The power of vinegar will change your mind. Vinegar is a spice that gives you strong aroma and sour flavor. Whether or not you like sour flavored food, you will be surprised how vinegar makes food tasty if you know how to use vinegar for cooking. The power of vinegar is beyond the taste. It has a ton of health benefits if you want to lose weight!
Power of Vinegar and Diet
Vinegar will prevent a blood sugar level spike after meal. In order to slow down blood sugar level increase, you will need to drink 15 ml of vinegar. It is equal to one table spoon. Believe me, it is hard to drink vinegar out of a spoon. Then, how do we do? We need to incorporate vinegar into our meals. Vinegar is a magic spice. It will bring the flavor and aroma of the ingredients. As a result, you will use less of other spices that contain sodium.
The power of vinegar continues. Vinegar will let you use less salt. Salt is an enemy for people who want to lose weight. Also, it is dangerous for people who have high blood pressure. Eating too much salt makes your body swell because salt in your body will cause it to retain water. The swelling will slow down the metabolism. Salt can be addictive. If you get used to salty food, you want more salty food. It is a vicious cycle!
Other Health Benefits
Vinegar reduces visceral fat, high blood pressure, and fat in blood. And it promotes fast recovery from fatigue. Vinegar helps to absorb calcium. Therefore, your bones become stronger.
Vinegar promotes gastric secretion and makes digestive oxygen active. Vinegar also expands blood vessels and makes blood flow smoothly. As a result, it prevents high blood pressure. Finally, the power of vinegar changes your body from acidic constitution to alkaline constitution. Being alkaline constitution, you can maintain healthy digestive organs and physical strength.
Kind of Vinegar
Vinegar may be the oldest spice. The record shows vinegar was made in 5000 B.C in Babylonian (the Middle East). At that time, people used dates or raisins to make vinegar. Vinegar is divided into two kinds, brewed or synthetic. Brewed/fermented vinegar is made out of grains or fruits. Synthetic vinegar is diluted brewed vinegar with artificial flavor.
Grain Vinegar
There are 2 types of grain vinegar. Distilled white vinegar is made out of corn and is common to use in the United States. On the other hand, rice vinegar is the most popular vinegar in Japan. Also, rice vinegar is known as sushi vinegar and can be purchased at the grocery store in the US.
Although most rice vinegar contains rice and other grains such as corn, you may find 100% pure rice vinegar in Japanese grocery store. It is made out of 100% rice with sake, for the fermentation, which is also made out of rice. This high end vinegar has umami (good flavor) and smooth taste. That is not it. Pure rice vinegar contains organic acid. It helps to balance the intestinal bacteria and reduce bad bacteria in the colon.
The other type is black vinegar. It is not so common to see in the US grocery store. Black vinegar is made out of wheat or barley, and the color changes to black due to fermentation and aging. In Japan black vinegar is the healthiest vinegar. It has 10 times more amino acid than normal rice vinegar. Amino acid helps to promote the metabolism.
Fruit Vinegar
Fruit based vinegar is more popular in the US than Japan. Fruit vinegar is made out of apple, grape (called wine vinegar), and etc. They are not rich in amino acid like grain vinegar, but apple vinegar is rich in potassium and wine vinegar is rich in polyphenol.
Whether or not you like sour flavored food, you will be surprised how vinegar makes food tasty. But you have to know how to use the power of vinegar for cooking. Let’s cook 500 calories set meal using vinegar!
~Menu~
Main: Boiled Vinegar Chicken
Side 1: Fresh Pickled Vegetables
Side: 2 Strawberries with Honey
Soup: Egg Drop Vinegar Soup
Sumeshi (Vinegar Rice) with Cucumber
Total 448 calories
All recipes are made for 2 servings. This printable recipe box will allow you to change the serving size to adjust the recipe.
Main: Boiled Vinegar Chicken
182 calories
Let’s start experiencing the power of vinegar. In Japan, it is common to say “if you drink vinegar, your body becomes flexible”. Just like the saying, vinegar does make meat tender. This is because vinegar breaks down protein. You will get the best result when you cook with tough meat, like pork shoulder or beef shank. And it cooks faster. When you start cooking meat with vinegar, you smell strong vinegar aroma. Then gradually it turns to be rich good smell. That is not all. The flavor is also rich.
- 200 g chicken thigh
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoon vinegar
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 40 g broccoli steamed
- Combine soy sauce, vinegar and sugar.
- Place the sauce and chicken in pot.
- Bring to boil and cook for 5 minutes with low heat.
