How much to soak the potatoes before cooking to leave the starch?

For many, boiled, fried, or baked potatoes is a forbidden fruit. But you can make the product less caloric, get rid of nitrates. To do this, it is necessary to soak the potatoes so that starch and other harmful components come out.

Is soaked potato good for you?

There is an opinion that potatoes consist mainly of water and starch. If the latter is eliminated, the tuber loses all its nutritional value. Such a judgment is incorrect, since 100 g of the product contains:

• Silicon - 50 mg, or 170% of the daily norm (s / n). Thanks to the microelement, the skin becomes more elastic, the vessels become elastic, the hair and nails are strong.
• Boron - 115 mcg, or 164% s / n. While maintaining the required level of boron, the bones will be strong, regardless of age-related changes. Menopausal women need boron to improve memory, relieve stress and prevent osteoporosis.
• Vanadium - 150 mcg, or 370% s / n. It normalizes the level of cholesterol in the blood, takes part in redox processes in the body. It is necessary for athletes and people seeking to lose weight.
• Rubidium - 500 mcg, or 500% s / n. The trace element helps strengthen the nervous system, has antihistamine properties, and increases blood pressure.

In addition to substances, the content of which in 100 g covers the daily requirement of the human body, potatoes contain vitamins (B6, B9, C, PP, K), trace elements (cobalt, lithium, manganese, chromium), omega-3.

There is a lot of starch in potatoes. Its volume is 15-17% of the mass. It is a polysaccharide that turns into glucose in the stomach. Avoid foods that increase blood sugar, should be for people with diabetes or overweight, children, allergies. If starch is eliminated, the use of the product will be possible for them.

Why soak potatoes?

Nutritionists advise everyone, without exception, to soak potatoes before cooking, but there are people who are strictly forbidden to eat tubers without prior processing.

Soaking potatoes allows you to:

• Reduce the glycemic index (GI). This is important for diabetics. Allowed to eat products whose GI does not exceed 50. In potatoes, the index reaches 70–80 (in sugar - 75), which makes the product completely unsuitable for citizens with a diagnosed disease. Potato could have been completely abandoned, but there are many substances in it that support the patient’s body. The only way to add tuber dishes to your diet is to eliminate starch. After soaking, GI decreases by 25-30 units.
• Reduce product allergenicity. Cases of manifestation of negative reactions are rare, but if they are present, the risk of allergies to other nightshade ones is high: eggplant, pepper, tomatoes. In adults, allergies have many manifestations: a rash, symptoms of a respiratory disease, swelling. Breast suffers from rashes and colic. After identifying the reaction, the use of potatoes should be stopped, and after 3-4 months - resume using only an environmentally friendly soaked product. Potato should also be stopped by a nursing mother if the child has signs of an allergy.
• Reduce calories. In 100 g of starch, approximately 357 calories. At 83%, potatoes are pure fast carbohydrates that contribute to weight gain, and removing starch reduces calories.
• Withdraw nitrates. It is proved that soaking allows you to get rid of growth stimulants that adversely affect a person.

In multi-colored varietal potatoes (pink, purple), the level of sugars and starch is 30% lower than in light varieties, so its use is preferable.

How to soak potatoes before cooking?

For consumption, you need to choose whole tubers without dents or traces of spoilage. Pay attention to the color of the peel. If it is greenish, it means that the concentration of a toxic substance, solanine, is high in the tuber. Even in small amounts, it causes inflammation of the gastric mucosa, destroys red blood cells, destabilizes the nervous system.

After selecting quality tubers, you must:

1. Wash tubers and peel, cut into several parts. If the method of growing potatoes is known and the use of nitrates is excluded, you can cook potatoes in their skins. It must be thoroughly washed and cut into 2–4 parts, depending on the size of the potato.
2. Pour in water so that the liquid completely covers the contents of the tubers. Leave to wash starch for 60 minutes.
3. Drain and repeat the process: pour, leave for an hour. After - drain.
4. Pour the tubers with clean water. Starch elimination time - 12 hours. After - drain the water and cook the dish.

The finer the chopped potatoes before steeping, the easier the starch will come out of it. The processing time can be reduced by 4 times if you rub the tubers on a coarse grater before the procedure.

Cooking recommendations

If the use of potatoes is not associated with the occurrence of negative reactions, it can be eaten every day, but not more than 200 g. People with high blood sugar, gout and small children should limit the consumption of the product to 100 g per week. Regardless of the cooking method, it is better to soak the potatoes.

To preserve the usefulness of the product and achieve the best taste, you can use the following tips:

• So that the peel on the tuber “in its uniform” does not burst, a couple drops of vinegar should be added to the water.
• To speed up cooking, add a piece of oil (margarine) to the pan.
• To make the tubers lighter, add 1 tsp. lemon juice.
• Mashed potatoes need to be eaten fresh. During heat treatment, it loses 30% of vitamin C, and when re-heated, it will not leave any vitamins at all.
• To obtain tasty and crumbly boiled potatoes, it is necessary to fill the soaked tubers with salted boiling water.
• To minimize the amount of nitrates in the purchased potatoes, it is necessary to remove the peel with a thick layer. For an environmentally friendly product, another rule is to clean as thinly as possible, and it is better to eat with a peel, since it contains more vitamins than peeled tubers.
• Frozen potatoes will lose an unpleasant aftertaste if consumed no earlier than a week after storage at room temperature.
• Soaked potatoes are good to eat raw. It is recommended for cancer patients, people with increased swelling, metabolic disorders, gum disease. Grated tubers can be mixed with apples, seasoned with lemon juice with honey. An important condition is the absence of pesticides.

Potato allows you to diversify the menu, saturate the body with useful trace elements. If the tubers are forbidden according to the testimony, soaking will correct the situation. Without starch and pesticides, potatoes are good for everyone.