Ditch-the-oil Cooking Method: Sweating Veggies (2024)

Processed oils, linked to a host of health issues, tend to abound in our cooking. Ditch-the-oil sweating method helps cook veggies in soups, curries, and more wihtout adding any oil and without compromizing on taste.

What does "sweating" mean in the context of cooking?

Sweating veggies entails cooking vegetables over medium (or low-medium) heat slowly in a small amount of oil till vegetables soften and become slightly translucent. During the process, you can often notice beads of perspiration on veggies--hence the name sweating. Now, let’s ditch the little (or big) amount of oil and use vegetable broth or plain old H2O, i.e. water, to sweat vegetables.

Are youwondering, why do youneed to go through the rigamarole of sweating veggies? Well, if you have somestovetop-cooking experience, you have likely already done some "veggie sweating."

During the process of sweating, veggies are added to heated oil and stirredoften. Theflavors in veggies get concentrated andonce veggies begin to soften, those concentrated flavors get mixed to create a fragrant and flavor-bursting base. So, one use of the techniqueis to set a (flavorful) stage for aStar Ingredient-- added at a later stage in making a dish. For example, think lentil/bean soups where sweated veggies createa flavorful backdrop; think curries where a sweated-veggie base makes the main veggie or protein shine. In veggie soups that simmer for a long time (i.e.minestrone), thetechnique allows forsoftening the veggies and mixing of flavors before adding liquid.Therefore, sweating is used as a beginning step in a multi-step recipe.

Sweating vs. sautéing

By the way, sweating and sautéing are two different cooking techniques. In sweating, veggies are cooked slowly on mediumheat to create an aromatic base and is an initial prep step before moving onto the next step in cooking thedish. During the sweating process, it is important that veggies don't become brown so as not to interfere withthe color of the end recipe. Sautéing , on the other hand, is a cooking technique where ingredients are cooked quickly over high heat to brown veggies or protein, which often are the main dish.

Why ditch-the-oil veggie sweating?

I have been using different kinds of no-oil cooking methods for the past 17 years. I have not invented these methods; in this blog post (and a few more to come) Isharemy interpretation and practices. In fact, somedoctors and many hospitals in U.S. recommendreducing or removing oil incooking. After my husband's heart surgeries, cooking without oilwas mandatory for a few weeks. However, I had been using this cooking method a great deal even prior to my husband's surgeries.

I try to avoid heating oils in my cookingas it isreally easy to heat up different types ofoilsbeyond theirsmoking points whensweating or sautéing. Why is that bad? Heating oils beyond smoking point may produce health-harming chemicals in oil (more on this later). Additionally, I don't have to cleanall that gunk on my kitchen cabinets which builds updue to frequent heating of oil.

The method

Here is how you can sweat veggies without using oil:

You need an oil-free liquid; I use Homemade Vegetable Broth, but any low-sodium veggie broth or water works well. The choice of vegetables (to be sweated) depends on requirements of the end dish. For example, for Indian curry base, I almost always use onion, garlic, and ginger. For vegetable/lentil/bean soups the choice of vegetable is usually onion/leeks, garlic, celery, and carrots. It is important to cut all the veggies about the same size for even sweating.

Heatsome liquid (broth or water) ina pan till it starts steaming. It iskind ofimportant that the liquid starts steaming before you add any veggies. Add onions, followed by garlic (and ginger, if using). Cook onions stirring often for 3-4 minutes. Then addother veggies and cookto desired softness, stirring often. If needed, cover the pan to expedite the process. Once the base veggies become soft and start to glisten, move onto the next step in cooking the dish. If at anytime veggies start sticking, add more liquid. I, usually,start with 2-4 tbsp of liquid and then add more if needed.