When it comes to healthy cooking, there’s always more to learn. Even though some people are naturally just good cooks, for most people healthy cooking is a learned skill. Everyone’s healthy cooking skills can be honed, whether you are an old hand or just starting out. In order to become a great cook, there are tricks you must know. There are tips below that can help you start.
Make sure that the knives you are using are very sharp. If your knife is dull, it’s obviously tougher to use, but it is also much more dangerous in general. Use a sharp knife and it will glide right through the items you wish to cut, without you having to put a great amount of force behind the blade.
Longer healthy cooking methods, such as boiling, take out a lot of the healthy nutrients that are found in vegetables. To keep the nutrients in tact, consider steaming or sauteing your food, or even serving them raw.
Fresh Basil
Are you partial to using fresh basil in your healthy cooking? Place fresh basil into a glass. Cover the stems with water. This will help to keep it from going bad for quite a few days. Switching out the water from time to time will cause the basil to grow, as well. While the basil is alive and thriving, make sure you trim the leaves in order to progress the growth of the plant. You will have plenty of fresh basil on hand.
When you use fresh ingredients, your healthy cooking will be considerably better than if you used canned, dried or frozen ingredients. Fresh ingredients will give your dish extra flavor, and can turn out to be less expensive over time.
Proper timing of grilled meat can be tricky to figure out. It’s always good to use a high-quality meat thermometer to ensure you correctly cook the inside. If the meat is any thicker than one and a half inches, you can reduce your grill time by closing the lid.
When you are making chicken stock, think big. If you cook a big pot of stock, you can freeze it for later. This stock is a popular base that can be used in a variety of dishes, from soups to casseroles and much more. Allow your stock to cool, then put portions in heavy-duty Ziploc bags made for freezing.
Now you may have fresh fruit at anytime during the year. It will also allow you to eat seasonal fruits at any time you wish.
Prepare things the day before if you cannot handle doing everything in one night. Before retiring to bed, you can do things like preparing a sauce, chopping up vegetables and onions, or marinating meat. You won’t be as stressed when you prepare the meal the next day.
It is fairly easy to dry tomatoes yourself. Simply cut them into 1/2 half inch slices, or cut lengthwise for Romas. Using a cooling rack, lay the sliced tomatoes with the side that is cut facing upward, and then sprinkle them lightly with salt. After placing the rack atop a cookie sheet, allow the tomatoes to dry for 10 hours in an oven at 190 degrees. Put them in plastic bags for freezer storage. You can pack dried tomatoes in a jar stuffed with organic olive oil and your favorite freshly cut herbs. This jar should be used within 2 weeks and kept refrigerated.
Healthy Cooking Station
Organization while healthy cooking is necessary in order to avoid disasters, like under done or burnt food. An organized healthy cooking station is a productive healthy cooking station. A lack of organization in your kitchen work areas can cause you to lose focus, among other things, and can easily result in wasted time, money, and food.
You can make stock ahead of time to add to other dishes. It is possible to utilize resealable bags to store any excess in the freezer if you prepare large quantities. Doing so will provide you with an abundance of custom, home-produced stock, readily available for creating soups and other dishes. When you prepare your stock from scratch, you will be certain that it is 100% natural, not loaded with preservatives.
Be creative in your healthy cooking. You need not follow a recipe exactly. Experimenting fearlessly with healthy cooking, adding a new ingredient, cutting one out, and changing amounts is how great new recipes are born. Turning a simple recipe into something that is uniquely your own is the sign of a true cook.
To make pasta sauce even more delicious, save some of the water you boiled the pasta in. Save about one-fourth of a cup of water after draining the pasta. Add some of it in as you mix the pasta with the sauce. The water from the pasta contains starch, which can thicken your sauce.
Do all your healthy cooking prep work well ahead of time. You will save gas or electricity, and you will be able to focus on one thing at a time.
Use high-quality utensils to cut with in the kitchen. Sharp utensils are safer and will save you a lot of time. More injuries, cuts and serious accidents happen as a result of blunt utensils than freshly sharpened ones.
Healthy Cooking
Not everyone is born to be a professional chef, but by following certain directions pertaining to healthy cooking in the kitchen, you can be a great amateur chef in a short time. It’s easier than you may believe. If you follow the tips in this article while you are healthy cooking, you will be on your way to becoming a master chef.