Healthier cooking methods at home

Research shows people who cook at home more often:

• eat healthier
• spend less
• have better health outcomes.

We all want to follow a healthy diet, and cooking at home is great for that. We can control exactly what goes in (and what stays out), and our serving size. 

We also know which foods we should eat every day (visit the Australian Dietary Guidelines for a reminder), but have you ever considered the best way to cook them?

We asked our Public Health Nutritionist, Laura, to tell us about some healthy cooking methods when we’re cooking at home.

Healthy cooking methods with water

Steaming

Steaming is great! You can steam vegetables, fish, rice, and dumplings – just to name a few. Not only does this cooking method involve NO added fats or oils. It also locks in nutrients, particularly water-soluble vitamins that can otherwise be leached out into cooking water. Cook vegetables to tender crisp, meaning they still have a bit of bite. No one likes mushy, over-cooked broccoli.

Don’t own a steamer? Improvise with a colander over an inch of water and a well-fitting pot lid.

Poaching or boiling 

Like steaming, poaching is another cooking method that involves no added fats or oils. Poaching means to cook in lightly-simmering liquid, such as water or flavoured broth.    

You can easily poach eggs, chicken, fish, and even fruits.

The secret to the best poached eggs? In lightly simmering water, add a tiny bit of salt or vinegar (helps set the egg white quickly), use a fresh egg, and gently lower into the pot with confidence.

Jump to top

Healthy cooking methods with devices

Air frying

Everyone is going crazy for air fryers. If you’ve been living under a rock and missed this craze, air fryers deliver crispy results, just like deep frying. With only one tablespoon of oil needed, it seems too good to be true!

Air fryers lend themselves to cooking food we usually deep fry – think chips, potato gems, and hash browns. Cooking with air fryers gives these treat foods a healthier makeover.

You don’t have to use ready-made products either. Make your own vegetable chips in your air fryer – it’s cheaper and you’ll be eating a lot less oil and salt!

Don’t have an air fryer? Me neither. I make sweet potato chips in the oven. Cut the potato into batons, add a small amount of spray olive oil and cayenne spice, and bake. Sometimes I add polenta or breadcrumbs for extra crunch. Zucchini, panko breadcrumbs and parmesan is another winning combination.

Slow cooking

Casseroles and slow cooker recipes are the lazy cook’s best friend. You get lots of flavour from not much work. The slow cooking method brings out lots of flavour without the need to add masses of fats, oils or salt. Casseroles are perfect for batch cooking, too.

My hack: Make more than you need so you can cook it once and eat it twice.

Jump to top