FoodSteam cooker: Your tool for varied, diet-friendly meals and desserts

Steam cooker: Your tool for varied, diet-friendly meals and desserts

Low-calorie Chinese noodles.
Low-calorie Chinese noodles.
Images source: © Unsplash

9:55 AM EST, January 20, 2024

A steam cooker offers multiple benefits. It can help preserve your food's natural color, taste, and nutritional content. These tools are highly recommended for those adhering to diets. Moreover, when dieting with a steam cooker, there's no need to eliminate favorite dishes like bread or noodles. All you need to do is limit salt, sugar, and oil, which is easily feasible with steam cooking.

What Makes a Good Steam Cooker?

A steam cooker is perfect for those who adopt a healthier lifestyle. It's compact, easy to operate, and can cook various healthy and varied meals. It is designed with several components that can be stacked for convenient storage. An essential characteristic is the built-in 60-minute timer with auto-shutoff. This feature allows you to experiment with recipes and learn their timings for consistently perfect outcomes.

Before buying a steam cooker, always verify its power. The market offers a range of models from 250W up to 2000W. Keep in mind that a more powerful cooker tends to consume more energy but will reduce cooking time significantly. It's also worth considering the device's water refill feature. An external opening for adding water during cooking can greatly simplify the process. Additionally, an easy-to-read water level indicator and multiple compartments for cooking different dishes simultaneously can be beneficial.

Cook These Dishes in a Steam Cooker!

Are you convinced steamed meals, mainly meats and vegetables, are bland? Quite the contrary. Take, for instance, a zesty dish like Chinese noodles with chicken, which can be effortlessly prepared in a steam cooker. Those on a strict diet can opt for konjac noodles, which are over 90% water and almost devoid of calories.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast fillet,

1/2 carrot,

1/2 zucchini,

a few broccoli florets,

half a pack of konjac noodles,

1 tablespoon of olive oil,

1 tablespoon of rice vinegar,

2 tablespoons of soy sauce,

radish or broccoli sprouts,

fresh herbs (like coriander).

Instructions:

Rinse the chicken breast, cut it into cubes, and season as preferred. Slice the carrot and zucchini into thin strips, prepare broccoli florets, and chop the coriander. Place the seasoned meat on aluminum foil and steam for 20 minutes. Steam the vegetables on a separate level for 10 minutes, then combine them with the chicken. Drizzle the sauce made from olive oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Rinse the noodles in boiling water. Combine the cooked meat and vegetables in a bowl, add noodles, garnish with sprouts, and serve with chopsticks!

Did you know you can use a steam cooker to prepare low-calorie desserts? One such dish to try is a light, fruity cheesecake.

Ingredients:

2 eggs,

4 tablespoons of erythritol,

17.6oz of cheesecake curd,

1 banana,

1 vanilla or apple pudding,

a packet of vanilla cheesecake bars,

strawberries and blueberries for garnish.

Instructions:

Separate the egg yolks and whisk them with erythritol in a bowl. Mix in cheese, chopped banana, and pudding. Blend well, whisk the egg whites until fluffy, and gently fold them into the mixture. Line the steam cooker container - preferably the part used for rice - with baking paper. Crumble the bars as the base and pour the cheesecake mixture over it. Place the container in the cooker, add water, and steam for about 40 minutes. Let the cake cool, remove it from the container, and refrigerate it for 4 hours. Decorate with fresh fruits after removing them from the fridge, slice, and serve. Bon appetit!

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