I wish I could describe to you how excited I am to finally be talking about Balsamic Vinegar. Why we love it and how we use it. I haven’t done this sooner because, honestly most of my cooking is not done with recipes. I also thought with how amazing Balsamic is it was used more regularly. Lately though I have found myself singing its praises to people who had no idea how amazing this stuff is. They also were clueless about how many flavors it comes in. So at long last here we are. Grab a comfy seat and your beverage of choice and let’s get into this.

WHERE OUR LOVE OF BALSAMIC BEGAN

First of all, I want to share that my love of Balsamic Vinegar has only grown the last couple of years. I have had it in the past, but it never wowed me in anyway. Well except for with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, that is delicious and always has been. A couple of years ago my love for gardening brought me to a local nursery. While we were looking around and seeing all it had to offer, which is a lot, we found the room that held their Olive Oil Company.

When we went into this glorious room our lives were changed. They had bottles and bottles of flavored olive oil, flavored white balsamic vinegar and flavored dark balsamic vinegar. With little tasting cups by each flavor, we immediately went to town trying everything. My husband and I were amazed at the punch of flavor each bottle had and how unique they were. We brought home a bottle of flavored oil and a bottle of dark balsamic vinegar; I think raspberry for salad dressing. The lady working behind the counter suggested we try the raspberry on our fish and a couple of other things.

You guessed right, we loved it and immediately went back for more. At about $20 a bottle we budgeted in a new bottle every month. This allowed us try new ones or replace bottles we had used up. Let me tell you our home cooked food got a boost in the flavor department. We had fun researching and experimenting with all the ways balsamic could be used.

UNEXPECTED HEALTH BENEFITS OF BALSAMIC VINEGAR

In the process of this we realized that this delicious new addiction of ours was also an answer to prayer. At the time, my husband had been recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This was very new world to both of us. We had done an overhaul on our pantry and the foods we were making. Little did we know that this flavorful burst of deliciousness would replace a lot of our condiments.

If you know anyone with Type 2 Diabetes then you know how hard it is to find healthy, affordable and delicious food. The label shock is real! If items weren’t full of sugar, they had a ton of other ingredients that weren’t good for you to sweeten the food. Sugar is in A LOT of our foods. Once we added Balsamic into our diet my husband started noticing a trend, his finger prick test 2 hours after that meal was significantly lower than if he had the same meal without balsamic. When he mentioned what he was noticing I started doing some research. Sure enough Dr. Google Pants confirmed his suspicion.

Before I go any further I am not a medical Professional, I am not giving medical advice and I am telling you to consult your doctor, and do your own research. I am also telling you what worked for us and what we discovered. I found studies that suggested that if balsamic vinegar was taken in moderation prior to eating, it can help people with type 2 diabetes better manage their blood sugar. Another stated that studies have shown that after consuming balsamic vinegar, people with insulin resistance experienced a blood sugar plateau for up to five hours. It is also classified as a low glycemic food. There are tons of other benefits but these to me at that time were the most important.

OUR FAVORITE WAYS TO USE BALSAMIC VINEGAR

We started adding balsamic vinegar to everything. We played with all kinds of flavors of the light and dark balsamic varieties. I am here to tell you that we will forever have balsamic in our pantry and our diet. Now that I have told you why we love it so much let’s jump into how we used it. I will also share a few places you can purchase it.

The first thing we did with our dark balsamic is make salad dressing. I used to try to make a jar of dressing to keep in the fridge, but in all honesty my husband I preferred different flavors all the time. So we just drizzle a little balsamic on our salad, spritz it with a bit of Avocado oil and sprinkle some black pepper and any salad is transformed.

Some of our favorite Balsamic Vinegars for dressing include Raspberry Dark Balsamic, Plum Dark Balsamic, Cherry Bordeaux Dark Balsamic, Huckleberry White Balsamic, Apricot White Balsamic, Grapefruit White Balsamic, and Orange Mango Passion Fruit White Balsamic. Each flavor adds its own flare to the salad and there is a flavor for every flavor palette.

We also started using it with a lot of our meats. All of our steak marinades include balsamic, which makes them so tender and juicy. I also completely replaced BBQ sauce and ketchup with balsamic. Anytime I have a burger, chicken or steak and I want something to dip it in I choose whatever flavor balsamic fits that meal.

Some of our favorites for meat include Fig Dark Balsamic, Plum Dark Balsamic, Cherry Bordeaux Dark Balsamic, Garlic Cilantro Dark Balsamic and Hickory Dark Balsamic. Let me tell you if BBQ sauce is a down fall for you Hickory Dark Balsamic will be your best friend. However we cannot forget fish. Fish and balsamic is AMAZING. We have used Plum Dark Balsamic, Hickory Dark Balsamic, Raspberry Dark Balsamic on our fish. We plan to try to use a citrus white balsamic next. The balsamic is a perfect acid to pair with fish, it takes the place of lemon basically.

Some other ways you can easily incorporate balsamic into your diet is with your roasted veggies and in stir-fry. My mouth is watering just thinking about carrots roasted with the Cherry Bordeaux Dark Balsamic. My husbands eyes popped when he tried this recipe. He was shocked that something that tasted that good was not going to spike his sugars, they didn’t. They are a beautiful sweat treat and have become a new favorite at our Thanksgiving meal.

As for the stir-fry… Have you looked at the bottle for Soy Sauce, or Teriyaki sauce recently? The amount of Sodium is enough to spike my blood pressure off the chart and the sugar and the ingredients overall. As you can tell I don’t find them to be very healthy, and most are not gluten free for my daughter. Let me tell you, Garlic Cilantro Dark Balsamic over your sautéed veggies and noodles will be a game changer. So flavorful, it hits the acid and the sweetness perfectly and it is so much healthier for you. I don’t feel grungy or greasy after eating this, I fill fueled and ready to take on the world afterwards.

The thirst picture above I took sautéed veggies cooked in balsamic and oil and stuffed a sourdough pita pocket. It was delicious, a little messy, but delicious. Can you tell a theme here, get creative and make delicious food using balsamic.

Another creative way to use white balsamic vinegar is in place of syrup. Before you gag let me tell you I thought the lady at the shop was nuts when she suggested it. However, Apricot White Balsamic slightly drizzled over a pancake is delicious. My husband didn’t like that it was dryer but I will tell you what the flavor was on point. This was not his favorite use for balsamic but he humored me and then reached for the maple syrup. During the summer I will still reach for the Apricot White Balsamic over maple syrup.

ARE YOU READY TO FALL IN LOVE WITH BALSAMIC?

I hope that I have inspired you to go find some balsamic vinegar and start cooking with it today. I would suggest looking for an olive oil company near you and see if they carry specialty balsamic vinegars. If you don’t have one near you here are two, I would suggest. High Hand Olive Oil Company is where I bought all of my vinegars from. Except for two flavors I picked up in Monterey, CA. If I didn’t have High Hand Nursery 15 minutes away from me, I would absolutely be ordering from Squizito. I love their Truffle Salt and their oils. However, it is not worth me paying the shipping when I can get it locally.

If you would like to join the conversation on YouTube about Balsamic make sure to visit the video below.

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