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If you HAD to cook...?

What form of cooking would keep most of the nutritional content? Boiling, steaming, pressure cooking, low temp oven baking, etc. If I was going to cook a sweet potato in under an hour for example. What would be the ideal method?

Crockpots are my favorite for cooking soups with root vegetables. Low heat soups are probably a decent choice, eh? Ditched the microwave long ago for obvious reasons, but maybe there are some similar yet safe alternatives?

I know this may not be the best forum to post this topic, but some of us still eat cooked foods. It’d be nice to know some better cooking methods especially if we could not eat raw. The unlikely yet possible “trapped in a room full of potatoes and cooking devices” scenario should be coming to mind.

Comments

  • beanybeeganbeanybeegan Raw Newbie

    This is really odd. but will answer. When I was cook vegan. I would steam a lot. Tho it would depend on what I was cooking. If it came down to cook or starve, then steam would be my first option.Tho in the long run I would be starving my body.

  • ungratefulungrateful Raw Newbie

    I love raw sweet potatoes. If i were going to bake one I would microwave it

    DUCKS

    Wash it, prick some steam holes in it and grease it.

    Barring the microwave, I would steam it.

    In a fair fight, who would win, the microwave or the bamboo steamer? hehe.

  • lzhptlzhpt Raw Newbie

    Why so sarcastic, ungrateful? Ligit. question, considering the sweet potato. I’d steam it. The microwave would seriously harm the potato.

  • Most people say steaming is the least destructive way to cook. But I’m pretty sure cooking in an oven on the lowest temperature, maybe even with the door open, would be less destructive and taste better. Though it would take way longer.

  • greenghostgreenghost Raw Newbie

    Like Izhpt, Beany, and SinzOfMan All of the above, I would also go with steaming. Microwaving is heinous. Talk about killing enzymes…. anyway, good luck james3112

  • ungratefulungrateful Raw Newbie

    lzhpt, I am not trying to be sarcastic. Sorry if I came across that way. I don’t fear the microwave.

  • waterbaby12347waterbaby12347 Raw Newbie

    Just a thought… The megatron tube inside the microwave oven causes the molecules inside the potato or whatever, to move and rub against the other molecules… Which in turn begins bombarding each other until hot enough to become cooked from the inside out… I can’t for the life of me see this is more harmful than steaming…

    Steaming should be the best but after my thought, not too sure… Too much time in either one is most harmful…

  • ungratefulungrateful Raw Newbie

    Thank you for wording that so well, waterbaby!

    Heating food is heating food and the microwave is not any more dangerous than the stove.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    I would eat chicken broth. Cooked, but very tasty and when you skim the oil off it is just like drinking salt water. Frankly, I can’t digest cooked vegetables or anything cooked that’s vegan. If I had to eat cooked food, I would choose chicken broth. I know I don’t like killing animals but I don’t like to be full for 3 days eating cooked vegetables either.

    And, yes, microwaving, for some reason, is very bad for the food, more so than just cooking.

  • greenghostgreenghost Raw Newbie

    I don’t wish to come-off as an alarmist…. and anyone can believe whatever they want.
    Just because something is not ‘accepted’ by mainstream society hardly means that it has no merit or validity.
    Water has amphoteric properties which means that it can be acidic or basic.
    http://dl.clackamas.edu/ch105-04/amphoter.htm
    When water is microwaved it’s ionic charge changes back & forth from positive or negative millions of times per second – which is how it heats food or water. ”...But such high, rapid scrambling damages the actual food molecules, tearing them apart or deforming them, changing the taste and texture in sometimes unpleasant ways.”
    There have been many studies that have illustrated the not-so-pleasant side of microwaving…
    http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HealthNutritio…

    So… do or believe what you want… es ist mir eigentlich egal… personally there has been enough damage done to my body over the years from following ‘conventional’ wisdom. I see no reason to even potentially cause more harm to it simply for ‘convenience’.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    Thank you very much for the info greenghost! That is very interesting!

  • Just try watering your plants with water that has been microwaved and cooled.

    It’ll speak for itself.

  • lzhptlzhpt Raw Newbie

    In G. Cousens’ book “There is a Cure For Diabetes”, he quotes the results of several studies on the changes to specific foods after microwaving only to the point of being considered “cooked”. The excerpt from the book that I have, cuts that information off, but anyone with that book would have access to all that objective information. There certainly is fear in the pure world we want to live in, but there is hard science when it comes to the microwave. James-regarding your poor potato. Zoe soaks the potato for a day??? before using it in raw recipes. I did that for the Sweet Potato Crisps and they were yummy.

  • greenghostgreenghost Raw Newbie

    http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comme…

    “Intriguingly, the Straight Dope … has written an article about the controversy over microwave cooking, and he notes that scientists actually do not fully understand the chemical changes that take place when food is microwaved, and so there may indeed be some kind of “microwave effect.” He notes a 1992 Stanford study that found microwaving breast milk mysteriously reduces its infection-fighting properties, as well as studies that have found that microwaves can accelerate certain chemical reactions…”

  • Thanks for the insight everyone. I’ve found that cooking with water is supposed to be the safer method as you are less likely to burn food (although I have burned food with a steamer once). At this point I’m assuming that steaming and low temp soups would be the ideal method of cooking…

    I’m sure there are many raw-like methods to make otherwise inedible uncooked foods edible (sprouting grains, etc). Bad example for the vegans, but ceviche is made by marinating raw fish in a citrus-based mixture. As far as regular potatoes (not sweet) go though… Is there safe raw method to eat these?

  • beanybeeganbeanybeegan Raw Newbie

    There are two raw sweet potato recipes on Gone Raw. I also make raw sweet potato chips.

    When we lived in Alaska, we would have to slice or grate the potatoes grown there. We would then soak them in water. This would take out a lot of the starch.

  • rawlizardrawlizard Raw Newbie

    There is even another option you may want to consider. Let the potato (or any other vegetables) “transpire” for a long while. This means cooking with low heat, but for longer. You put the sweet potato in a pan with some water, and then you bring it to a very low temperature, just the lowest amount of heat to make the potato “transpire”. This will take a couple of hours. This technique is pretty similar to using a crokpot, I imagine. Vegetables cooked this way will preserve the taste,and who knows, maybe some of the enzimes (don’t quote me on that).

  • “As far as regular potatoes (not sweet)”...?

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    I think steaming would be best because it is light and quick. the longer you cook something, the more it kills the enzymes and potentially produces AGEs (Advanced Glycoxidation End Products) in foods. (see 12 steps to raw for more info.)

    I believe you about microwaves. Scary stuff.

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