How do you prepare leafy green vegetables?

Answer 1

One of the best way to enjoy leafy greens is raw, in salads or wraps. Over-cooking diminishes nutrients by breaking down the cells. When food is fried, barbecued, or baked at high temperatures, toxic compounds such as acrylamides are formed and most important nutrients are lost. Many vitamins are water-soluble, and a significant percent can be lost with cooking, especially overcooking. Boiling makes it easy for nutrients to leach into the water. Many plant enzymes function as phytochemical nutrients in your body and they, too, can be destroyed by overcooking.

Another good way to eat leafy greens is lightly steamed or in soup. Stewed or boiled greens are a traditional dish in the southern United States, and have traveled elsewhere as soul food. They are also common in South Asian dishes such as saag, and in East Asian stir-fries. In Italy and Greece, people gather wild greens to cook. When food is steamed or made into a soup, the temperature is fixed at 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), the temperature of boiling water. This moisture-based cooking prevents food from browning and forming toxic compounds. Most essential nutrients in vegetables are made more easily absorbed after being cooked in a soup and water-soluble nutrients are not lost because you eat the liquid portion of the soup, too. Only small amounts of nutrients are lost with making a soup, but many more nutrients are made more easily absorbed. When you heat, soften, and moisturize vegetables and beans, you increase the digestibility and absorption of many nutrients, including protein.