A veggie of the day
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Interesting facts
Ways of vegetable processing
Not all the methods allow us to use the richness of vitamins and minerals contained in vegetables, but they versify our menus greatly. It’s because of them it is easier to consume vegetables, just like the nutritionists recommend it, which is five times a day.
Steaming
Thanks to steaming, vegetables are not immersed in water. They lose less vitamins and microelements, which normally dissolve in water. Vegetables, wrapped in aluminium foil, preserve the most of their nutrients, since whatever leaks out of them, remains in the foil.
What can we obtain from steaming?
- We preserve all the nutrients in the food
- Vegetables preserve their colour
- The tissue of food is softened quicker
- Food, prepared this way is light
- It’s low in fat
Cooking
Let’s use as little water as possible and place vegetables in hot water, not the cold, so that the cooking process is the shortest. Cooking in boiling water is the best method for hard vegetables, such as string beans, broccoli or carrots. Vegetables need to be cooked as little as possible, drained and served immediately. If you prepare them this way, you can serve them for example with prawns, as a side dish.
High temperature does not destroy microelements, but dissolves them in water. An easy method to regain these microelements is to cooks soup, using the water from cooked vegetables.
Stewing
Before we add water into the stewed food, we fry the vegetables in oil. We need to cover the pot and stew them for 5-8 minutes. The best vegetables for stewing are carrots, celery, leeks and fennel. Vegetables, such as radicals and leafy greens, which have been stewed, are also great as side dishes accompanying meats. It’s good to remember to use less liquids and not to strain the vegetables before serving them.
Grilling
A great method, especially with peppers, aubergines, mushrooms and zucchini. The vegetables need to be sprinkled with oil and then placed in a heated oven or an ovenproof, in order to preserve as much vegetable juice from them as possible.
This method allows us to maintain the maximum of the nutrients that naturally dissolve in water. The vegetables are chopped, put into a bowl and sprinkled with olive oil. Add garlic, onions, salt and pepper. Next, place the vegetables on a baking sheet, and roast them until soft in about 150°C. Even leafy greens can be roasted when we fill them with some stuffing.
Stir-frying
Stir-frying is a method, which allows us to preserve maximum of vegetable’s nutrients, since it does not require so much time, only a little bit of liquid and oil. Vegetables should be served with the juice they’d been frying in. We can use stir-frying to prepare aubergines for Arabic salad.
The methods presented above are just a few examples of how to make healthy and natural meals. Using them eliminates the use of extra fats in meals, these methods prevent vegetables from losing vitamins and using too much salt in them.
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