and sweet recipes.
Keep quantity in mind
Whether you’re using a CBD isolate or a full-spectrum tincture, how much CBD you use in your recipe is dependent upon the total amount you want to take. Fortunately, the math is simple: take the quantity of CBD you normally consume in one sitting, and multiply it by the number of servings in the recipe. This result is the maximum quantity of CBD you should add the recipe as a whole. For example, if you’re making a dozen muffins and looking to consume 50mg per serving, you’d add up to 600mg worth of CBD to the recipe. (Note: If you think you might want to have more than one serving, such as two muffins in the example above, you can always adjust the math and use less!)
Mix well
Because of its therapeutic qualities, you’ll want to ensure the CBD you use is well distributed in the recipe you make. This ensures each serving is fairly consistent in potency and you know how much you’re taking (this will also be beneficial for the flavor of the recipe as a whole). So whisk, stir, blend, or puree until you can’t see the tincture anymore… then you’re ready to go!
Undoubtedly, CBD has a plethora of potential for enhancing recipes. Once you master these simple five rules, the healthy possibilities are endless!