A Broighter Future

I love hearing how producers started their various food businesses and Northern Ireland-based Broighter gold rapeseed oil has a lovely story to tell. Richard Kane was pressing oilseed to make bio fuel when his wife Leona ran out of cooking oil. He presented her with some of the unfiltered cold pressed rapeseed oil and they marvelled at the results. Rapeseed oil has a distinctive nutty flavour and is ideal for salad dressings as well as frying and baking. It contains half the saturated fat of olive oil and is a rich source of Omega 3, 6 and 9.

My favourite way to use the oil is to toast a thinly cut piece of sourdough bread then rub with garlic and drizzle with the oil for instant garlic bread to accompany hearty soups or stews. It’s also fantastic in pesto. Broighter Gold only use seed from their own farm to make the oil, harvesting approximately two hundred acres of oilseed last year. Leona explains: ?Rapeseed is like a wine, it’s all down to the terroir of where it is grown and the variety grown to ensure you get the right taste. We are very fortunate that we are on reclaimed land, which leads to high fertile soil, and good yields.?

Broighter Gold can be ordered online and is available in selected shops nationwide including Brown Thomas, Dublin.

Lilly Higgins

@lillyhiggins