Everything is good when it’s cooked. Even for vegetables, you don’t just get the taste of it, but it’s also filled with nutrients that your body needs the most.
There are different ways you can cook your veggies. You can do it by the following techniques:
Boiling is simple to manage. To keep vitamins and taste, use as little water as possible and don't overcook.
Steaming retains the taste, color, and nutrients best. Overcooking makes them bland and limp. You may steam veggies in a steamer or their juices, then bake until soft.
Blanching softens vegetables for salads or releases the skins of tomatoes and shallots. Blanching vegetables before freezing eliminates degradation enzymes. Cook veggies in boiling water for one minute. To cease cooking, put the veggies into the icy water. Before using or freezing, drain and pat dry.
Root vegetables, squashes, and tomatoes taste greatly roasted. Roasting intensifies tastes and caramelizes sugars, providing a crisp outside and soft inside.
Stir-frying utilizes minimal oil and swiftly cooks veggies, preserving texture and flavor. Cut the veggies into tiny pieces and heat a wok or frying pan until smoking. Start with the longest-cooking veggies and stir constantly. Instead of overfilling the pan, cook in batches.
Griddling and grilling yield crisp-coated, delicate veggies. Before cooking, ensure sure your grill or griddle is hot. Oil the pan and lay the veggies flat. Avoid pricking them while they're cooking to prevent drying. For chargrilled stripes, flip them once while cooking.
No matter the technique you will use in cooking your veggies, one thing is for sure, it will be delicious and healthier for you! Here are ten vegetables you can add on your next market visit:
According to some research, cooked tomatoes have much more significant quantities of lycopene than raw tomatoes. This is most likely because the heat helps to break down the thick cell walls, which contain a variety of critical components. It is essential to take note of this fact since lycopene is one of the most potent antioxidants that can be found, and it has been connected to a reduced risk of a wide variety of chronic illnesses, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.
This vegetable that comes into season in the spring is loaded with cancer-fighting vitamins A, C, and E, and boiling it increases the antioxidant activity of the vegetable by 16 to 25 percent. While this was going on, researchers discovered that boiling asparagus raised the vegetable's levels of phenolic acid, which is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer. Because vitamins A and E are both fat-soluble, which means that it is easier for your body to absorb them when they are combined with a source of fat, you might want to consider cooking your asparagus in olive oil, or serving it with some toasted seeds, so that you can get the most out of the vitamins A and E that it contains.
Have you ever observed that as you cook this dark leafy green, it reduces in size? Because of this, you are more likely to consume a greater quantity of it, and as a result, you will get a greater portion of the nutrients that spinach offers. But that's not all: steaming spinach may lower the amount of oxalic acid found in the vegetable by up to 53 percent. Oxalic acid is a substance that prevents your body from absorbing iron and calcium.
Antioxidants are very useful chemicals that may shield your cells from being damaged, hence lowering the likelihood that you will develop certain chronic conditions. It just so happens that mushrooms are densely packed with antioxidants, and heating this vegetable significantly boosts the mushroom's total antioxidant activity. According to the dietary database maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), cooked mushrooms contain greater quantities of potassium, niacin, and zinc than raw mushrooms do. This comes as an extra benefit.
Before you go and start snacking on some crudités, you may want to think about celery since it is better for you when it is cooked. It is important to note, however, that the antioxidant capacity of the food only rose when it was prepared using certain cooking techniques, such as microwaving, cooking under pressure, griddling, frying, or baking. This vegetable really lost 14% of its antioxidant potency after it was cooked.
A carotenoid, also known as beta-carotene, is a chemical that may be converted by the body into vitamin A. Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that helps promote bone development, improves eyesight, and maintains a healthy immune system. Beta-carotene is a carotenoid. Cooking this vegetable causes an increase in the amount of beta-carotene it contains, which is responsible for giving carrots their orange color.
Additionally, leaving the carrot skins on when boiling them may increase the total antioxidant capacity of the carrots by a factor of three. It is up to you whether you want to boil or roast them; however, you should avoid using a frying pan since doing so reduces the amount of carotenoid present in the food by 13 percent.
Cooking vegetables, including green beans, is one of the numerous ways to improve their nutritional value. A research that was published in the journal Nutrition Research in 2007 found that cooked green beans may have more advantages for decreasing cholesterol than raw green beans.
However, the only way to get these nutritious benefits is by preparing the food in the appropriate manner. Green beans do not have a greater level of antioxidants when they are boiled or pressure cooked, but they do have higher levels of antioxidants when they are baked, microwaved, griddled, or even fried, according to a study.
Don't worry if the thought of devouring a bowl of raw kale doesn't seem very delicious to you since this cruciferous vegetable retains some of its health benefits even after being cooked. Cooking this vegetable deactivates the enzymes that are responsible for producing that possibly damaging impact. Because of this, the Harvard School of Public Health suggests giving your kale a quick steam before eating it. This will help you prevent this problem while also avoiding the loss of antioxidants.
Even though it's more probable that you'll prepare your eggplant than consume it in its raw state, we're going to give you one more reason to warm up this veggie. According to the findings of a study, steaming eggplant causes its constituents to link together with bile acids, which makes it easier for the liver to break down cholesterol and reduces the amount of cholesterol that is present in the circulation.
When it comes to eggplant, however, not every cooking technique produces the same results. One research published in the journal Food Chemistry in 2016 showed that grilling this vegetable caused it to retain a greater quantity of chlorogenic acid. This acid reduces the rate at which glucose is absorbed into the circulation (thus potentially lowering your blood pressure and risk of diabetes). On the other hand, boiling the eggplant resulted in a greater amount of the antioxidant delphinidin being preserved in the vegetable.
You don't like Brussels sprouts served raw? No issue. Because it has been discovered that when this cruciferous vegetable is cooked, a molecule called indole is produced. Indole is a substance that has been proven to destroy precancerous cells. According to Harvard Health, the process of cooking this specific vegetable enables the glucosinolates to break down into molecules that are renowned for having the ability to fight cancer.
Sources:
- How to Cook Vegetables | Vegetable Cooking Tips & Technique | Waitrose
- 12 Vegetables That Are Healthier Cooked — Eat This Not That
