Three Easy Ways To Use Infused Olive Oil In The Summer

If you've received a bottle of infused olive oil as a gift — perhaps from people who've dropped over to your home to visit you — you might initially wonder how you can use this product in the kitchen, especially if you've never worked with infused olive oil in the past. Fortunately, there are many different ways that you can use this product, especially if it's infused with a delicious flavor such as lemon basil. While you can definitely scour the internet to find recipes, here are some easy uses for this product during the summer months.

Homemade Salad Dressing

A lot of people buy salad dressing without necessarily realizing just how easy it is to make their own. There are countless ways to approach making salad dressing, but a conventional route to take is to combine olive oil with vinegar, and then add some other ingredients — lemon juice, freshly crushed garlic, herbs, and more. If you have a bottle of lemon basil extra virgin olive oil, you've already got one of the integral ingredients for making your own salad dressing. Combine it with your preferred type of vinegar — apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, or white wine vinegar, for example — and you've got a tasty and healthy homemade salad dressing.

Sandwich Drizzle

During the summer, there are few things that are better than picking fresh ingredients from your garden to use in a sandwich. For example, a sliced tomato, some fresh lettuce, and even a couple of pieces of cucumber go well with your choice of meat and bun or bread. While conventional condiments will never steer you wrong, you might wish to bump up the flavor profile of your sandwich by adding some infused olive oil. In this case, you'll enjoy the burst of flavor that the lemon basil provides in each bite.

Bread Dip

Cool appetizers are often preferable to their hot counterparts during the summer months. While garlic bread might be a popular choice when it's cool outside, you might not like this hot fare during the summer. Switch things up a little by creating a dip that you can dunk slices of crusty bread into. Your lemon basic olive oil can be a central ingredient in this dip, which can be as simple or as complicated as you want. If you want to keep things simple, some crumbled feta cheese, lemon zest, and garlic mixed in with the olive oil can be a perfect bread dip.