Steam Cookers or Simpler, Cheaper, Less-Bulky Alternatives such as the Sleekstor™ VeggiSteam™?
Steam cookers – do we need them? Of course we don’t: Mankind has been cooking vegetables in water for thousands of years. But, honestly, once you’ve tasted broccoli or green beans cooked in a steam cooker, there’s no going back. The vegetables are simply much more tasty – and healthier as well. But it’s yet another appliance, and most electric steam cookers take up considerable space in your kitchen cabinet. Steam baskets basically perform the same task, but they have a more compact design. There are already many varieties, and now there’s yet a new and versatile one, and it carries the name of SleekStor™ VeggiSteam™.
Why It’s Clever
Really, if you’ve never tried steam-cooked vegetables, you should. You finally taste every individual vegetable instead of getting a somewhat uniform, resembling some kind of vegetable, result when cooked in a pot full of water. A disadvantage of electric steam cookers is that they’re really bulky – they take up a lot of space, not only in your kitchen cabinet but also in your dishwasher, for which you need to take them apart as well.
Microwaving your vegetables is also a solution – it preserves the taste (if you manage not to burn them), but I only have one microwave, and I often need that for other things than vegetables.
If you want to save not just money in these times of recession, but also save space in your cabinet and save time when you’re doing the dishes, you should take a second look at the good old steamer basket. For those who don’t know it yet, most steamer baskets are made of stainless steel. They open like petals of a flower, which makes them fit almost any regular pot and when they're closed they're quite compact. Pour some water into the bottom of the pot, place the steam basket on top, and bring it to cook on your stove.
If you buy one with longer feet such as the Good Grips from Oxo above, you could even cook your potatoes on the bottom of the pot and place your vegetables on top. This way, you only have to clean one pot afterwards, and you save precious energy as well. There’s even one on the market from Norpro, with two levels, making even more efficient use of energy.
Still, these baskets aren’t ideal, since vegetables such as broccoli or asparagus tend to clog the little holes, while the fact that the “petals” overlap makes it impossible to get them totally clean out of the dishwasher.
That’s why we think that this new VeggiSteam™ from SleekStor™ is clever and efficient. It’s also a steam basket, made out of silicone instead of stainless steel. The fact that it’s flexible silicone enables you to push it into most sizes of pots without requiring a design with overlapping “petals”, which is difficult to clean. You can clean it in the dishwasher, where it takes up virtually no space – nor does it take up space in your cabinet, for that matter. An additional advantage over the metal types is that you can use this one in the microwave as well, giving you maximum flexibility.
Summary
- Silicone steam cooker fits most pots
- Non-stick design
- Nylon core
- Heat-resistant (650°F/340°C)
- Dishwasher-safe, easy to clean
- Microwave-safe
- Space-saving.
Tips
I suppose that you can even put one on top of the other in high pots, giving maximum energy efficiency for a minimal use of space. Let us know if you’ve tried this out.
Where to buy
You can buy the VeggiSteam™ almost anywhere on the Internet, for instance from Amazon.com
Approx. price: $10.
Categories: space-saving,time saving,energy saving,home organizing
