Is apple cider vinegar the health food it’s touted to be? You may be surprised by these healthy ways to use it.
It’s Healthy Kitchen Hacks Wednesday – the day we share our favorite time-saving kitchen tricks and cooking shortcuts to help you make healthy and delicious meals.
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Now…onto today’s featured Healthy Kitchen Hack:
Top 3 Tasty Ideas for Apple Cider Vinegar
Is apple cider vinegar healthy? Of course it is. It has no calories, no salt, no sugar. But is it this list of no’s that make it healthy?
Well, no.
It’s what you can do with apple cider vinegar to add zip and zing to lots of healthy, nutrient-rich food that makes it healthy. For a good overview on the healthy benefits of apple cider vinegar, check out this article by fellow dietitian, Carrie Dennett. She found a small but interesting study on the blood-sugar-lowering benefits of apple cider vinegar…
Why is apple cider vinegar healthy? Top 3 Tasty Ways to Use Apple Cider Vinegar via @TspCurry Click To TweetNow, on to the tasty benefits of apple cider vinegar:
1. Drinking Vinegars and Shrubs
Just the way acidic lemon in lemonade really quenches your thirst, the tingle of acid in drinking vinegars have increased their popularity. Shrub cocktails are one of the hottest at the bar now – even though shrub fruit syrups were an old fashioned way to preserve fruit.
Fruit shrub syrups are generally fruit + sugar>> cooked down and strained, then preserved with vinegar. It is mixed with water or alcohol to make a thirst-quenching beverage.
Drinking vinegar is very similar. But usually fruit, herbs or spices are infused into vinegar, sugar is added later.
Apple cider is the perfect vinegar to start making either refresher. Unlike the harsher distilled vinegar, apple cider vinegar is slightly fruity and has a lighter flavor even though both have a 5% acidity.
My Recipe ReDux friends just posted two shrubs using apple cider vinegar: Rhubarb Ginger Shrub by @Eggplant & Olive and Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shrubhattan by @Eat, Drink, Be Healthy
But sometimes I cheat, as the shrub process takes at least 12 hours of steeping.
My Quick Shrub is also totally refreshing:
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2-3 strawberries (or any other fruit, 2 apple slices are lovely) + optional herbs, like mint
- 8-10 ounces sparkling or still water
2. The Very Best Potatoes
Whether making Memorial Day potato salad, or a big bowl of steamy mashed potatoes, always add 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar to just-drained hot potatoes. The acid perks up any creamy, mayo-covered potato salad, taking it from good…to the best potato salad. And in a buttery bowl of mashed potatoes, the zing helps bring out the buttery flavor more, so you can actually use less butter.
3. Add Sparkle to Soups
If you’ve ever tasted a soup or stew that just ‘needed something,’ chances are it needed a little acid, not more salt. The same is true for a bowl of steamed veggies. While you can always use lemon juice, like I do in my 4-Ingredient Lemon Chickpeas, you may not have a lemon. A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar is perfect to add zing to almost any soup or stew. I even add it to canned soups, canned tuna, and even baked beans.
Have you ever tried these hacks? What is your favorite way to use apple cider vinegar?
Christina Bauer
Wednesday 31st of May 2017
Thank you for including my shrub recipe! My Oma's potato salad uses oil and vinegar as the dressing. And I almost always include some kind of vinegar at the end of cooking my soups. Great post!