10 best ways to use premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. As a dip with fresh bread

With food, the simplest ideas are often the best. When your olive oil is good enough, there is no need to overcomplicate it.

Just dip some of your favourite fresh bread into premium extra virgin olive oil for the most delicious appetiser.

Using an early harvest extra virgin olive oil when dipping bread allows the intense flavours from the higher levels of polyphenols to shine through.

Try adding sea salt flakes or lemon zest for variety. There´s no need to add pepper, as this oil already has a nice peppery kick to it.

2. On your Tostada, with tomato or avocado

The tostada is the classic Spanish breakfast dish. It is toasted bread, served with finely chopped or blended tomato, olive oil and sometimes jamon, cheese or pate added. Pan con tomate is a specific version of that, with regional variations throughout Spain.

In Catalonia, it´s called pan tumaca in Catalan and involves rubbing very ripe tomatoes onto the bread (with or without garlic added); whereas in Andalucia, the tomato is blended or grated and then added to the toast with a spoon.  

Pouring a premium extra virgin olive oil such as Etico onto toast is an excellent way to make the flavour of the oil the hero of the dish. And good quality olive oil matches perfectly with ripe tomatoes for a winning combination. Especially with just a few flakes of sea salt on top.

Avocado toast has become enormously popular recently, and premium olive oil drizzled over the toast before the avocado, or on top (though that’s messier!) makes a good dish special.

3. As a dressing on salads

Restaurants in Spain almost always serve salads with no dressing, bringing you a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of vinegar and salt and pepper to let you dress the salad to your taste.

Classic Spanish salads are dressed very simply with plenty of good quality extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little red or white wine vinegar. If the oil is good enough quality, you probably won’t need any pepper at all. Salads dressed like this are fresh, crisp and delicious.

Or you could try using just extra virgin olive oil with lemon juice to get a fresh natural and deeply flavourful dressing for your salad.

Premium olive oil also works to dress more modern salads. One of our favourites at the moment is a courgette, apple, and feta salad from Sabrina Ghayour-Lynn’s fantastic Persiana Easy cookbook. Etico olive oil works ever so well with the feta and crisp courgettes (though we prefer it without the peanuts she includes!).

4. Drizzle over steamed vegetables

We all need plenty of veggies in our diet, and steaming them is a fabulous way to keep their nutrients intact.

But if we’re honest, on their own steamed green veggies can be a little bland. Fresh, premium extra virgin olive oil changes that.

We’re amazed at just what a difference Etico olive oil drizzled generously over steamed broccoli or cavolo nero makes. Try drizzling your favourite premium olive oil over steamed cauliflower, savoy cabbage, kale, spinach or leeks, too.

In our experience it can even help convert fussier teenage diners into being veggie fans!

5.    With almost any white bean recipe

Lots of us are eating plenty of cannelini beans or butter beans these days. These beans, called alubias in Spain, are super healthy, crammed with both protein and fibre. And they soak up flavours really well.

Nigella Lawson’s white bean mash recipe with extra virgin olive oil, rosemary and lemon zest is a firm favourite of ours, where using Etico olive oil adds a bold, rich flavour to the mash. See her recipe here.

Another recipe we love is Bold Bean Co’s brothy beans and greens with sticky shallots; it’s amazing when finished off with Etico extra virgin olive oil on top. See the photo opposite (c. Bold Bean Co) and check out the full recipe here.

6. Take soups up a notch

A good soup is a fine thing; whether a hearty, hot soup to warm us in Autumn or Winter, or a fresh, lighter soup in Spring and Summer. Premium extra virgin olive oil provides the perfect way to elevate your favourite soup, adding richness and a hint of luxury. Whether you’ve bought some fresh soup or you´ve made it at home, a good drizzle of olive oil on top will take it to another level.

