Roasted vegetables, fresh salad, ratatouille or stuffed dim sum with steamed vegetables? What is the best way to cook your vegetables, and how would you feed your family and make sure that they get all the nutritional values that are important to the development, growth and for maintaining good health? Here is the full guide for keeping your vegetables at their peak.

When we add vegetables to our daily menu, we are convinced that we are getting all the vitamins and nutritional ingredients found in them, but we are not aware that the preparation method of the vegetables is critical and can make any vegetable nutritionally meaningless.

There are a number of approaches which relate to vegetable cooking. But there is no debate about the least efficient way, which is cooking the vegetables in boiling water. Once Vegetables are cooked in boiling water all the substances that we are actually looking for, especially vitamins B and C are drained into the sink and vanished. Another way that destroys the values ​​of the vegetable is deep frying at high temperatures. Vegetable oil is absorbed and makes its way to our stomach area, all the nutritional value found in the vegetables evaporate giving way to the shortcomings found in the oil. To preserve all these values, the best method is steaming vegetables. Even cooking vegetables in the microwave, revealed surprisingly, that is the most effective way to keep your vitamin C. Another effective way, particularly tasty is baking vegetables in the oven for a short time, at a temperature of 180 degrees.

Enzymes can be found in many vegetables which are responsible for creating cancer antibodies. Researches show that these enzymes are able to maintain themselves only when the vegetables undergo steaming of three to four minutes. Any other cooking method destroys the enzymes and eliminates the effect. Surprisingly the same study revealed that the enzymes are sustaining themselves, in microwave or cooking in water just when cooked with different vegetables, from other families.

Another powerful substance found in vegetables and fruits is lycopene, an antioxidant, significant at lowering blood pressure and cancer prevention. Lycopene is found in tomatoes, guavas, parsley, asparagus and more. The best way for the body to absorb the lycopene, is to cook the vegetables for few minutes, this way vegetables will release the chemical.

Short cooking will be good for carrots and help release the protein and dietary fiber which are found in it. The quick cooking increases the value of beta carotene and facilitates the digestion of the carrots.

Even the cauliflower and broccoli, cruciferous vegetables, are recommended to be cooked shortly to help the digestion of starch and fiber found in them and to release the vital nutrients to our bodies.

You can use steamed vegetables and cooked al Dante in almost any recipe. All it requires is for us to get used to this different texture of the vegetable and change the perception that vegetables must be cooked until soft. Fresh vegetables allow other flavors, more earthy, flavors which maintain the true taste of the vegetables and allow them to shine as they deserve. You can use steamed vegetables or vegetables al Dante  to filling rice pages in a variety of vegetables, spicy and with a little bit of sesame oil and soy.  Cauliflower can be stirred fried with garlic, olive oil and a little hyssop and thyme. Treat vegetables with respect and they will respect you back and give you all the best they have to offer.