Perilla Oil

Why perilla oil is rated low

Perilla oil is rated low, and that rating is estimated from what the oil is made of rather than from a weighed portion in a study. It is oil pressed from perilla seeds, which means fat and very little else, and the fermentable carbohydrate that would matter stays behind in the seed meal rather than coming through with the oil. No subgroup is recorded for it, and the ladder has a single rung, Any typical portion: LOW, which covers the way this oil actually gets used: a spoonful stirred through rice, drizzled over vegetables or whisked into a dressing. It is worth being clear that low here means the oil adds nothing, not that the dish it finishes is automatically fine.

What changes your risk

• The dish it finishes, not the oil Perilla oil is a finishing ingredient, so it usually lands on top of something else. Judge the rice bowl, the banchan or the noodles underneath it, and remember that several low servings in one sitting still add up to a bigger total than any one of them suggests.
• Seasoned blends and dipping sauces Bottles sold as perilla seasoning sauce, and the dipping sauces built around this oil, commonly include garlic, onion or spring onion bulb along with soy and sesame. Those are the ingredients the meal turns on, so read the label rather than the front of the bottle.
• The seeds and the leaves are separate foods Ground perilla seed, which thickens Korean soups and stews, and perilla leaves eaten as a wrap or pickled as banchan are not the oil. Each has its own rating, and the oil's rating does not carry across to either.
• Pickled and marinated perilla leaf banchan Kkaennip pickled in a soy marinade is nearly always made with garlic and often with onion, which is what makes it a question rather than the leaf itself.
• A neutral base for an infused oil The troublesome parts of garlic do not dissolve into fat, so a strained garlic-infused oil covers that savoury note, although its flavour fights with perilla's. Keep the two bottles separate and use perilla where you want the nutty, herbal note.

What else works

Other single-ingredient pressed oils sit in the same place for the same reason, so plain olive oil, rice bran oil and avocado oil all work where you just need fat, and a strained garlic-infused oil covers the savoury base note a dish might otherwise be reaching for. If you want a similar toasted, nutty finish specifically, toasted sesame oil is the closest match in role and is also a plain pressed oil. What does not carry over from the oil's rating is the rest of the perilla family: the whole and ground seeds used to thicken stews, fresh perilla leaves, and the marinated leaf banchan are separate foods and need to be looked up in their own right. The same goes for perilla-flavoured seasoning sauces and dressings, which are mixtures rather than oil.

How to keep it low

Perilla oil is delicate and goes rancid faster than most oils, so buy it in the smallest bottle you will finish, keep it in the fridge once opened, and smell it before using an old one, since stale perilla oil has a sharp paint-like edge that is hard to miss. Treat it as a finishing oil rather than a frying oil: it burns easily and its flavour is the whole reason to own it, so stir it into hot rice, toss it through steamed greens, or use it in a dressing off the heat. Check that the ingredient list says perilla oil and nothing else, because blended bottles cut with cheaper oils and seasoned versions with added flavourings are both common. At a Korean restaurant, the oil itself is rarely the question worth asking: ask about the banchan and the sauces instead, since those are where garlic and onion routinely appear.

Common questions

is perilla oil low fodmap

Yes. It is rated low overall, estimated from the oil's composition, and the ladder reads Any typical portion: LOW.

can i use perilla oil on the elimination phase

Plain perilla oil with a single-ingredient label sits low at Any typical portion, so it works during elimination as a finishing oil. The seasoned sauces and dressings built around it are the ones to check, since they commonly include garlic and onion.

are perilla leaves low fodmap too

The leaves are a different food from the oil and have their own rating, so the oil's result does not transfer to them. Marinated perilla leaf banchan is a further question again, because the marinade is usually made with garlic.

what about perilla seed powder in soup

Ground perilla seed is the whole seed rather than the pressed oil, so it is a separate entry and needs to be checked on its own. The oil is the part with the low rating here.