With these handy kitchen hacks, you can actually stick to healthy cooking
January is almost over, and for most people those good intentions have already gone hopelessly out the window. You were going to drink little or no alcohol, you were going to eat more healthily, and by 6 January you already felt like a dehydrated rabbit, munching on a stalk of celery. I feel you. But… it can be done differently; with these simple adjustments, you can easily cook a lot more healthily.
1. Weigh your portions
Do you actually know what one portion of pasta is? Many people just guess. Did you, like almost everyone else, think that the hole in the middle of a spaghetti spoon was there to let water drain away? Then you’re wrong. The hole in the spaghetti spoon is there so you can measure how much pasta to use per person. The amount that fits in the hole is the amount per person. Eureka! There’s a good chance you often eat more than one portion – with this handy trick, you no longer have to.
2. Stop denying yourself things
The biggest pitfall when dieting or cooking more healthily: denying yourself things. To a certain extent, that makes perfect sense; you can’t be wolfing down a hamburger every day. But it isn’t healthy to deny yourself everything either. You can absolutely keep eating and drinking less healthy things, as long as you do so in moderation. Because if you say no to everything containing sugar or fat, you’ll become absolutely miserable and you definitely won’t keep it up.
3. Prepare things in a healthier way
Baking and roasting can quickly become fatty if you use too much butter or oil. Try moving away from that and preparing your food in a different way. Use an Airfryer for frying, or make (sweet) potato fries in the oven. You can also avoid using fats with roasting trays in the oven by using baking paper. Baking paper should be a standard item in everyone’s kitchen drawer. And not just because it ensures that you can easily lift your cake out of the tin. You can also cook very healthily with it.
Papillotte is a cooking technique in which you fold ingredients into baking paper and steam them in it with herbs and a little liquid. The food, fish for example, stays wonderfully juicy because all the moisture remains safely inside the baking paper. Since no fat is involved, it’s not only very tasty but also very healthy.
Finally: buy a set of pans with a good non-stick coating, so you don’t need to use much fat when preparing something in a frying pan either. It may seem obvious, but many people still coat such a pan far too generously with cooking fat. It’s not necessary!
