Can you cook vegetables in cast iron pans?!
Can you cook vegetables in cast iron pans?
We were told you cannot cook vegetables in cast iron because it leaches the vitamans and minerals out of them.
Answers:
As long as the pans are well seasoned first. Rub all over with lots of butter and put in a low oven for a couple of hours. Most cast iron pans have removeable wooden handles or built-in cast iron ones, obviously remove the wooden ones first! Repeat this a couple of times and never wash them with detergent, rinse out with water. If you need to scrub them, use salt on a cloth. From time to time, repeat the seasoning with butter. They'll last you a lifetime. Not only good for cooking vegetables but brilliant for frying as you hardly need any added fat.
I never heard that before now. I quess if you boiled them inside the pan for hours it might affect the nutrients, but I don't think they are in there long enough.
A cast iron pan should always be seasoned with oil which fills the pores in the pan.
Food cooked in cast iron actually absorbs some iron from the pan. I don't know anything you can't cook in cast iron except for tomatoes. They'll taste just like iron, yuk!
Sure ! I use mine ( its one of the old fashioned cast iron pans) all the time.
A little oil, cut up peppers, mushrooms, onions, squash, all quick fried, some canned corn (last item) all well seasoned - Hmmm !
together with rice, over mashed potatoes with noodles.....
I never boiled veggies in the pan
should it be the iron leaching out vitamins and minerals - have never By heard of it - at least it put some iron in. By the way, we live on veggies
and fruit. No meat no dairy products
If that pan is properly seasoned where it wont rust then you can cook anything in it.Iron wont mess up veggies,but,save a iron pan for frying if you can. they dont like boiling water,takes the petina out.If you were camping and didnt have anything else,then go for it.
I was going to say that I don't but actually, I do. I cooked fritatas in my cast iron pan with very good results. I started cooking the vegetables first, then added my egg mixture and finished in the oven. I don't know about the nutrients being leached out though, I guess I have some researching to do on the subject.