Eating healthy during festivals becomes a tough task as no one wants to compromise on taste when all they can find around home are scrumptious delicacies. So, instead of depriving your buds of tasty food, why not adopt some healthy cooking techniques!
When it comes to cooking healthy people often misunderstood it with buying expensive cookware or making the food so bland that it will become torture for your taste buds. With festive on, it is really difficult to stay on your healthy eating track. So, is there any way to eat healthy without compromising on the taste and temptation of festive flavors?
Well, of course, there is a way, changing your basic cooking technique can make a lot of difference to your food. Using a healthy cooking technique only cuts fat and calories from your food. Its taste and flavor remain the same. To help you in your bid to eat and cook healthy during the festive season, we are describing here some healthy cooking methods that will capture the flavor of your food. Also, these techniques will keep the nutrient quotient intact in your food.
Baking
If you think baking is for cakes and desserts only then think again. You can easily use the baking technique for poultry, seafood, lean meats, vegetables and even fruits. All you have to do is to put your uncooked dish in the hot, dry air of your oven with all the condiments and seasoning added to it. You can either cook your food covered or uncovered depending on what you are making. The best part here is baking doesn’t require you to add fat or oil to your dish while cooking.
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Grilling And Broiling
For your Diwali party this year replace your oily fried snacks with much healthier grilled snacks with a live barbecue counter. Grilling and broiling expose the food to direct heat coming out of grill rack placed above charcoal embers. If you are grilling small vegetables then use foil paper to prevent them from slipping through the grill rack. Both methods, broiling and grilling allow fat from the food to drip away while cooking.
Roasting
Roasting is like baking done at a higher temperature. In this healthy cooking technique as well, oven’s dry heat is used for cooking food. You can use either a baking sheet or a roasting pan for this type of cooking. If you are making any dish using poultry products, meat or seafood then place them on a rack over the roasting pan so that fat can drip away from during the cooking process. To retain the moisture, cook food until it reaches a safe internal temperature. Avoid over roasting or overcooking as it may end up spoiling your dish.
Sauteing
This cooking technique is often used for cooking relatively small and thin pieces of food. If you are sauteing food in a good quality non-stick pan then you don’t have to use fat either. You can also use low-sodium broth, cooking spray and even water for sauteing depending on your recipe.
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Steaming
One of the simplest cooking technique that you can think of opting for is steaming. For this, all you have to do is to put your food in a perforated basket suspended over simmering liquid in a steamer. You can even use flavorful or seasoned water for steaming. This will add the same flavor to food as it cooks.
Stir Frying
Stir frying is often regarded as the traditional Asian method for cooking, which is used for cooking small pieces of food. A large non-stick pan or wok is used for rapidly stirring of the food. A very little amount of cooking oil or cooking spray is used in this method.
In addition to these healthy cooking techniques you can use spices and herbs to add flavor, taste and aroma to your food. This will also reduce your need to add excess salt and fat to the food to make it appetizing. Add fresh bright looking herbs towards the end of the cooking and dried herbs during the earlier stages of cooking to cash on their magical flavors.