Or use a high-quality olive oil to make the soup. Spain has three very special cold soups that take advantage of the abundance of extra virgin olive oil. Gazpacho is probably the most well-known, and originates from Andalucia. It´s healthy and so delicious on a warm day. Salmorejo is a less well-known variant on Gazpacho and originates from Cordoba. It’s a bit thicker, with more bread and garlic than Gazpacho, and is usually served with a sprinkling of chopped jamon and hard-boiled egg on top.

Ajo Blanco is the other classic Spanish cold soup, made from almonds rather than tomatoes, and therefore often referred to as white gazpacho. Using a top quality olive oil gives this a wonderfully, creamy texture.  See our Gazpacho recipes here.

7. Drizzle over grilled fish

The classic Mediterranean technique of finishing grilled fish with premium extra virgin olive oil offers a tangy and fruity balance to the fish flavours.

A good quality olive oil poured over freshly-caught sea bass or sea bream brings back memories of wonderful long lunches by the coast on holidays.

Most white fish is delicately flavoured and a perfect match for a premium, early harvest olive oil such as Etico. Delicious however you cook your fish.

8.  Olive oil with chicken or red meat

As with fish and steamed veggies, drizzling a quality olive oil over freshly-grilled chicken, lamb or Iberico pork works ever so well.

Marinating meat in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and rosemary or thyme is a classic Mediterranean way to prepare meat before cooking. And using a premium olive oil as the core of your marinade before cooking helps lift the flavour profile and tenderize your food. Using the oil in a marinade, instead of directly in the cooking process is a safer option to ensure the heat doesn’t reduce its flavours.

Red meats like beef and lamb pair particularly well when drizzled with a premium olive oil after cooking due to their rich profiles. Steak in particular is naturally fatty, so drizzling a premium extra virgin olive oil on after cooking can help cut through the heaviness and give a lighter eating experience. Using a high-quality olive oil should help improve the existing taste of the steak whilst adding new vibrant flavours.

9.  Use olive oil instead of butter

We’ve been using extra virgin olive oil instead of butter when cooking for years - it’s often a perfectly good substitute when making a risotto or for baking cakes, for example. See our recipe for a delicious Orange and Olive Oil Cake here.

And many of us would rather eat more olive oil and less butter for health reasons and dietary choice. But more recently, one of our regular customers put us onto the idea of using olive oil to make a paste with the consistency of butter, and using it to spread on bread, or other foods, instead of butter or a vegetable oil spread.

We’re learning more and more about the dangers of ultra-processed foods, and olive oil turned into this “spread” is pure and delicious. Social media star nutritionist Dominique Ludwig has a recipe for this, where she suggests combining olive oil with sea salt in a jar and then freezing it to accelerate the setting process. It´s a really inspired idea!

10.  Extra virgin olive oil and Chocolate

Extra virgin olive oil and chocolate as a pairing may seem unusual, but is becoming increasingly common, particularly in Mediterranean cuisine. And using dark chocolate and extra virgin olive oil together creates a polyphenol powerhouse, as both foods contain high levels of these antioxidant micronutrients.

In 2017, a study presented by cardiologist Rossella Di Stefano found daily portions of dark chocolate with Extra Virgin Olive Oil was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. There was clear evidence of increased good cholesterol and decreased blood pressure over a month period from consuming the Extra Virgin Olive Oil with dark chocolate.

Tim Spector, the celebrity nutritionist and co-founder of Zoe (a personalised nutrition company), combines premium extra virgin olive oil and dark chocolate to make a polyphenol-packed, plant-based
chocolate mousse (see photo c.Zoe) - a great option for an indulgent and healthy dessert! We’re also seeing an increasing trend of drizzling olive oil over ice cream - especially lighter-flavoured ice cream such as vanilla or pistachio. Why not give it a try?

One last idea - a daily dose of olive oil

More and more people are now drinking a daily shot of premium extra virgin olive oil, wanting its nutrition and health benefits. We’ve seen numerous videos online encouraging this.

Whether you consume your daily dose on its own in a shot, or when eating food and premium extra virgin olive oil together, we strongly suggest that you do this as part of a balanced diet overall.

There are so many ways to take advantage of this liquid gold.