Cooking Vegetables to Prevent Nutrient Loss

 

Fresh vegetables provide a wealth of nutritional benefits through vitamins, phytonutrients and minerals. However, cooking vegetables can cause nutrient loss, especially if it is not done right. How you prepare the vegetables before cooking and how long you cook them can affect nutrient content in vegetables. In this respect, you should learn how to cook vegetables without causing nutrient loss. Some of them are outlined below:

 

One of the best ways of preserving nutrients in vegetables is by using the cooking liquid in sauces and soups. More often than not, the water in which the vegetables are cooked in is more important than even the vegetable itself. In this respect, do not throw the water you used for cooking the vegetable; save it for the next soup or drink it if you can. This is because the water is rich in nutrients extracted from the vegetables during cooking.

 

When you cook spaghetti squash, try not to overcook them as this causes nutrient loss as well as loss of taste. Most people often overcook their vegetables, where the nutritional value of the vegetables is lost. Most types of vegetables should be cooked far less than what happens in most homesteads today.

 

Most importantly, do not consider peeling off your vegetables before cooking them. Most people have the habit of peeling their vegetables before cooking them but this is not always advisable. Potatoes, for instance, should never be peeled because most of the valuable nutrients lie inside or right under the skin.

 

Another important thing to keep in mind when you cook fresh green beans is to use them immediately after you have shredded or cut them to retain Vitamin C. In most vegetables, Vitamin C is lost at a rapid rate once the vegetable fiber has been bruised or cut. If you don't intend to use or eat them immediately, you should consider cutting them into larger pieces because this helps in retaining most of the vitamins.

 

Where possible, you should desist from frying your vegetables. Frying vegetables can be potentially dangerous to your life because they absorb huge amounts of fats, becoming difficult to digest in the process and leaving dead matter into your body. Rather than frying, you can do better by steaming your vegetables because this method does not require a lot of water or even time for the vegetables to cook.

 

It is quite clear that vegetables can be cooked in several ways and still be able to retain their nutritional value.