When it comes to cooking with cannabis, cookies, brownies, and other baked goods reign supreme. But not everyone is into baked goods. Whether you crave salty, need to watch your sugar or caloric intake for health reasons, or are looking to expand your edible-making prowess, you may be wondering what else you can do in the kitchen with cannabis. 

In this blog, we’ll focus on how you can inject cannabis into all the different courses and we’ll cap it off with a recipe for a sweet cannabis-infused treat. 

Appetizer Ideas

Appetizers are incredibly easy to infuse with cannabis, as long as you have cannabis-infused olive oil or butter on hand. For example, you can infuse cannabis into popular appetizers like spinach and artichoke dip, guacamole, and ceviche by replacing regular butter or olive oil with butter or oil that’s infused with cannabis. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make cannabutter, so you can be prepared to whip up a delectable treat in no time. And here’s a step-by-step guide from Business Insider on how to make cannabis oil for cooking. 

Breakfast 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and a prime opportunity for you to add cannabis into the mix. If you prefer to eat your breakfast, try adding cannabis oil or butter to your oatmeal or infusing your maple syrup with cannabis. If you prefer to drink your breakfast on the go, add canna oil to your morning cup of joe (like the ultra-trendy MCT oil keto coffee). Our favorite drinkable cannabis infusion, though, is a healthy fruit smoothie with cannabis oil added in. The best thing about smoothies is that there’s a lot of flexibility-- you can make it as green (or as pink!) as you prefer. 

Main Course 

This is where cooking with cannabis gets fun, as you can infuse cannabis into the entire dish or just one part of it so you can easily scale up or down. (Ex: if you make a soup with cannabis-infused dumplings, someone with a lower tolerance can enjoy one dumpling, while someone with a higher tolerance can add a few to their soup. Just make sure to cook them separately from the soup!) You can also take the easy route, like dousing pre-packaged gnocchi in a homemade lemon cannabutter sauce, or go super complex, like a multi-layered lasagna with cannabutter infused into both the cheese and sauce. 

Dessert (with Recipe!) 

You can’t have a complete meal without dessert! We’ll skip the baked goods, though, and walk you through how to make delicious cannabis caramels. If you have a candy thermometer you’ll be able to make sure they don’t get too hot or cold when cooking, but you should be OK even without one. 

Ingredients for Cannabis Caramels 

• 1 cup cannabutter
• 2.5 cups brown sugar 
• Dash of salt 
• 1 cup light corn syrup 
• 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

How to Make Cannabis Caramels 

1. Fill a small dish with cold water and set aside (you’ll be using this later!), and grease a baking pan.
2. Melt cannabutter in a saucepan. 
3. Once melted, add brown sugar and salt. Whisk until combined. 
4. Stir in corn syrup. 
5. Slowly pour in condensed milk, making sure to stir the mixture constantly. 
6. Cook over medium heat  *if you have a candy thermometer, keep the mixture in the 235-245° F range) 
7. Once it starts to stiffen (usually about 15 minutes), use a spoon to drop a small amount into the dish with cold water and try to pick it up. If you can pick it up without issue, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. 
8. Pour into a buttered pan and let it cool. 
9. Once cooled, cut into squares and refrigerate. 

One of the best things about this recipe is that you can use the caramels in other recipes -- add them to cookies, and brownies, or mix them into an ice cream sundae!  

Cannabis Cooking & Edible Tips 

Please keep in mind that everyone’s tolerance for cannabis is different, and “low and slow” is the mantra to live by. This means you should start with a low dose of THC before gradually increasing the dosage once your body has had time to absorb the cannabis. View our edible dosing blog for more information on dosing. Here are a few other things to keep in mind: 

• Clearly label all cannabis oil, butter, and dishes that may contain cannabis. 
• Avoid these common edible mistakes, including not testing your batch, straining too hard, and cooking at the wrong temperatures. 
• Store your edibles appropriately - this may vary from recipe to recipe, so check your specific recipe for specific instructions. 
• If you live in a household with children, keep anything cannabis-related (including infused foods and beverages) out of reach. We cannot stress the importance of this!  
• Avoid mixing cannabis edibles with alcohol or any other drugs, including prescription medications. When in doubt, speak with your medical provider for more information. 
• Tell everyone who is consuming the dish or dessert that it contains cannabis. Nobody wants to be surprised by accidentally consuming cannabis when they didn’t intend to. 
• If you or someone did accidentally overindulge, we have some tips here. 

Remember, high-quality edibles start with high-quality cannabis. Fortunately, CULTA’s display cases are filled to the brim with only the best cannabis, including pre-ground flower. Using pre-ground flower means you can skip the grinding and save yourself a little time. Want to save even more time? Skip the headache and chemistry of cooking up edibles by purchasing pre-made edibles directly from CULTA. They’re perfectly dosed and ready for consumption. 

Head into our dispensaries for more information about our selection of high-quality edibles: CULTA Baltimore, CULTA Columbia, and CULTA Urbana..