Healthy cooking

If you want to start with healthy cooking, you don’t needanything new, your old cookware and basic culinary skills will do just fine. Theway you prepare your food will make significant difference.

Avoid adding some extra salt of fat to the food, just by doingthat you are progressing towards the healthy cooking. You favorite meals aregoing to be transformed and your body is going to be grateful in the long run.

Cooking Methods

There are certain methods used in healthy cooking, and ifyou follow those rules your food will keep all the flavors and nutrients.

Braising is the culinarytechnique when the food is firstly browned in a stove and slowly cooked withsome fluid. The liquid is most commonly soup or water. Sometimes, liquid can beadded later, and used to make a sauce.

Put any food you like into the baking dish and itwill be baked by the hot air in the oven. This method of cooking is fat-free. It is not necessary to add any fat to the food. Usually, people bake meat, breadand desserts, but all kinds of stuff can be prepared this way. Try some baked vegetables,fruit, seafood or poultry.

Roasting issimilar to baking. The difference is the temperature, roasting is done athigher temperature, but also in the oven. Keep in mind that some food mightneed moistening during roasting.

When you want to grill or broil, the food is directly opento the heat. Outside, the best place for grilling is a grill rack above the directheat, and inside you should use broiler rack. The technique is healthy becauseall the excess fat is dripping from the food you are making.

If you want to preserve the shape of some ingredients whilecooking it, you may try to poach thosefoods. Poaching is gently cooking the food in some flavored liquid. It might besoup, vine, vinegar or juice.

Small pieces of food canbe quickly prepared by sautéing. Usea non stick pan, cooking spray or some broth or water and add the food. It willbe done in matter of minutes. Stir-fryingis similar method, used in Asian cuisine, for cooking small pieces of food.

Steaming requires a special perforated basket. Put the food in thebasket, and basket above the simmering water. The steam will easily cook thefood without any added fat.

Adding some Herbs

To avoid using extra salt or fat, add different spices and herbsto your meal. Dried spices are used at the beginning and fresh herbs areusually added at the very end of cooking.