Healthy Cooking and Refrigeration Tips

Eating healthy food doesn’t mean giving up your favourite foods. Your favourite recipes can be adapted easily to provide a healthier alternative.

Healthy Cooking Tips:

• Choose the reduced or low-fat version of a food if possible – for example milk, cheese, yoghurt, salad dressings and gravies.

• Limit fats, sugars and salt and include plenty of vegetables, fruit, grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy in your cooking.

• Choose to steam, bake, grill, braise, boil or microwave your foods, rather than deep fry them.

• If you add fats when cooking, keep them to a minimum and use monounsaturated oils such as olive and canola oil.

• Foods with added fats, sugars or salt are less healthy than food in which these are found naturally.

• Herbs are delicately flavoured, so add them to your cooking in the last few minutes.

• Scrub vegetables rather than peel them, as many nutrients are found close to the skin.

• Use non-stick cookware.

• If you like to boil vegetables, use a small amount of water and do not overboil them. it help in retaining nutrients.

• When browning vegetables, put them in a hot pan then spray with oil, rather than adding the oil first to the pan. This reduces the amount of oil that vegetables absorb during cooking.

• Use pesto, salsas, chutneys and vinegar in place of sour creams, butter and creamy sauces.

Refrigeration Tips:

• Keep coriander leaves in a air tight plastic box in the refrigerator to keep them fresh for a long time.

• Remove the stem of the chilly while storing them whole. Another method is to make chilly paste and store it for a long time.

• Keep lettuce fresh in the fridge by wrapping it in a clean, dry paper towel and storing lettuce and paper towel in a sealed bag in the fridge.

• Avoid putting citrus fruits or tomatoes in the fridge,the low temperatures take away the aroma and flavour of these fruits.

• To store fish longer and fresher, clean it, apply turmeric and salt and put it in the freezer.