Creative cooking tips for healthy eating

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Creative cooking tips for healthy eating

Most of us regularly indulge in foods that are not nutritious like pizza, burgers, samosa, vada pav, mithai, ladoos etc. An occasional indulgence is fine but eating them often is harmful for health.

 Cooking nutritious food is easy. In many cases, your favourite recipes can be modified to make them healthier. Here are some points to make your cooking nutritious and tasty.

Keep fats to a minimum Following are some tips to reduce the intake of excessive fats in your diet.

1.     Use a non-stick cookware to reduce the need for cooking oil.

2.     When a recipe calls for cream, use low fat yoghurt, low fat soy milk or skimmed milk.

3.     Use low fat milk or curd instead of water or oil to knead the atta for making thinner and softer rotis.

4.     When serving meat and fish, use pesto, salsa, chutneys and vinegars in place of sour creams, butter and creamy sauces.

5.     Remove the chicken skin which is high in fat.

6.     Whether cooking or making dressings, use the oils that are lowest in saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol – such as canola oil, corn oil, olive oil, sesame oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil – but use them sparingly because they contain 100 calories per tablespoon.

7.     Stay away from coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil.  Even though they are vegetable oils and have no cholesterol, they are high in saturated fats.

Retaining nutrientsWater soluble vitamins are delicate and easily destroyed during preparation and cooking. Tips on retaining them include:

1.     Scrub the vegetables rather than peeling them, as many nutrients are found close to the skin.

2.     Steam, bake, grill or microwave the vegetables instead of boiling them. If you like to boil vegetables, use a small amount of water and do not over boil them.

3.     Include more stir-fry recipes in your diet. Stir-fried vegetables are cooked quickly and they retain their crunch and associated nutrients.

4.     Vegetables such as tindli, parvar, french beans, peas, potatoes and eggplant can be cooked in the pressure cooker with 1 tsp oil.

Kitchen Tips

1.     Add sugar to water when boiling green peas, french beans or green gram instead of soda to retain the green colour and decrease intake of sodium.  

2.     To prevent lady finger vegetable from becoming sticky add 2 tsp of curd while cooking. This in turn will require less oil for cooking the vegetable.

3.     Add 2 tsp of low fat milk when cooking cauliflower vegetable to ensure that the florets remain white in colour.

To improve the consistency of idli batter, add a little roasted rava, the idliwill turn out softer and tastier