Cooking with Shea Butter

Did you know you can cook with shea butter? Shea butter is a multipurpose, healthy cooking oil. Shea butter is a fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree.

Shea butter is rich in vitamin A, D, E and K and is high in essential fatty oleic, stearic, linoleic and palmitic acids. Shea butter, also known as Women’s Gold in Africa plays a key role in the kitchen.

It takes about 20 years for a tree to bear fruit and produce nuts, maturing on average at the age 45. Most trees will continue to produce fruit for up to 200 years after reaching maturity.

Shea butter which is locally grown here in Uganda has long been recognized for its emollient and healing properties ideal for soothing skin in the dry climate. Reports of its use go back to the 14^th century.

Raw shea butter is shea butter that has not been filtered and moulded into shapes. Food grade raw shea butter is edible and is used in many food recipes. Shea butter oil has a very strong nutty taste and scent.

Grade A unrefined shea butter is safe to eat and is used by many people as a type of cooking oil because it is very heat tolerant. Many people use a bit of it in their cooking because it adds vitamins and nutrients to your meals. Besides its nutritional value shea butter also adds an aromatic nutty flavour without adding whole nuts.

Fun fact: 80% of all shea butter produced is used in the chocolate industry as a substitute for cocoa butter.

A fun recipe you can try out with shea butter.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons food grade raw shea butter

2 cups raw walnuts halves

1 cup raw whole almonds

1/2 cup sweet flaked coconut (optional)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon dried curry powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper