Peel potatoes: Better after cooking - for more nutrients

Created: 09/30/2022, 16:30

By: Jasmine Farah

Some do it before, others after: peel potatoes to prepare food.

The latter is often more strenuous, but worth it.

Stews, casseroles or simply salted as a side dish: In many German households, potatoes are simply part of the autumn kitchen.

Almost every day they are served in different ways.

Rightly so.

Because the tuber is nutritious, filling and full of vitamins, fiber and healthy carbohydrates.

Peel potatoes: Better after cooking - for more nutrients

But while some people peel them with water before cooking, others leave the peel on.

This is the case with boiled potatoes, for example.

As the name suggests, these are only "peeled" after cooking.

They are prepared from waxy or predominantly waxy potatoes.

Fresh potatoes can be boiled in hot water with their skins on.

© Yevhen Roshchyn/Imago

However, it can happen that peeling turns out to be more annoying.

The peel is then a bit limp and difficult to grasp properly with the potato peeler.

But the extra effort is worth it: if the tubers are cooked in their skins, they lose fewer vitamins, retain their taste and have a firm bite.

Finally, fewer flavors and nutrients are released into the water during boiling.

So the shell acts like a kind of barrier.

As a result, more of these valuable substances remain in the potato.

To ensure the latter, however, you should first put on cold water and put the potatoes directly into it.

Waiting for it to bubble and get hot can change its starch structure and cooking will soften the outside of the bulbs but leave them hard in the middle.

The same goes for after cooking.

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Peel potatoes: This is the best way to proceed after cooking

It is advisable to rinse the potatoes in a sieve or something similar under cold water immediately after you have removed them from the hot water.

This also has the advantage that the shell can be detached more easily.

Sometimes it is enough to pinch off the skin of the potatoes with your fingers after they have had some time to evaporate completely.

However, so that the valuable flavor and nutrients are not lost so quickly, it is advisable to continue preparing and eating the potatoes quickly afterwards.