Steamer tips

Vahevala

I recently bought a steamer and love using it, so far have cooked broccoli, cauliflower (and boiled eggs), has anyone any other tips on what would be good vegetables to cook?

Zymurgist

Carrots are good, they do come out a bit crunchier than if they were boiled but hold their flavour very well.

Animord

Vahevala wrote: »

I recently bought a steamer and love using it, so far have cooked broccoli, cauliflower (and boiled eggs), has anyone any other tips on what would be good vegetables to cook?

I steam all my vegetables, except carrots :pac: but everything that you would boil, I steam - courgettes, potatoes, beans...

Not peas, now that think of it, but everything else. I also usually steam fish in my too.

I usually steam green veg together: broccoli, green beans, Brussels sprouts, and spinach. My mother tells me that when she was young her mother would let the water cool — now green from the veg it has steamed — and drink it like she would drink water. Apparently it becomes nutrient rich. Any truth to this? I'd be hesitant to believe such old wive's tales but you never know. I always feel guilty spilling the pot of green-tinged water down the sink.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i always feel guilty when I don't empty the water for 3 or 4 days and it's gone all slimy and mouldy

Animord

gvn wrote: »

I usually steam green veg together: broccoli, green beans, Brussels sprouts, and spinach. My mother tells me that when she was young her mother would let the water cool — now green from the veg it has steamed — and drink it like she would drink water. Apparently it becomes nutrient rich. Any truth to this? I'd be hesitant to believe such old wive's tales but you never know. I always feel guilty spilling the pot of green-tinged water down the sink.

Someone told me that years ago and I have always wondered. TBH I can't imagine there is much goodness in there but I do use my vegetable water when I make gravy - just on the off chance!

Alf Veedersane

Any of the nutrients lost from the vegetables will be in the water.

Alf Veedersane

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Any of the nutrients lost from the vegetables will be in the water.

The question then becomes what proportion of the total nutrients is lost to the water? If it's minimal, which I suspect it is, then the water isn't worth keeping; if it's great then the opposite becomes true. It depends on how long the veg is steamed for too, I suppose. A shorter duration presumably results in fewer nutrients seeping away.

Alf Veedersane

gvn wrote: »

The question then becomes what proportion of the total nutrients is lost to the water? If it's minimal, which I suspect it is, then the water isn't worth keeping; if it's great then the opposite becomes true. It depends on how long the veg is steamed for too, I suppose. A shorter duration presumably results in fewer nutrients seeping away.

It's not going to be high so it doesn't matter if it's thrown out. I'd use it to make anything like a sauce but I wouldn't get hung up about keeping it.

pwurple

We steam a lot of veg. Beetroot, carrots, beans, mange tout, corn, peas, brocolli, cauliflower, spinach, sea veg, asparagus, turnips. I don't usually steam anything in the onion family, mushrooms, or tomatoes. But most others are fair game.

Also steam rice, spuds, fish, dumplings/bread rolls.

I wouldn't use the water afterwards. It probably has concentrated the amount of tap water chemicals in it for a start... Yummy chlorine! Plus any dirt that you didn't get off the veg when washing has probably ended up in the water too.