Scenario: It is movie night and you are craving the perfect bowl of popcorn. You grab a bag of ‘Pop-Secret’, pop it into the microwave and let it go. However, as you are standing there, the ingredients label just happens to catch your eye. It reads ‘Popcorn, partially hydrogenated soy oil, salt, natural and artificial flavors, soy lecithin, and beta-carotene’. You think to yourself that the good news is that list is pretty small. The bad news however, those are ingredients you can and want to stop consuming.
What to do?
My suggestion: enjoy this bowl of popcorn but keep reading so that next time you can enjoy a bowl of popcorn without all those crazy additives.
Curious How to Make Your Own Popcorn at Home?
It is really easy thank goodness! You need just a large pot and a heavy lid, the popcorn kernels, coconut oil, and a bit of patience. Yep, that’s right. No microwave needed.
Why Should You be Concerned With Those Nasty Chemicals Found in the Packaged Microwave Popcorn?
Let’s break down the questionable ingredients a bit:
- Partially hydrogenated soy oil: This semi-soft oil is a dangerous artery clogging trans fat oil known to cause chronic inflammation, cancer, heart disease, and other chronic diseases.
- Natural and artificial flavors: Unfortunately we don’t really know what these are and that is the problem. With popcorn you may think natural and artificial flavors will include the buttery flavoring but that sadly is not what it means. The FDA defines natural as anything sourced from and animal or a plant, but they don’t require food manufacturers to disclose where exactly those flavors come from. Artificial flavors are there to impact flavor not derived from an animal or plant. Part of the natural and artificial flavors concoction could contain ingredients derived from meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit, roots, and herbs but it is really unknown what is being consumed.
- Soy lecithin: Manufacturers use soy lecithin as a lubricant, emulsifier, or surfactant. Simply put, they add it to foods to improve their texture, stabilize emulsions, enhance their flavor, and more.The biggest concern here is the fact that 95% of soybeans are genetically modified and the safety of that is really unknown.
- Beta-Carotene: simply added for color but it can also help the partially hydrogenated soy oil from going rancid. In my eyes, it is just another unnecessary addition.
Let’s Make Our Own!
Like I said above, you only need a few things to start. A heavy duty and large pot with a tight fitting lid, oil, and of course popcorn. Butter and salt are optional.
Place the pot on your stove top and turn the heat to medium. Add in 1-2 Tbsp of coconut oil depending on the size of your pot and let it melt and heat up. Place 2 popcorn kernels in the hot oil and put on the lid. At this point you are waiting for the oil to get to the perfect heat for popping the corn. Be sure to tilt the pan around on occasion so that the oil doesn’t start to burn.
Once those kernels pop (it is going to take a few minutes) you are ready to add in more kernels. Add just enough so that the kernels fill only the bottom of the pan. Once again, place the lid on immediately to keep the heat in. Then start shaking and tilting the pan and let the heated oil do it’s thing.
After a few minutes the popping will start to slow. Turn the heat off and keep the lid on until all popping has stopped. Remove the lid and add on salt and melted butter (vegan butter works perfectly too!) if using.
That’s it!
Dig-in and enjoy a bowl of popcorn on your next movie night
Snacking popcorn
Equipment
- Heavy duty pot with tight fitting lid
Materials
- 1-2 Tbsp Coconut Oil more for a larger size pot, less for the smaller pot
- Popcorn kernels Amount needed will depend on the size of your pot
- Salt optional topping
- Melted butter (vegan butter works great too!) optional topping
Instructions
- Turn the heat on medium and place the empty pot on the stove top.
- Add 1-2 Tbsp coconut oil into the warm pot. Let it melt completely.
- Add 2 popcorn kernels to the hot oil and place lid on. You are waiting for the kernels to pop which tells you the oil is hot enough to make your popcorn.
- Keep the pot moving so that the oil doesn't burn. You can shake it and or rotate as needed. It will take a few minutes.
- Once the two kernels have popped, pour just enough kernels to completely cover the bottom of your pot. Immediately cover with the lid to keep the heat in. Start rotating the pot and shaking to keep the oil from burning the popcorn.
- Turn the heat to low and keep shaking the pot. It will take about 3-5 minutes to pop all the kernels but you will know it is done once the popping has stopped.
- Turn the heat off but keep the lid on. Once you no longer hear any pops remove the lid and that is it.
- At this point you can add in a pinch of salt and melted butter if desired.
- Enjoy! Store leftover popcorn in an airtight container for a few days.
Pretty easy right? What do you think? Would you make this?
