Easy, Quick Homemade Popcorn (Photos)

Update: Since writing this post, we’ve upgraded to an air popper to avoid oil all together. Here is why you may want to consider reducing or eliminating oil in your diet too. Now back to the original post….

I love popcorn! It satisfies a crunchy salt craving in the afternoon or fun snacking during a movie.

By now I hope you have learned of the dangers of eating microwaved popcorn. If not, check out FoodBabe’s overview here.

Making homemade popcorn on the stove in a pot is quick and easy. Here’s how I do it:

1. For years I have used unrefined, dark peanut oil. You can find this at Whole Foods or you may have to order it from your local health food store. It is generally not a stock item in ordinary grocery stores. DO NOT confuse this with any peanut oil…it has to be dark and unrefined. Look for “unrefined” on the label.

Recently I tried popping corn in red palm oil, however I think the dark peanut oil tastes MUCH better. The red palm oil left a strange coating in my mouth which I didn’t like, plus the dark peanut oil makes the popcorn taste buttered…which it’s not. The red palm oil didn’t give it that flavor.

I know many people use coconut oil for popping corn. I’ve not tried that but will one day when I find myself unexpectedly out of my favorite peanut oil.

Most popping corn, at the store or in the movie theater, is by variety non-GMO. However, if the option is available, still purchase organic popcorn kernels to be extra safe.

2. Cover the bottom of a pan with kernels and pour over dark peanut oil enough to cover all the kernels. To get the best pop, you need to use ample oil to fully heat each kernel. Every kernel should be generously coated in oil.

3. Put on the pot lid and allow the kernels and oil to heat. (The below photo was taken right before I did that.)

4. Then let the magic happen! If you use ample kernels like I do, you will probably need to unload some of the popped corn into a bowl and let the remaining kernels have space to do their popping. This all depends on the size of your pot.

5. After my corn is popped, I like to add a sprinkle of sea salt and a healthy shake of nutritional yeast. It tastes buttery (from the dark peanut oil) and cheesy (from the yeast) and satisfies a salt craving.

6. Here’s a close up image of my popped corn with nutritional yeast flakes and salt.

7. This bowl is 14.5″ in diameter – it’s BIG! If I’m really hungry in the afternoon, I may eat the whole bowl myself. It’s a whole grain snack that eats like a meal! However more often than not, I share it with my daughter after school or with my husband over a movie.

There is absolutely no reason to use microwave popcorn any more. Make quick, easy homemade popcorn on the stove. This DOES NOT include Jiffy Pop which is full of hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, preservatives and other chemicals.

If you can’t or don’t want to make popcorn on the stove, there are many brands of decent popcorn sold in bags now. Choose a plain variety (meaning not cheese, ranch, BBQ or the like) and season it yourself. If you want it warm, spread it out on a baking sheet and give it a few minutes in the oven.

I truly love popcorn! If you look at my daily Food Diary, you’ll see that I eat it often. And I love going to the movie theater and I’ll buy and eat popcorn every time. However I never, ever, ever get “butter” which is butter flavored soybean oil, not actual butter. Movie popcorn isn’t going to be as wholesome as homemade, however it’s not the worst snack to choose from the concession counter.

Hot air poppers are great if you’re worried about the fat content of oil. I monitor how much fat I consume and allot for the pleasure of corn popped in unrefined peanut oil.

Pop on!