Thonmai
In an Arani kitchen at seven in the morning, the first thing you notice is the smell - groundnut oil warming in a heavy iron kadai, faintly nutty, before a spoon of mustard seeds goes in and starts to pop. This is the oil that has fried thousands of vadais, tempered countless pots of sambar, and coated the first dosai of the day. It is ordinary in the best sense: present at nearly every meal. And because it is so everyday, the kind of fat it carries into your body matters more than any oil you use only occasionally.
Groundnut oil - or verkadalai ennai - has quietly held its place in South Indian cooking for generations. When it is wood-pressed rather than refined, its character changes in ways worth understanding, especially if you are thinking about the heart.
The fatty acid balance that suits the heart
Fats are not one thing. What sets a heart-sensible oil apart is the mix of fatty acids inside it, and groundnut oil has a fairly friendly one.
Monounsaturated fats - groundnut oil is rich in these, the same broad family found in olive oil, and they are the fats most consistently linked in research to healthier cholesterol patterns.
Polyunsaturated fats - present in a reasonable share, these are fats the body cannot make on its own.
Saturated fats - the lowest of the three portions, which is the direction you want in an oil used daily.
No single oil is perfect, and variety across the week is sensible. But as an everyday base for Indian cooking, this balance is a genuinely reasonable one.
Why wood-pressing keeps more of the good stuff
Refined groundnut oil is usually extracted with heat and sometimes chemical solvents, then bleached and deodorised. The process is efficient and gives a neutral, long-lasting oil - but it strips away much of the oil's natural companions.
Wood-pressing, or the marachekku method, crushes groundnuts slowly in a wooden mortar. The friction stays low, temperatures stay modest, and no solvents are involved. What survives is the oil's natural vitamin E and its plant compounds - the very things that give it colour, aroma, and a measure of antioxidant value. Vitamin E in particular is worth keeping, since it helps protect the fats themselves from going rancid too quickly.
It handles the Indian stove reasonably well
A heart-friendly fatty acid profile means little if the oil breaks down the moment it hits heat. Groundnut oil has a comfortably high smoke point, which is why it has always been the frying oil of choice across Tamil Nadu. For everyday tempering, sauteing, and shallow frying, it stays stable at the temperatures a home kitchen actually reaches.
A small practical note: wood-pressed oil, with its natural sediment and aroma, is best stored away from direct light and used within a few months rather than stockpiled. The same unrefined quality that keeps its goodness also means it is more alive, and less indefinitely shelf-stable, than heavily processed oil.
Everyday matters more than occasional
The reason groundnut oil deserves attention is not that it is a superfood - it is that it is a staple. An oil you use once a month can be indulgent without much consequence. An oil you cook with every single day quietly shapes the fat balance of your entire diet. Choosing a wood-pressed groundnut oil is less about one dramatic health claim and more about making the constant, invisible choice a slightly better one. If you want to see how our oils are pressed and where they come from, you can read more about our process.
A note on what "heart-healthy" can and cannot mean
It is worth being precise here. "Heart-healthy" is a descriptive phrase about a food's fatty acid profile and cooking behaviour - not a regulated medical certification, and not a promise that any single oil prevents heart disease. What actually protects the heart is a whole pattern: how much oil you use, what you fry in it, how much you move, and everything else on the plate. Wood-pressed groundnut oil fits comfortably into a sensible everyday diet. It is a good ingredient, used in good measure - and that, honestly, is the most any cooking oil can claim.