1.3 Conserving Food Nutrients

• Meaning of conserving vitamins and minerals in vegetables
• Vitamins and minerals in Kenyan kitchen-garden and indigenous vegetables
• How vegetables lose vitamins and minerals: delay, water, air, light and long cooking
• Conserving nutrients during food handling from garden to kitchen
• Ways of conserving vitamins and minerals: washing, peeling, cutting, cooking time and covering
• Conserving nutrients during food preparation and cooking

• identify ways of conserving vitamins and minerals in vegetables
• conserve vitamins and minerals in vegetables
• adopt conservation of vitamins and minerals in vegetables

“How do we conserve vitamins and minerals in vegetables?”

The titles are open to everyone. Reading a lesson needs an account — sign in or create one.

1. Vitamins and minerals in vegetables
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Kenyan kitchen-garden and indigenous vegetables supply vitamins and minerals; conserving them means those nutrients still reach the plate.
2. How vegetables lose nutrients
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Vitamins and minerals leave vegetables through delay after harvest, soaking, air and light on cut surfaces, and long cooking.
3. Handling vegetables from garden to kitchen
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Safe handling means picking in the cool, keeping leaves uncrushed in the shade, and using them the same day.
4. Washing vegetables to keep nutrients
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Wash vegetables whole under running water or in short rinses; do not soak chopped leaves.
5. Peeling without wasting nutrients
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Many vitamins and minerals sit under the skin; wash well and peel thinly, or cook in the skins. Do not peel leaves.
6. Cutting vegetables at the right time
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Cut vegetables just before cooking, in pieces that are not mashed, so air, light and water have less time to steal nutrients.
7. Cooking time that conserves nutrients
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Cook vegetables for a short time in little water until just tender; keep the cooking liquid when it is safe to eat.
8. Covering vegetables while cooking
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   A lid traps steam so vegetables cook faster in less water and lose fewer vitamins to air; cover cut food that must wait.
9. Adopting nutrient conservation at home
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Learners practise and present a home routine: handle, wash, peel, cut, cook short and covered, so conservation becomes a household habit.