Healthy cooking doesn’t mean you have
to become a gourmet chef or invest in
special cookware. Simply use standard
cooking methods to prepare foods in
healthy ways. You can also adapt
familiar recipes by substituting other
ingredients for fat, sugar and salt.
Use these methods
These methods best capture the flavor
and retain the nutrients in your food
without adding too much fat or salt.
-Baking. Besides breads and
desserts, you can bake seafood,
poultry, lean meat, and vegetable
and fruit pieces of the same size.
Place food in a pan or dish
(covered or uncovered) and bake.
You may need to baste the food
with broth, low-fat marinade or
juice to keep the food from drying
out.
-Braising. Braising involves
browning the meat or poultry first
in a pan on top of the stove, and
then slowly cooking it covered with
a small amount of liquid, such as
water or broth. In some recipes, the
cooking liquid is used afterward to
form a flavorful, nutrient-rich
sauce.
-Grilling and broiling. Both grilling
and broiling expose fairly thin
pieces of food to direct heat and
allow fat to drip away from the
food. If you’re grilling outdoors,
place smaller items, such as
chopped vegetables, in a longhandled
grill basket or on foil to
prevent pieces from slipping
through the rack. To broil indoors,
place food on a broiler rack below
a heat element.
-Poaching. To poach foods, in a
covered pan gently simmer
ingredients in water or a flavorful
liquid, such as broth, vinegar or
juice, until cooked through and
tender. For stove-top poaching,
choose an appropriate-sized
covered pan and use a minimum
amount of liquid.
-Roasting. Roasting uses an oven’s
dry heat at high temperatures to
cook the food on a baking sheet or
in a roasting pan. For poultry,
seafood and meat, place a rack
inside the roasting pan so that the
fat can drip away during cooking.
-Sautéing. Sautéing quickly cooks
small or thin pieces of food. If you
choose a good-quality nonstick pan,
you can cook food without using
fat. Depending on the recipe, use
low-sodium broth, cooking spray,
water or wine in place of oil or
butter.
-Steaming. One of the simplest
cooking techniques to master is
steaming food in a perforated
basket suspended above simmering
liquid. If you use a flavorful liquid
or add herbs to the water, you’ll
flavor the food as it cooks.
-Stir-frying. Stir-frying quickly
cooks small, uniform-sized pieces
of food while they’re rapidly
stirred in a wok or large nonstick
frying pan. You need only a small
amount of oil or cooking spray for
this cooking method.
