Eating right can help you stay healthy, but what if you have the right ingredients, but don’t cook them properly? Sounds tricky?
This World Food Day, we’re sharing these common cooking mistakes that you possibly never realized you were making.
1. Prior Cutting up of Foods
Most of us try to plan our weekday dinners and do the chopping beforehand. Cutting up your vegetables in advance does save time. The problem though is that they will oxidize and lose most of the nutrition by the time they reach your plate.
Quick Tip: Plan weekly meals so that you know what ingredients you need on a particular day. Chop only the required amount. Less things to chop = less time taken.
2. Proper Seasoning
In order to avoid our foods tasting too salty, we add less salt than required. As a result, the salt distribution is uneven and you may need to sprinkle more salt while eating, which is a health no-no.
Quick Tip: Sprinkle the salt, then mix evenly and taste again after a few minutes. If you’re not too confident about adding more salt, add a few complimentary herbs that will add to the taste.
3. Overcrowding the Pan
Choose the right size of pan while you cook, as it helps to distribute the heat evenly. If there are too many things in the pan, the heat will not get distributed evenly. As a result, while some parts may get overcooked, others can remain undercooked.
Quick Tip: If you don’t have a pan that is big enough to fit it all, try and split the food into multiple pans.
4. Overcooking
You may feel that the more you cook your foods the better it is in terms of health. Of course it is important to make sure that your food is cooked properly and does not remain raw. But overcooking also robs it of essential nutrients.
Quick Tip: Once you have steamed or boiled the vegetables, take them out in a strainer and douse them in cold water. This will help stop the cooking process further.
5. Overheating
Overheating while cooking will not only ruin a dish, it will also rob the health part you would get from the nutrients. This is especially true of certain oils, such as olive oil. Even though it is considered one of the healthiest oils to use in foods, olive oil loses its health factor when used at a high temperature.
Quick Tip: Keep the flame at low and let the foods cook on simmer, instead of everything heating up too fast.
