Another entree salad idea for you to test ! You will love this gluten free option ! It is fresh, filling, has flair, and has interesting ingredients on top. It is a family favorite, and an easy to-go item. If it contains sheep dairy, it has no gluten, nor corn, soy, or seed oils ! Quinoa wonderfully absorbs the tomato juices, and the vegetables give it many colors, which kids always love. A real family friendly dish!

In this salad: Raw, Steamed and Canned Foods

This salad is truly a classic , with my twist. When I make it, I am thrilled my kids love it enough to voluntarily ask for it! Meanwhile I can be lazy! If I can make a dish that is filling enough so I don’t need sides or just one, that’s what I do. So what is better than just add the right grain to it, to make it filling?

Steamed vs. Boiled

If you hear nutrition folks out there, you probably heard already that steamed foods are probably the healthiest foods you can eat ! Okay you’ll say, but why?

Are steamed foods healthier than boiled foods?

My short answer is YES. Longer answer is that steaming does not boil your foods, meaning it does not destroy your nutrients, fibers, plant chemicals ( i.e. the plant’s immune system) unless it reaches a temperature above boiling point.

What this means, is that pressure steam cooking does not qualify as steam cooking to me. Therefore I call steam cooking “gentle” steam cooking. The electric or stainless cookers out there do not typically reach a temperature above boiling point unless they are pressure cookers.

Conversely, what boiling does, is kills bacteria but also vitamins, which are very heat sensitive. If you boil a long time, you will also start destroying fibers ( which is why vegetables get softer! The softer, the less fiber they contain! ) and plant chemicals, which are the chemicals that help the plant fight aggressors, and make it stronger. Plant chemicals are also generally beneficial to you and your immune system!

Why is steaming Food superior than boiling ?

Steaming cooks your food under boiling point, i.e. at 202°F or 95°C ( water boils at 212°F /100°C). That means it is hot enough to kill some bacteria and toxins, but not hot enough to kill all nutrients as well. Of course, some nutrients do die in this process, but less. Ideally, you also cook your foods a shorter amount of time so as to preserve as many nutrients as possible.

Steaming gently also means the steam has time to go around and penetrate your foods, just as steam from a sauna, at a hot but bearable temperature penetrates your skin to help the skin sweat out toxins. The pressure built up to get steam to 250°F /120°C is such that you can see at what speed the steam goes: how can it penetrate your food this way, without killing all nutrients in the process? Can it at all help sweat out toxins this way?

Steamed Food’s Better Nutrient Bioavailability

I have always suspected that steamed food not only steams out toxins – as a steam room does or sweating help you sweat out toxins and fats, including some heavy metals like mercury – but also improves on nutrient bioavailability. But we often need to wait for studies to confirm a hunch!

As it happens, a study explains that some important antioxydants present in broccoli are better preserved through steaming than boiling. I do hope that more studies get interested in steam cooking that may help steaming get more popular ! For sure making steam cooking more attractive for taste reasons may also help people want to be healthier.

Why is boiling worse than steaming ?

Yes boiling is worse. For one thing, the temperature is hot enough to sanitize. That means it kills nutrients and toxins alike ! Also, water does not penetrate foods. At this contact, the surface of the food heats and heats the deeper layers. But the contact of water also does not allow for food to sweat out toxins. What a loss! Finally, boiling cooks slower than gentle steaming – try and find out! Therefore, it will destroy more fibers if you don’t watch, and thereby raise the glycemic index of your foods. What a shame!

Another interesting point on bioavailability of boiling. A study points out that 40% of iron and zinc may be lost by leaching into cooking water by boiling. This only underlines how much cooking methods – i.e. processing at home too ! – do have an importance in remaining nutrient density of our foods.

Steaming vs. Slow Cooking

That also happens with slow cooking, which means simmering (i.e. boiling) for hours on end. So I do prefer steam cooking to slow cooking.

Sure, slow cooking is gentler and do love a good soup, but by breaking down all the fibers in your food and killing vitamins, it loses so many interesting nutrients ! Cooking very long also degrade trace minerals and makes them less bioavailable. And by not steaming your ingredients, your soups contains more unnecessary toxins you’ll eat in your soup. Meanwhile a soup made with a steam cooker takes much less time: 1) steam the ingredients, 2) season the water, warm it up to 180-190F (80C), throw the vegetables in, let them sit 10 min or blend with immersion blender. The soup bowl of the Vitaliseur can keep a soup below boing point.A very low fire can keep your soup hot and not boiling. The result is very flavorful! You should try!

The key is that flavors mix together when the ingredients are already precooked and reach the point of readiness to share flavors. The plus: detoxified ingredients share much tastier flavors !

Raw is best if your body can digest it

If we debate boiling vs. steaming, that’s because we can’t eat it all raw – especially out of season! Also, many people don’t digest raw foods. To them, I have a special message: you can’t digest raw foods because you eat foods that contain too little fibers, therefore raw foods, that contain very high amounts of fibers, are hard to digest. Go slow, but you can reinsert fibers and start digesting it easier over time! Make sure to chew well!

If you can digest raw foods and love them, make sure to eat these high fibers, highly nutritious foods as often or in great quantity as you can ! You get many vitamins, trace minerals, plant chemicals that will provide the best, long-lasting energy you need !

Chose your cheese carefully

Many people are dairy intolerant, wether it is because they can’t process lactose, because of the lack of digestive enzymes naturally existing in raw milk, or because the growth factors in milk provoke skin issues (eczema, acne, and many others).

Some people chose to go for other type of dairy product, from smaller animals like sheep and goat. These do not contains the same growth factors. Sheep cheese is one of them. I do like sheep feta cheese, the original type of feta cheese, and use it in my greek salad.

Choose your olives carefully

Do you like olives? I do, but not all. Do me a favor: do not take black canned olives as references! These are green olives artificially blackened, because the blackness of olives is a sign of ripeness. Ferric acid is the chemical used to blacken olives in metal cans. These olives don’t taste good. And many friends that claimed not to like olives changed their mind when I made them taste good ones.

Conversely, olives canned in glass jar tend to be normally ripe and taste better. To me the best by far are vacuum sealed olives, which you can usually find in international markets, or seasoned in other stored. Trader joes has vacuum sealed herb seasoned olives which are excellent and that I use to make real southern French tapenade.

Other Recipes for you

Summer salads

Wether you prefer Asian style, mediterranean style, of Italian inspiration or Southwest salads, you probably will find something you like on my website! Bonus, they are made with few but quality ingredients, and include a recipe for a great dressing!

Kids favorites: Back home from school snacks

We love muffins, and they are also cooked with a steam cooker ! Be ready to be amazed at how melty these chocolate hazelnuts bites, or these orange almond bites get in your mouth, and how intense the taste is !

Fruit spreads are also incredibly easy to do, need very little sugar and are very healthy ! Try my raspberry rhubarb spread on a piece of whole bread for snacks after school ! It is so full of flavor you won’t ever want to buy a fruit spread at the store again.

I have many more steamed snack ideas up my sleeves for the fall ! If you want to be one of the first to hear about them, make sure to sign up to my newsletter!

It’s still summer dishes

One favorite is also a popular replacement for pizza and a French classic: the Tomato Mustard Tarte. This does contain dairy (sheep) and gluten ( from ancient grain Einkorn) , but is a healthy, tasty treat, even guests reported that not liking tomatoes… they had loved the tart!