Eating well isn’t just about selecting the healthiest ingredients – how you cook them is just as important, says Nutritionist Bronwen King.
Many a healthy dish has lost its way between the pantry and the plate. A splash of oil here, a dash of salt there, and before you know it your once-healthy meal has transformed into a not-so-healthy (or downright bad-for-you!) one. Of course, a healthy meal starts with healthy ingredients: lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, low-fat dairy, nuts, seeds and legumes. But they need to be cooked in a way that maintains or enhances their nutritional value.
Use the following techniques to make the most of your fresh ingredients and you’ll have a meal that ticks all the right boxes.
Steaming is a simple technique that you can do either on the stovetop or in the microwave. On the stove, steaming involves cooking food in a perforated basket or steamer pan over boiling water (or other liquid). Microwave steaming involves heating the water molecules in the food (and any added liquid) so they turn into steam to cook the food. An advantage of microwave steaming is the quick cooking time – which means you lose a minimal amount of nutrients (the longer you cook vegetables, the more nutrients are lost).
Steaming generally only involves water and heat, so there is no added fat or kilojoules. And since there is little liquid involved, the nutrients in the food don’t leach out into the cooking water.
Over-steaming, as this can break down the texture of food and affect its colour, taste, appearance – and most importantly, its nutritional value. If you steam your food (particularly veg) until it becomes mushy, you lose a whole host of nutrients. The trick is to steam vegies for only a few minutes – so they are brightly coloured and tender-crisp. When steaming fish, it should be just cooked through.
Your food should be ‘lightly steamed’ – still slightly crunchy and the colour, shape, taste and nutrient value is retained.
Poaching involves gently simmering food in water or a flavoursome liquid – like reduced-salt stock, wine, vinegar or juice – until it is cooked through.
When you‘re poaching food in water, you aren’t adding kilojoules or fat. If you plan to use the poaching liquid as a sauce or broth, be sure to use reduced-salt or reduced-sugar liquids, or dilute them with water.
Using very salty or sweetened liquids – they can draw liquid out of the food, making it dry, as well as depleting foods of their taste and nutrients. Plus, using that sweet or salty liquid as part of your dish can significantly increase your sodium or sugar intake.
Bring your poaching liquid to a simmer, add meat or fruit and cook until it’s tender, but not overcooked. To add more flavour to meat, try combining white wine with a little reduced-salt stock.
When poaching fruit, use fruit that is almost overripe to reduce the amount of sugar you need to add, and enhance the flavour with fruit juice, vanilla pods or wine.
This popular cooking method involves quickly cooking meat and/or vegetables in a wok or frying pan over high heat.
Stir-frying requires only a spray of oil, which keeps the added fat and kilojoule count low. Since vegetables are cooked for just a few minutes, they retain their nutrients as well as their texture, flavour and colour.
Add in the vegies that will take the longest to cook first (such as broccoli and carrots) then add the vegies that don’t take as long to cook (onion, capsicum and mushrooms).
Grilling involves cooking meat, vegetables and/or seafood under direct heat, while barbecuing involves cooking over direct heat.
Cooking foods quickly over or under high heat maximises flavour and avoids major nutrient loss. Both methods require adding very little (if any) fat, which helps keep the kilojoule and fat intake down.
Roasting and baking involve oven cooking using dry heat. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, baking involves ‘dry cooking’ foods without using oil or fat, while roasting involves adding oil.
Because baking doesn’t require any extra fat, it’s the healthier cooking method. However, if you use minimal amounts of heart-healthy oils (like olive, sunflower or canola), roasting can also be a healthy option. Don’t forget to sit meat and vegies on roasting rack (with a tray or pan underneath) so your food doesn’t sit in the drippings as it cooks.
Any cooking method that involves fat or oil has the potential to be unhealthy. A little olive or vegetable oil may have some health benefits, but when it comes to fats, less is always best. Use good quality, non-stick pans to help keep the need for added fats to a minimum. And don’t miss our guide to cooking oils in next month’s issue of Healthy Food Guide.
Boiling vegetables for too long can not only result in lost nutrients, but over-boiled vegies are often colourless, tasteless and usually left on the plate uneaten. However, quickly boiling vegies in a small amount of unsalted water can be a healthy way to cook vegies.
The choice of cooking method affects overall fat content. Nothing illustrates this better than a potato!
