Perfect Basic Popcorn Recipe

Looking for a healthy alternative to processed and boxed snacks? Here is a great homemade popcorn recipe, plus some other helpful options.

Wishing you had something other than butter and salt to top your popcorn?  Or do you need some prodding to give up those artificially colored “cheeze flavored” topping mixes?

Well, I have some great solutions for you.

As I mentioned in my post on popcorn being a healthy snack for your budget, a homemade popcorn recipe can really help with your family food budget, and it can also be a lot of fun if you vary the toppings (make sure you check out the links at the bottom of this post for some of our family's favorites :-)!)

But it is also important to start with the right foundation — the perfect popcorn.

First, You Need to Start with a Great Popper

Again, I mentioned the stainless steel hand crank popper in yesterday's post on how popcorn is a great boon for your budget. If you are really proficient in the shaking-the-pan-over-the-stove-burner method, then that is great too, but our family has gotten so much use out of this popper and I was never really successful at the shaking the pan method.  And with this popper, even our kids can do it.

We do, however, typically have them stand in an ultra-safe kids learning tower (our tower can support 500 pounds safely) while popping. That way there is no fear of them toppling off of a chair and getting injured.

Now, back to the homemade popcorn recipe.

Recipe Notes

• We always use organic popcorn due to the proliferation of genetically modified corn on the market.  (According to this article in the Washington Post, in 2009, already 80 percent of corn was genetically modified.
• The salt that we use and love is Real Salt which you can purchase in various locations. It is a wonderful, non-bleached, natural salt with no additives (did you know that regular table salt is bleached and has chemical additives to keep it from clumping — and some brands even have added sugars!).  We get ours (and our organic popcorn) through our family's buying club with Country Life Natural Foods and I confess that I purchase the large 25 pound bag. Great price and salt doesn't spoil! And between all the popcorn and regular cooking and baking that I do, and our daily saline washes and the regular soaking of nuts and seeds, we use up salt very quickly!
• Coconut oil is a wonderful choice for popping corn.  It has a high smoke point which means that it is fairly-stable cooking oil.  You do not want to use olive oil for your popcorn as its smoke point is too low.  Butter is also not a great choice but it is a fine topping option.  Basically, cook your popcorn at a temperature at which you do not produce a bunch of smoke, because the abundance of smoke indicates that you are damaging the fat.
• I like to use 2 Tbsp oil for most batches. Plain popcorn has a fairly-high glycemic load so adding the extra fat tempers that a bit. Sometimes I use 3 Tbsp, but the resulting product might seem a bit heavy to you.  Try it and decide what amount you like.

That's it!

So, now that you have this easy homemade popcorn recipe that you are armed with one step towards more healthy snack eating, you can really serve up some fun, healthy snacks in the kitchen by trying our family's favorite popcorn recipes:

• Caramel Nut Buttery Popcorn
• Herbes de Provence Popcorn
• Seasoned Popcorn

Do you have any favorite budget-friendly snacks in your home?

Any favorite popcorn flavors to share?

(Photo Credit)