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With or without peel: how best to cook vegetables for health benefits
It turned out that some vegetables are not worth boiling at all – after heat treatment, they become more nutritious and less useful.
Whether to peel vegetables before cooking or not – every housewife has her own opinion on this matter. There are real battles on the culinary forums on this score.
Meanwhile, dietitians advise eating vegetables … raw and, of course, with the peel. Anyway, some of the vegetables.
100 g of raw carrots contain 8-15 g of carbohydrates, and the same amount of boiled carrots – twice as much. Beets also become more caloric after cooking.
“Beets are rich in boron, silicon, calcium, they contain protodioscin, which is converted in the body into the hormone of youth (dehydroepiandrosterone). But after heat treatment, the amount of vitamins and minerals in beets decreases by 5-10%, while the calorie content and concentration of carbohydrates increase immediately by 20%. ”
But what if you need boiled vegetables for the salad? And raw potatoes, unlike carrots, are completely inedible. Moreover, potatoes are included in the list of foods that are absolutely forbidden to eat raw.
“I always cook potatoes in their uniforms, my great-grandmother used to do this,” says one of my friends. “Plus, vegetables cooked this way have a completely different taste.” “Cooking unpeeled potatoes is an option for the lazy,” her daughter-in-law immediately objected. “The peel contains harmful pesticides, and the taste, in my opinion, does not depend on the presence of the peel at all.” So which one is right?
Peel is useful
A lot of useful substances are concentrated both in the peel of vegetables and fruits and in the upper layer of the pulp. For example, the peel of apples contains a lot of vitamins A and C, as well as calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, and beneficial antioxidants. Lemon peel contains not only vitamins C and P, but also essential oils that improve sleep. And potato peel contains vitamins and minerals (potassium, iron, zinc and vitamin C) much more than the tubers themselves.
So, if you cut off the skin, you can deprive the dish of a good half of all vitamins, trace elements and other usefulness even before cooking. Another part of the products will lose already during the heat treatment.
Easier to cut
Some vegetables, boiled in the peel, are also easier to cut for salads – without it, they quickly lose their shape and can turn into gruel, moreover, tasteless. And it is easier to peel the same potatoes already cooked.
It is best to steam vegetables or in a little water – it should cover them by about 1 cm, not higher. Vegetables are recommended to be dipped into boiling water. All this will allow you to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients and nutrients.
When is the best time to cut the peel
All of these rules are good when you are one hundred percent confident in the quality of the product. It is important that the fruits are grown without the use of chemical or nitrate fertilizers, in the most environmentally friendly way. For example, in your own garden or purchased from a trusted farmer.
But vegetables and fruits purchased in a store or on the market are often coated with wax and paraffin-containing substances to increase the shelf life. It is extremely difficult to wash off such a coating. In this case, it is better to cut off the peel before cooking.