Cooking methods- About microwaving
- Mariann Sebok
- Dec 16, 2024
- 2 min read
Cooking methods- About microwaving
There are a lot of misconceptions about microwaving; How it's damaging the food and depriving it from most nutrients. This could not be further from the truth.
Nutrients can be lost few ways. For instance, cooking food high temperatures breaks down nutrients. Also, when cooking using water, the water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin C and B will dissolve in the cooking water. This is not a problem if this water is consumed, like in soups. But if water is drained, it will be all lost.
With baking or other dry heat method would have minimal vitamin losses including vitamin C. However, due to long cooking times at high temperatures, nutrients are broken down.
Microwaving is an easy, convenient, and safe method of cooking. Short cooking times and reduced exposure to heat preserve the nutrients in microwaved food.
Microwave-oven technology has been improved by the use of low power. With the utilization of low-power techniques, studies showed equal or better retention of nutrients for microwave, as compared with conventional, reheated foods for:
thiamin (B1),
riboflavin (B2),
pyridoxine (B6),
folacin (B9),
and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).
I admit the texture could be a bit iffy for most ingredients. The exception would be for mushroom and garlic.
To preserve the texture we like, I usually use microwave as part of the recipe. Where a long baking or cooking time would be needed, I would use microwave and then just finish it off with baking or other cooking method. In this way the texture would be still what we're used to, preserving nutrients and reducing baking time and saving energy.
In summary microwaving is a safe cooking method that preserves most nutrients due to short cooking times. It also saves time and energy.
Find some recipes here:
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