13 Tips To Cook Your Food Fast By Retaining Vitamins

Who on the earth would not like to know the secret of cooking fast and at the same time to eat healthy?

Amidst the busy life schedule, when at times things turn unmanageable, and you get prone to diseases, you realize that it is the time to learn some tactics or pro tips that can help you to make cooking an easy and healthy option.

And therefore, on sensing the need of the hour, we are here with some super easy techniques that can make the food you cook not only quick but also nutritious.

Read on, and you can make them a healthy practise

1. Make the full utilization of your free time. Remember to prioritize the BWS (Buy, Wash, Store) of every vegetables or fruits that you bring home. For eg: Washing the coriander/spinach leaves and storing them in the proper way helps them retain the essential vitamins and adequate moisture to keep them fresh. This way you not lose vitamins from and save time when you are going to cook.

2. Bring in the right and good quality knives in your kitchen. Famous chefs always recommend not one but more than three different purpose knives in the kitchen. This is because many local markets offer knives at a very cheap rate. But they are not usually original stainless steel. Hence, when you cut the vegetables and with due course of time while washing, the coating starts to peel off, from the knife and accidently adds in your food. Also some vegetables are soft while some are hard, hence the same knife is not suitable for all purposes. This adds extra time and effort to cut while cooking.

3. Boiled the veggies and freeze it. Some kind of vegetables and/or leafy vegetables are very perishable, when stored for a long time. Even in freezer, they tend to lose their shelf life. Hence the rescue to this is to boil and keep them in freezer. It would not only retain its values but also it would get cooked faster. There is another way to store the herbs in the freeze. You can use an ice-cube tray or muffin tin to freeze freshly chopped herbs. Store it in water, olive oil, or stock for later use as a seasoning agent.

4. Tired with  softening the “atta”? Add a little milk to flour while kneading it. This will not only keep the rotis soft for a long time but also adds to the overall nutritional value. Alternatively, you can use use vegetable stock obtained from cooking your vegetables, soups, dals for kneading flour.

5. Are you planning for making idlis soon but worried it will take time? Note that while making batter for idli, do add a little amount of leftover rice to the mix. This makes the idlis soft and fluffy sooner.

6. Fish is a wonder food! I am not saying this because I am Bengali, but because it gets cooked in barely 15 mins. You can use fish in rolls, as a side dish and also as the main course. Trust me, the recipes are very simple and don't worry about the odour as long as you are buying a freshwater fish. Try different ways of cooking the fish such as baking, grilling and steaming it.

7. Why to rely on the chivdas and pohas all time for snacks?  Why underestimate the power of the plant like soybeans, pinto beans, lentils and nuts? Just soak them and put on your thinking caps to make them yummy. It will taste much better and add up to your appetite as well as core strength. Quick, healthy and delicious, make sprout salads and treat your taste buds.

8. It is summers and making juice is one thing that we do very frequently. But the trick to make a lemon juice super fast and healthy is to get the most juice out of a lemon, minus the sugar intake and salt intake. The solution is here, refrigerate the lemon and roll it against a hard surface before squeezing. The lime is juicier and to avoid the sugar and salt component add, sugar free or rock salt.

9. Add a little baking soda or vinegar to salt to the water when boiling eggs. It makes it easier for the shell removal. These substances permeate the eggshells and help the albumen separate from the shell. Also you can reduce salt intake while eating boiled eggs. Season boiled egg with herbs, spices, garlic, onions, peppers and lemon or lime juice to add flavor.

10. You can replace potatoes with mashed chickpeas or mashed cauliflower.

Result: Better taste and the difference,

1 cup of mashed potatoes = 237 calories and 1 cup of cauliflower mash = 85 calories.

11. We have heard a lot many times that refined oil is not recommended. But we still use it for fast cooking. Nevertheless, you can very much replace refined oil with ghee in your day to day cooking to make it healthier. You can also use oils such as coconut, mustard, and olive. Also, you can reduce the intake of oil by adding half a quantity of oil and other half can be covered by butter. This induces a great taste when sauteed or fried and also makes the food cook faster with less harm. You can also reduce the amount of oil absorbed by the food when fried by adding a pinch of salt to the oil before frying.

12. Some children, as well as adults, hate milk. But we can make it taste better. All we need to do is to add a few drops of rose water and a teaspoon of honey.

13. Ditch the peeler in favor of a spoon to peel finicky ginger root. Use a lot of garlic and asafoetida in recipes to avoid gastric problems.

These are just a few tips from a ton of them. Use them and let me know how easier your life has become.

Moreover, do share any tip that can make the cooking faster, as well as tastier. Also, learn several more such tips from the Cooking Community on SHEROES.

Bon appétit!