Cooking Techniques for Healthy Diets

Healthy Cooking Tips, Healthy Recipes and Nutrition, Nutrition
on August 19, 2011
Cooking-Techniques-For-Healthy-Diets-Spry.jpg
Think Stock
https://i0.wp.com/spryliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/thinkstock86504560.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1

How you prepare a dish can be the difference between supporting your health and supporting potential disease. Learn cooking techniques for healthy diets, and turn your old favorite recipes into healthy meals that don’t sacrifice flavor and tradition. Don’t worry! You don’t need any fancy equipment or special skill to cook with these simple, healthy techniques.

Bake on. The Mayo Clinic recommends baking when trying to cook healthy delicious meals. You can avoid excess fat and calories by baking food with a small amount of added fat. Purchase a nonstick baking dish and eliminate fat altogether. Place your creation in a pan or dish and then in a preheated oven until cooked through. Meat, veggies, bread, cookies and even fruit can be cooked by baking — and you control any added fat and sugar and precisely.

Apply direct heat. Broiling or grilling is a flavorful, quick and versatile cooking method. This method applies direct heat to the food and in the process creates delicious flavors, thanks to the natural browning and caramelization that occurs. Fat is drained away from your food during the cooking process, making this a very healthy cooking technique to be sure.

Steam is your new best friend. Prepare a hot water bath in a saucepan and suspend a wire basket above it. Add a lid and you have an improvised steamer. You can cook anything with this method, and zero fat will clog up the recipe. Veggies are steamed into bright and crisp tender bites; even meats can be cut thin and steamed to be thoroughly cooked.

Stir-fry like the pros. This is an easy and healthy technique for cooking food, and it’s been used for centuries. Chop nourishing, wholesome ingredients into bite-size chunks of uniform size. Chicken, veggies, garlic and ginger make excellent partners when flash sautéed or stir-fried in a small amount of oil in a hot pan. Be certain to have everything chopped and ready mise en place style before you begin, as stir-frying goes quickly.