Published 07:51 IST, January 30th 2025
What’s The Healthiest Way To Prepare Vegetables? Expert Tips
"Generally, the shorter the cooking time, the more nutrients are preserved," says Amber Pankonin, a dietitian in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Have you considered eating healthier by adding vegetables to your diet, but found yourself confused or lacking knowledge on the best way to prepare your vegetables? Whether you've recently taken up cooking as a hobby or have been cooking for years, it's common to wonder about the best way to cook healthy vegetables.
“A lot of people engage in aspirational vegetable shopping” without actually using them, said Carlene Thomas, of Leesburg, Virginia. In that case, “It doesn’t matter how you cook them, because if they’re going in the trash, they’re not in your body."
Reports indicate that cooking styles do indeed matter and affect the nutritional content of produce. Check out what experts have to say about these frequently asked questions.
Are raw vegetables healthier than cooked?
Not always. Prolonged exposure to high heat degrades many nutrients. But cooking not only softens the cellular walls in vegetables, making them easier to digest, it also changes their structure to increase what’s called bioavailability — the body’s ability to absorb the vegetables’ nutrients, Thomas said.
The result is often more nutritious than raw food. Cooked tomatoes, for instance, release more of the cancer-fighting antioxidant lycopene than raw, she said, and cooked carrots have more betacarotene that can be absorbed. Roasting pumpkins, carrots and sweet potatoes boosts carotenoids, the rich pigments that are antioxidants known to combat inflammation in the body.

Which cooking methods are the healthiest?
Generally, the shorter the cooking time, the more nutrients are preserved. Partly because they take relatively little time, steaming and microwaving are considered the most nutritious methods (also because they require no fat to cook), said Amber Pankonin, a dietitian in Lincoln, Nebraska.
A close second is blanching — tossing vegetables into boiling water for a minute or two — but be careful not to leave them in the water long. Boiling vegetables, besides easily turning them to mush, runs the risk of losing water-soluble nutrients including vitamin C, B1 and folate.
“It’s leaching into the water, and you’re tossing out the water,” Thomas said. “There goes all of the nutrients that you were hoping for.”

Is there no accounting for taste?
Even dietitians say there’s no problem using a small amount of fat. Besides making vegetables more flavorful, a little cooking oil helps fat-soluble vitamins absorb in the body, said Pankonin.
That means more vitamin A from squash, carrots and sweet potatoes, more vitamin D from mushrooms, more vitamin E from bell peppers, leafy greens and asparagus and more vitamin K from greens, broccoli and onions.
For sauteing, Pankonin recommends starting over medium heat with a tablespoon of oil, though it depends on the pan. Use enough oil that the vegetables don’t stick, but not so much that it pools.
For roasting, you’ll likely need double the oil per pound of vegetables. Despite the longer cook time, roasting will still maintain some nutrients and will boost the flavor with caramelization of natural sugars.
“Flavor is king,” Pankonin said. “I would much rather see people roasting their vegetables and enjoying them, versus dealing with the mushy vegetables they’ve boiled and boiled.”
(Inputs from AP)
Updated 07:51 IST, January 30th 2025