Healthy Cooking For Sticky Situations

You've cooked a perfect sunny side up, and you're trying to get it onto your plate. But you can't — it's stuck to the frying pan. “You should have used more oil”, Ma nags.

Turns out the cookware we use affects how much oil we add when cooking. A way to reduce the amount of oil — and calories from fat — is to use a non-stick pan.

Trying to stir-fry some vegetables? You'll only need small amounts of oil when you cook food with non-stick cookware. Try one teaspoon and adjust the amount if needed. You may not even need oil for some dishes!

Healthy Cooking Tip for home cooks

Want your non-stick pan to last longer? Avoid using metal utensils (e.g. forks and metal spatulas) or steel wool on its non-stick surface. Use wooden or silicon spatulas and a soft washing sponge instead!

Healthy Cooking to Satisfy Crispy Cravings

Trying to cut fat and calories from your diet but love crispy, golden, deep-fried food like har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken) and french fries? There's a way to get crispy food using a fraction of the oil to avoid consuming all that added fats: with an air fryer.

Say you're frying french fries. You need just one tablespoon of oil when using an air fryer, compared to deep-frying, which involves immersing the fries in eight cups of oil or more.

Of course, you'll still be consuming calories from the fries (no magical reduction there), but you're getting less excess calories from fat.

Cut more ”bad” fats by going for oils with “Lower in saturated fat” and “Trans fat free” Healthier Choice Symbols, like soybean or sunflower oil. Learn how to choose a cooking oil; some oils, such as olive oil, is not suitable for high-heat cooking.

And remember, the basics of healthy eating still apply! Eat air-fried food in moderation, and make sure you eat balanced meals.

Get Steamy for Healthier Meals

Ready for oil-free cooking? The steamer is your new best friend: steaming requires no oil, just boiling water. Steaming is a healthy cooking method that also helps to preserve nutrients, so your food stays nutritious and juicy!

Recipe-wise, you're not limited to xiao long bao. Steam a wide variety of food, like veggies, fish (think soy sauce and ginger tilapia. Yum), chicken breast, sweet potato, crab, and even cupcakes!

So grab an old-school dim sum bamboo steamer or invest in an electric steam cooker and start experimenting and come up with new meal plans!

Healthy Cooking Tip for home cooks

Line the bottom of your bamboo steamer with lettuce leaves to prevent food from sticking to the basket.

One-pot Luck is One Healthy Cooking Method

Besides fragrant, fluffy rice, the rice cooker is also good for cooking one-pot healthy meals: simply add all the ingredients into the pot, turn on the cooker, and let it do the work.

Rice cooker meals are great for those of us who are too busy to prep and cook complex dishes. Cooking is stress-free and convenient — you can leave the rice cooker on and go about doing household chores or a quick 30-minute workout. Bonus: washing up is also quick and fuss-free.

This jack-of-all-trades can handle a variety of dishes, from soups, to biryani, to curry. Some rice cookers can also be used as a slow cooker. You can even bake a cake in your rice cooker!

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