Eating Organic Veggie & Fruit Recipe Blog: Using a steamer

Rival Steamer

Several years ago when we lived in San Luis Obispo, I had read in a book about the benefits of steaming your veggies instead of boiling them. We decided to buy a steamer. At that time they had no Walmart or Target in San Luis Obispo so we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought one. The one we got was a little pricey but it had a digital display on it. After awhile you couldn't read the numbers on the display and you couldn't tell how long the timer was set for. So we drove to a nearby town and went to Walmart. They happened to have a steamer on sale for $16. It had no digital display. We figured for that price even if it doesn't last, it was worth a try. We bought the Rival Steamer pictured below.

We use our steamer a lot. And we've had this one for a couple of years now. It has two baskets for steaming. Sometimes we only need one. But last night I used both of them. Ours is the plug in type, but you can but stove top models, microwave models and bamboo models as well.

I'm posting some links here to websites that talk about the benefits of steaming vs. boiling.

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/restaurant-equipment-supply-marketing-articles/understanding-restaurant-equipment-and-supplies/commercial-steamers/what-are-the-advantages-of-using-a-steamer/c28455.aspx

http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/Why-Buy-a-Vegetable-Steamer

http://www.livestrong.com/article/349870-steamed-vegetable-nutrition/

This one talks about using your microwave to steam your vegetables - http://www.infobarrel.com/Microwave_Vegetable_Steamer

http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking/Cookware%20Steamers.htm

Last night we used our steamer to steam potatoes and broccoli. There are some steamers that you can buy that steam things faster than others. Since ours is a $16 steamer it takes a little longer. But that's ok because I can use the time to prepare other parts of the meal. I steamed eight white potatoes. We either use white or red potatoes. I cut them up into smaller pieces. I steamed the potatoes for 45 minutes. You'll know how long to steam things if your steamer comes with a guidebook like ours did. I've added green onions, garlic and some other spices to the potatoes prior to steaming. While they are steaming, I cut up the broccoli to put into the second steamer basket. I wanted to cut the broccoli into small bites for the dish I was going to make. When the potatoes have just 20 minutes left, I place the basket with the broccoli on top of the potatoes. Both potatoes and broccoli will be done at the same time. I then mixed the potatoes and broccoli together with a tomato basil humus and Parmesan cheese. Then I mashed it until I have a potato salad mixture. I have used humus in other recipes as well. Doug likes the flavor of the humus. Humus comes in other varieties including lemon. I've used that too.

The finished product.

Potatoes with green onion and spices

Below are some photos of other things we've steamed. Notice how much color the veggies have. If you boil that on the stove, you won't see that nice color and you'll lose all the nutrients from the veggies.