Raksha Bandhan falls on August 28 this year, and in the days leading up to it, kitchens across the country turn into small festival production lines. Mathri gets rolled and fried by the batch, shakarpara gets cut into diamonds and dropped into hot oil, namkeen mixes get assembled, and sweets get boxed up alongside the rakhis themselves. It’s one of those festivals where the food is almost as much a part of the ritual as the thread tied around the wrist.
But in the rush to get everything ready before siblings arrive or before the courier picks up the gift boxes, one question rarely gets asked: what oil is actually going into all that frying? And beyond the kitchen, is there a place for oil in how we care for ourselves once the celebration winds down?
The Oil Behind the Fry
Deep frying is unforgiving. It needs an oil that can hold up under sustained high heat without breaking down, turning bitter, or producing the kind of smoke that ruins both the taste and the kitchen air. This is exactly where cold-pressed groundnut oil does its best work.
VRK Naturals extracts its groundnut oil from premium ground nuts using cold press or wood press technology, deliberately avoiding heat or chemicals during the pressing process itself. That might sound like a small technical detail, but it has a real effect on the final oil: because the extraction itself stays gentle, the oil holds onto more of its natural fatty acids and antioxidants, even though its job afterward is to handle some of the highest heat in your kitchen.
Groundnut oil’s high smoke point is what makes it suitable for stir-frying, deep-frying, and seasoning, and its naturally nutty aroma adds a depth of flavor that plain, flavorless refined oil simply doesn’t offer. If you’ve ever noticed that homemade mathri or shakarpara from a certain kitchen just tastes better than store-bought versions, the oil is very often part of that difference.
There’s a nutritional case for groundnut oil too. It’s rich in monounsaturated fats, the kind generally associated with supporting heart health, and it carries a meaningful amount of Vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps protect the body’s cells. During a festival where frying happens in batches over several days, an oil that performs consistently and doesn’t degrade quickly is doing more than just adding flavor, it’s keeping every batch of snacks at the same quality as the first.
Beyond the Snack Tray: What Frying Oil Can’t Do
It’s worth being clear about something here: not every oil is built for the fryer, and that’s not a flaw, it’s just how different oils work. Sesame oil, for instance, is a wonderful oil in its own right, but it has a naturally low smoking point. That means it’s not suited to deep frying or high-heat cooking, and pushing it into that role would mean losing exactly the qualities that make it valuable in the first place.
So if groundnut oil is the answer for the snack tray, where does sesame oil fit into a Raksha Bandhan celebration?
After the Celebration: Sesame Oil for Self-Care
Rakhi has always been about more than the sweets. It’s a day built around gifting, care, and the small rituals siblings share, applying tilak, tying the thread, exchanging gifts. Self-care fits naturally into that spirit, and it’s an angle that often gets overlooked in the rush to finish the cooking.
VRK Naturals’ cold-pressed sesame oil is extracted from the tiny seeds of Sesamum indicum using the same traditional, slow-running wooden pestle method used across the brand’s other oils. What comes out is an oil rich in Vitamin B, Vitamin E, and antioxidants, all ingredients with a long history in skin and hair care. Traditionally, sesame oil is used as a skin nourisher and as a hair treatment, applied to offer strength and shine.
There’s also a lesser-known nutritional detail worth mentioning: sesame oil contains the amino acid tyrosine, which is associated with helping the body manage stress. Festival season, for all its joy, tends to come with its own kind of chaos, guests to host, food to prepare, gifts to wrap, and a stress-easing self-care ritual at the end of a long day of cooking isn’t a bad way to close out the celebration.
Because of its low smoking point, sesame oil’s place isn’t in the fryer. It belongs in uncooked sauces, dressings, and marinades in the kitchen, and in topical skin and hair care outside of it. Used the right way, in the roles it’s actually built for, it holds its own just as well as any oil built for high heat.
Building a Rakhi Kitchen That Uses Both Oils Well
The most practical way to think about this Raksha Bandhan is to give each oil the job it’s actually suited for, rather than expecting one oil to do everything. Groundnut oil for anything going into the fryer, whether that’s the mathri, the shakarpara, or any last-minute pakoras that show up when relatives drop by unannounced. Sesame oil kept aside, not for the stove, but for a scalp massage or a bit of self-care once the kitchen has finally quieted down.
Both oils share the same foundation: wood cold-pressed extraction, no heat or chemical shortcuts, and tin packaging that helps preserve their composition and reduce rancidity from sunlight. That shared process is part of what makes them dependable, whether they’re going into a pan or onto your skin.
A Small Storage Note
Festival cooking often means these oils get used heavily over just a few days, then sit unused for a while afterward. Keep both in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight, with the container sealed tightly after each use, and away from heat and moisture, so whatever’s left in the tin after Raksha Bandhan stays fresh for whenever you need it next.
A Note on Gifting Oil Itself
If you’re looking for a Rakhi gift that goes beyond the usual box of sweets, a tin of cold-pressed oil is an underrated option, particularly for a sibling who’s recently moved into their own kitchen or who’s been talking about eating a bit healthier. It’s practical, it lasts, and unlike a lot of festival gifts, it actually gets used rather than sitting in a cupboard. Pairing a tin of groundnut oil for their kitchen with a smaller bottle of sesame oil for self-care makes for a thoughtful, complete gift that covers both sides of what this festival is really about.
Two Oils, Two Jobs, One Festival
Between the fryer and the self-care routine, this Raksha Bandhan doesn’t have to mean choosing between tradition and quality, or between what tastes good and what does good. Cold-pressed groundnut oil for the snacks that get shared and gifted, cold-pressed sesame oil for the care that follows once the celebration settles down, both wood-pressed the traditional way, without heat or chemical processing cutting corners along the way.