Learning to sauté or stir fry without the use of oil is an essential kitchen skill if you want to prepare delicious, low-fat, and heart-healthy dishes. Frying your dish imparts lots of flavour to your ingredients by browning them, the so-called Maillard reaction. It is possible to fry your dish without the use of oil, all you need is a good quality non-stick frying pan and some liquid.
For the browning reactions to occur, you need high heat, thus you will need to heat your non-stick pan till it is scorching hot. Then start adding your spices and vegetables or other plant-based products. Starting with frying onions works well because the onion contains lots of moisture which will prevent the ingredients sticking to the pan. Stir the ingredients in the pan around to ensure that everything is cooked evenly and when they start to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a splash of liquid to deglaze the pan and loosen all the ingredients. You can use plain water as a liquid, but you can impart lots of different flavours in your dish by using a flavourful liquid like a water and soy sauce mixture, vegetable broth, juice, vinegar, wine, beer, etc.
When you cover the pan with a lid, you will retain the moisture and your ingredients will be cooked. When you want the result to be dry, leave off the lid so that all the moisture can evaporate. When using starchy vegetables, you can cover the pan with a lid for the first part of the frying so that the starchy vegetables get steamed and tender. When you remove the lid, the moisture will evaporate, and you can crisp your starchy vegetables up in the frying pan. For roasting in an oven, you can use the same technique to get your starchy vegetables tender and crispy.
It is very helpful to invest in a good quality non-stick frying pan. If you have one classic high quality frying pan, you can use it for most of the dishes you prepare in your kitchen.
Frying without oil takes a bit longer then with the use of oil, but you will end up with a dish that is flavourful and healthy for your cardiovascular system.