Finding Microwave Oven Recipes

Using a microwave oven for cooking is an easy, quick way to make just about any meal. You'll need less water and oil to cook in a microwave than with many other methods, and foods retain more of their vital nutrients. Spinach that's been cooked in a microwave oven retains almost all its original folate, for instance.

Folate, also called vitamin B9, is a vital nutrient that prevents anemia in women who are pregnant. It also helps DNA replicate correctly and cells divide properly. Cooking spinach on the stove top could cause it to lose nearly eighty percent of its folate. There are some foods that become carcinogenic when cooked on the stove, too. Bacon develops carcinogenic substances when friend in a pan, but fewer of these are present in microwave cooking.

However, it can be difficult to find good recipes for microwave cooking. There are plenty of recipes available, but not all of them will turn out properly or work well in your oven. Getting a set of good recipes for your microwave can be pretty challenging, especially if you want them to be healthy, too. Fortunately, there are some methods you can use to sift through the available recipes. Here are a few tips to help you.

You can start looking for microwave oven recipes in a number of different places. Online recipe archives offer plenty of choices, or check books or magazines for microwave cooking, either from a bookstore or local library. If you're new to microwave cooking, and you've mostly stuck to heating up TV dinners, begin with simple recipes that don't use difficult techniques. Make sure that you know your microwave, since it'll have its own set of requirements while cooking.

After you've found a recipe that you think will work, remember to take a good look at it. Try to find out the wattage that the recipe was written for. Many recipes are intended for a microwave oven that operates at about seven hundred watts. However, the available range of microwaves varies between three hundred and fourteen hundred watts or so. That could make cooking a recipe intended for an oven with a different power level an unpleasant adventure.

If you do have a recipe intended for an oven that's different for yours, a conversion chart can help. Available online, these charts will tell you the kinds of cooking changes you'll need to make to keep trouble from cropping up. Even if you aren't sure what your oven wattage might be, you can use a chart to find out. These tell you how powerful your oven is, based on the amount of time it takes for water to boil.

When it comes to finding microwave oven recipes that are compatible with your oven, don't forget about features. While the majority of microwaves now include a turntable to help food cook evenly, not every microwave has these. If you have an oven that doesn't rotate the food automatically, you'll have to stop while cooking to turn it a few times. That way, you'll avoid cold or underdone spots and overcooked areas.

It's also important to remember that while you don't need as much water or oil to cook in the microwave oven, their presence can affect the texture and flavor of your food. Low moisture and low fat recipes cooked in the microwave might feel or taste slightly different than conventional ones. After you've tried a recipe once, you can think about adjusting it. More experience in cooking with your microwave will make you better at finding and adjusting good recipes.