CBD Recipes for Getting Your Daily Dose

Whether you’re a CBD newbie or a sanctified veteran, we can agree that even the best CBD oil isn’t always the tastiest. But you still want to get in your daily dose—so why not try cooking with it and letting some of your favorite flavors take the reins? Adding CBD oil to your meals can be a fun way to jazz up your CBD routine, and we’ve got a few pointers and recipes to help guide your way. 

More “add to” than “cook with”

When we say “cooking with” CBD, it can conjure thoughts of vegetables sautéing right in the CBD oil or mixing it right into your pancake batter. But when CBD oil is heated too much, it can start to evaporate and lose its terpenes, which are key compounds in the cannabinoid mix that increase its efficacy and overall potency. If you lose those, the CBD oil doesn’t have quite the same effect on the body, and therefore can’t provide the same benefits. So, to keep the terpenes intact, it’s really better to add the CBD oil either at the end, on top off the dish, or to whichever oil or fat you’re using in the dish already. (We’ll explain that in next.) Think: splash of oil on top of your toast, in with your butter or avocado as you smear it for breakfast.

It’s also worth mentioning that when heated too highly, CBD oil can smell potent, so you’ll want to keep that in mind if you plan to put it to heat in any way. 

Bring on the fat

That’s right! Cannabinoid compounds bind well with fat molecules, so when adding CBD into your foods and recipes, it’s best to add them to the fat source to increase the bioavailability of the compound and the ability of your body to absorb it most efficiently. Butter, ghee and coconut oil are the winners on this front, but you can also add it to olive oil when not heating it too much. 

Find refined

High-quality CBD oils that have been further refined, like decarboxylated and filtered oils, tend to work better with cooking oils. While lower quality and raw CBD oils can blend okay with cooking oils and highly flavorful sauces, they have a higher tendency to leave a bitter aftertaste in general and more especially with milder-tasting dishes.

Keep an eye on the dropper

The biggest risk, per se, with adding CBD oil to your cooking routine is to get a little too excited and add too much. But you always want to err on the side of caution when doing something new with CBD, and dose accordingly. “Start low and go slow” applies here, too. 

To give you a helping hand, here are our recommendations for how to use CBD in every meal—with a few recipes to boot. 

BREAKFAST

We mentioned it above, but some of the easiest and tastiest ways to add CBD oil into your breakfast is to add it to the top of your avocado toast, mixed with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper or pepper flakes. Additionally, you can drizzle over your toast with butter for a fried egg sandwich with a slice of cheese and some spinach. But perhaps our favorite CBD breakfast go-to is a fruit smoothie. The sweetness of the fruit masks any bitterness you might pick up on and it leaves you feeling healthy as can be. 

Green Smoothie

• 1 banana
• ¼ avocado
• 1 ½ tablespoons peanut or almond butter
• ¼ c. plain yogurt (optional)
• 1 ½-2 c. spinach
• 1 ½ c. almond milk (or milk of choice) 
• 1-2 mL CBD oil (a.k.a. 1-2 dropperfuls, or your normal dose)

Simply add all the ingredients to your blender/bullet/ninja/whatever-blending-device-you-use and voilà! You may need more or less almond milk, but that depends on your preference.

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LUNCH

For lunch, you can easily add CBD oil to your favorite hummus recipe and use that on a sandwich or with raw veggies. It’s also quite perfect to add to any dressing for your salad—a simple way to get your full dose right on top of a bed of greens. We recommend adding it to guacamole as a side for your tacos, eggs, or straight up chips and guac. 

Guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 mL CBD oil
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• ½ red onion, diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• ½ tsp. cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp. black pepper
• ¼ tsp. cumin
• ½ tsp. salt, or to taste
• ¼ c. fresh cilantro

In a medium bowl, mash the avocados with a fork until smooth. Add oils and lime juice, mix thoroughly. Add everything else, with salt to taste, and stir until well-mixed. Enjoy!

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DINNER

For the last meal of the day, you can easily add CBD oil to a soup or stew—an easy last add-in to any crockpot meal—or as a final topping to your pizza, post-bake. It’s also good to add to sauces of all sorts. (If you haven’t noticed, we tend to stick to the soluble things.) This can be a solid tomato sauce for your fave pasta, but we like it with a pesto. The herbiness of pesto masks any bitterness from the CBD oil, and pesto is also just plain good. 

Pesto Pasta

• ½ c. pine nuts, toasted
• ½ c. parmesan cheese, grated
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 5 c. basil leaves
• ½ c. parsley
• ¾ c. olive oil
• 2 mL CBD oil 
• 1 tsp. salt

In a food processor, pulse together the pine nuts (cooled), cheese and garlic for about 1-2 minutes, or until finely ground. Add the basil and parsley, place the top back on, and with the blade running, pour the olive oil and CBD oil in through the spout as it blends, until smooth (about 1 minute). Add salt and mix in. Add the pesto to your cooked and drained pasta of choice with a touch more olive oil (your preference), and there you have it. 

If you have favorite recipes or recommendations of your own, be sure to let us know!