- Turn over meat and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Cut into bite sizes when your serve.
Side 1: Fresh Pickled Vegetables
21 calories
Japanese people like to purchase Cabbage which is available all year round. But it tastes much better in spring. Spring cabbage looks different from regular cabbage. The leaves are softer and curled. As a result, when you pick it up, it is lighter. It is great for eating raw. They are sweet and tender. Read more to learn about the health benefits.
Even carrot is better in spring. It is tender and sweeter. You should take advantage of these spring vegetables. And vinegar and raw vegetables have multiplier effect! Vinegar contains acetic acid that improves to burn fat. Also, oxygen in vegetables will burn fat in the body. Thanks to the power of vinegar!
- Combine vinegar, sugar and salt.
- Cut carrot and cucumber into thin strips. Cut cabbage into bite sizes.
- Place vegetables into Ziploc. Air tight and massage with hands. Leave it for 30 minutes.
- You can keep it fresh for up to one week.
Side: 2 50g of Strawberries with Honey
38 calories
Strawberry is in season here in southern California. Due to the recent heavy rain, strawberries are much bigger and sweeter this year. Even though the size is smaller, Japanese strawberries are so tasty. They are sweet and have great aroma and texture. You do not need to add anything to it.
Diet and Health Benefit
Strawberry is rich in pectin. Pectin will prevent constipation, prevent blood sugar level spike, and reduce the absorption of fat and sugar. Also strawberry contains potassium that reduces the swelling of the body. Finally, strawberry has the rich red color that is anthocyanin. Anthocyanin improves eye health including eye sight. Also, it improves brain function.
How to Eat
Strawberry contains a good amount of vitamin C. However, vitamin C will escape if you remove the stem. Make sure that stem is attached until you eat. One last thing, a Japanese TV show was talking about the right way to eat strawberry. Eat from the stem side, because the tip is normally sweeter. If this does not work, you can add a teaspoon of honey!
Soup: Egg Drop Vinegar Soup
47 calories
Soup is a good place where you can add the power of vinegar. It hides the sour flavor well and you can drink it all! Just so you know, adding salt is optional. I like it without salt for this recipe. Thanks to the power of vinegar!
The cabbage core is too hard to chew when you use for salad. But don’t toss it. Cabbage core contains more vitamin U than the leaves. Vitamin U is good for stomach and intestines. Read more Cabbagin to learn about the health benefit. Furthermore, vitamin U cannot be destroyed like vitamin C by cooking.
- 60 g cabbage
- 20 g corn frozen or caned
- 250 ml chicken broth water and chicken base
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1/2 egg beaten
- Cut cabbage core into bite sizes. Cut cabbage leaves into bite sizes.
- Bring chicken broth to boil in pot. Add corn and cabbage core into the pot. Cook for few minutes.
- Add vinegar and cabbage leaves. Cook for another few minutes.
- Turn off heat. Pour egg over soup with circular motion.
- Cover the lid and leave it for one minute.
Sumeshi (Vinegar Rice) with Cucumber
160 calories
About Vinegar Rice
The power of vinegar has a long history. Vinegar rice has been eaten since Edo period (about 300 years ago). Now Japanese people make vinegar sushi for any kind of cooking.
First, vinegar sushi tastes good for sushi. It also taste good when you do not have an appetite, like a hot summer day. Second, vinegar works as natural preservative. Therefore, Japanese people use vinegar rice to make bento (Japanese lunch box) because vinegar prevents lunch from spoiling. In addition, vinegar keeps rice moist even though the rice gets refrigerated. Third, vinegar rice is great for presentation. When you mix vinegar with steamed rice, the rice becomes shiny.
Finally, vinegar rice became even more popular for dieters in Japan. Vinegar rice has antioxidant effect. And vinegar rice will prevent a blood sugar level spike. When the rice cools down, it has resistant starch benefit. Adding sea vegetables to vinegar rice will promote insulin secretion and help burn the sugar in rice. Wow! Sushi is really good for you!
When you add an ingredient to steam rice (here cucumber, vinegar, and sugar), you end up eating more calories. Here is a trick. Reduce the amount of cooked rice by one bite. Voila! You can still keep the same calories as 100 g of steamed rice without sacrificing the volume!
Ingredient
100 g of cooked rice
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
20 g cucumber, diced
Method
Mix vinegar, sugar, and salt.
While rice is hot (important!), pour the mixture over rice and mix like cutting motion with spoon.
Cool down quickly with hand fan (to remove excess water).