Cooked or Raw? The Best Ways to Eat 9 Healthy Veggies

4. Green Salad

Raw or Cooked? Raw. Salad greens are a rich source of vitamins and other nutrients. Great things happen when you add salad dressing.

Benefits: Mixing in a tablespoon or two of oil-based dressing not only perks up the taste, but makes the salad more nutritious by promoting the absorption of vitamins and minerals your body needs.

“The best way to explain it is to say that adding twice the amount of salad dressing leads to twice the nutrient absorption,” says Wendy White, associate professor of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University and lead author of a study on the subject in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Tip: “That doesn’t give salad eaters license to drench their greens in dressing,” White cautions, but they can be comfortable following the U.S. dietary guidelines and use about two tablespoons of salad oil a day.

5. Kale

Raw or Cooked? Both. Raw kale provides vitamin C to keep your immune system strong; steamed kale can help lower cholesterol.

Benefits: A close relative of brussels sprouts and cabbage, kale is low in calories and packed with vitamins and minerals — one reason it’s called a vegetable superstar. Kale is a good source of calcium for strong bones and potassium for healthy blood pressure. It also provides vitamin K to help your body heal from injury. A snack of popular roasted kale chips sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt retains its nutritional value.

Tip: To steam kale, cut away the tough stem, then cut the leaves into bite-size pieces, run them under cold water and steam for 5-10 minutes. When they’re cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess water and serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt at lunch or dinner.

6. Mushrooms

Raw or cooked? Cooked. Cooked mushrooms offer the most health benefits.

Benefits: Mushrooms are rich in B vitamins, which help convert the food you eat into energy your body needs, and cooking makes them more available, notes Andrea Glenn, a postdoctoral research fellow in nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Mushrooms also add a savory flavor called umami to food.

Tip: Be gentle with the way you cook mushrooms, advises Glenn. “They lose B vitamins if they’re boiled or microwaved,” she says, “and thus lose some of their nutritional value.” So keep the heat low or sauté and let the mushrooms barely simmer. 

7. Spinach

Raw or cooked? Cooked. Cooking makes spinach’s rich supply of calcium and iron available.

Benefits: Spinach is a powerhouse of nutrients the body needs. The vibrant green leaves of this low-calorie food boost the immune system — your body’s defense against germs. And its calcium, manganese and vitamin K are important for healthy bones.

Tip: To make the most of this bonanza of vitamins and minerals, blanch a bunch of spinach leaves in boiling water for a minute or so and then plunge them into ice water for a few minutes. Drain well, wrap in waxed paper and store in the fridge so you’ll have it ready to mix in salads, smoothies or soups for several days.

8. Sweet potatoes

Raw or cooked? Cooked. Nutrients are more easily absorbed from boiled sweet potatoes than from any other cooking method, but they can also be steamed, roasted or broiled.

Benefits: Sweet potatoes are incredibly rich in beta carotene, a plant-based compound that the body converts to vitamin A. This fat-soluble vitamin is important for normal vision. The orange spud’s store of vitamins plays a role in controlling blood pressure. Bonus: The potato skin’s fiber content helps promote a healthy digestive system.

Tip: It’s fine to eat the skin as long as it’s well-scrubbed. Potato skins pick up microbes from the soil they grow in, so they should be washed before cooking.

9. Tomatoes

Raw or Cooked? Both. Cooked tomatoes help protect against heart disease, but heating tomatoes destroys vitamin C. Leaving them raw helps your immune system work properly.

Benefits: Raw and cooked tomatoes are both low in calories and fat, and rich in vitamins and minerals that help you stay healthy. Raw tomatoes offer vitamin C to keep your immune system in good shape, but heat destroys it. Cooked tomatoes help protect against heart disease. Eating a combination of raw (sliced) and cooked (roasted) at the same meal gives you the best of both worlds. Bonus: Tomatoes contain lycopene, a nutrient that gives tomatoes their color. Lycopene lowers blood pressure and helps protect against prostate cancer.

Tip: Processed tomato products have more lycopene than fresh, so go ahead and have a glass of tomato juice with breakfast, use canned tomatoes to make a sauce for dinner or dab some jarred salsa on a cracker for a midafternoon snack.

Save the best for last

“When I prepare dinner, I leave the vegetables for last,” says Ardisson Korat. “I start with a grain, which takes 30 minutes or more to cook, especially if it’s a whole grain. Then I prep the protein part of the meal and finally, as close to serving time as possible, I prepare the vegetables. Doing it that way preserves their flavor, their texture and their nutrients.”