Vegetables are low in calories and full of valuable ingredients - of essential vitamins to health-promoting phytochemicals. But how can the ingredients keep in preparing? The vitamins are not destroyed when heated anyway? Here are the key tips:

What are the methods of cooking it?

You can cook vegetable stew, steaming, braising, blanching or grilling. Cooking is the easiest: Put the greens into the boiling water and cook until al dente, done. Would you like broccoli or braise, fry these briefly in a little oil and then add so much water that it just covers the bottom of the pot. Then simmer until the ingredients are cooked. Fumes are "cooking in steam". For this method you need a pot with strainer or a special steamer, the bottom is a little water filled. The vegetables come only with the vapor. Stewing is similar to braising. Saute the vegetables but not to, but let it simmer in the same bit of water. Blanch vegetables, dip it in boiling water for a few minutes and then shrink it under cold water. When grilling put corn and peppers on a grill.

As the nutrients get the best?

Regardless of the type of preparation is "retained the shorter the cooking time, the more nutrients," says Angelika Karl, a nutritionist from Munich. The softer a type of vegetable, the faster they will do. Spinach, for example, requires only about one minute. Zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers also a few minutes. Firmer varieties such as broccoli, carrots or turnips are completed within five to ten minutes.

Also important: "It is not too strong heating vegetables," advises Peter Asch, executive chef at the clinic Silima Riedering (Bavaria). The temperatures are too high, vitamins and phytochemicals are destroyed. The expert recommends to cook the food at two thirds the maximum herd performance - whether that is in the oven or on the plates. You may only initially drive up the controller so that the vegetables warm quickly.

Among the various methods of cooking fumes and vapors conserve the nutrients particularly effective. Here comes the vegetables are not or only a little water in contact. Braising is also very good, as long as you pay attention to the temperatures and concomitantly the brew. Even grilling is allowed. Place zucchini and carrot in a foil and place the grill not directly over the coals. Cooking experts think the worst option. "Water-soluble vitamins and minerals go over into the water, and pour away the most," said Asch. His tip: The cooking liquid to reuse if possible - for example, as a base for soups or sauces.
What if the vegetables have different long cooking times?

Version one: "You first enter the firmer vegetables in pots or pans, and later the more tender," advises Charles. So you can cook more resistant varieties, while the softer not fall apart. Version two: "Cut the vegetables in different sizes," said Asch. So carrots, kohlrabi and broccoli into small pieces. Tomatoes, peppers and zucchini crush generous. So all ingredients are done at the same time.

Always enough to eat and still lose weight. It actually works. With a concept that is now recommended by numerous medical societies: Eat food that has a lot of volume, but low in calories. "The amount of food needs to be big enough to make enough, but must contain a minimum of energy," Professor Volker Schusdziarra, nutritionist explained at the Technical University of Munich, the basic principle. The volume of your meals plays a major role, the method is therefore also "Volumetrics".