How long should you soak potatoes before cooking to release the starch?

Boiled, fried or baked potatoes are forbidden fruit for many. But you can make the product less caloric and get rid of nitrates. To do this, you need to soak the potatoes so that the starch and other harmful components come out.

Are soaked potatoes healthy?

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

• Silicon - 50 mg, or 170% of the daily value (DV). Thanks to the microelement, the skin becomes more elastic, blood vessels - elastic, hair and nails - strong.
• Bor - 115 mcg, or 164% s/n. By maintaining the required level of boron, bones will be strong, despite age-related changes. Women during menopause need boron to improve memory, relieve stress and prevent osteoporosis.
• Vanadium - 150 mcg, or 370% s/n. Normalizes cholesterol levels in the blood, takes part in redox processes in the body. Essential for athletes and people trying 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 needs of the human body, potatoes contain vitamins (B6, B9, C, PP, K), microelements (cobalt, lithium, manganese, chromium), omega-3.

Potatoes contain a lot of starch. Its volume is 15–17% of the mass. It is a polysaccharide that is converted into glucose in the stomach. People with diabetes or overweight, children, and people with allergies should avoid foods that increase blood sugar levels. If starch is eliminated, consumption of the product will become possible for them.

Why are potatoes soaked?

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. Products whose GI does not exceed 50 are allowed for consumption. In potatoes, the index reaches 70–80 (in sugar - 75), which makes the product completely unsuitable for citizens with a diagnosed disease. One could avoid potatoes altogether, but they contain many substances that support the patient’s body. The only way to introduce tuber dishes into the diet is to eliminate starch. After soaking, the GI drops by 25–30 units.
• Reduce the allergenicity of the product. Cases of negative reactions are rare, but if they are present, there is a high risk of allergies to other nightshades: eggplants, peppers, tomatoes. In adults, allergies have many manifestations: rash, symptoms of respiratory disease, swelling. Infants suffer from rashes and colic.Once a reaction is detected, consumption of potatoes should be stopped, and after 3-4 months, resumed, using only environmentally friendly soaked product. A nursing mother should also stop eating potatoes if her child shows signs of an allergy.
• Reduce calories. 100 g of starch contains approximately 357 calories. Potatoes are 83% pure fast carbohydrates that promote weight gain, and removing starch reduces calories.
• Remove nitrates. It has been proven that soaking allows you to get rid of growth stimulants that have a detrimental effect on humans.

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

How to soak potatoes before cooking?

For consumption, you need to select whole tubers without dents or signs of spoilage. You should pay attention to the color of the peel. If it is greenish, it means that the tuber has a high concentration of a toxic substance - solanine. Even in small quantities, it causes inflammation of the gastric mucosa, destroys red blood cells, and destabilizes the functioning of the nervous system.

After selecting high-quality tubers, you need to:

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

The smaller the potatoes are cut before soaking, the easier the starch will come out of them. The processing time can be reduced by 4 times if you grate the tubers on a coarse grater before the procedure.

Cooking recommendations

If eating potatoes is not associated with the occurrence of negative reactions, you can eat them every day, but not more than 200 g. People with high blood sugar, gout and young children should limit their consumption to 100 g per week. Regardless of the cooking method, it is better to soak the potatoes.

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

• To prevent the skin of the tuber in its uniform from bursting, add a couple of drops of vinegar to the water.
• To speed up cooking, add a piece of butter (margarine) to the pan.
• To make the tubers lighter, you need to add 1 tsp during cooking. lemon juice.
• Purees should be eaten fresh. During heat treatment, it loses 30% of vitamin C, and when heated again, there will be no vitamins left in it.
• To obtain tasty and crumbly boiled potatoes, you need to pour salted boiling water over the soaked tubers.
• To minimize the amount of nitrates in store-bought potatoes, it is necessary to remove the skin in a thick layer. For an environmentally friendly product, another rule is to peel it as thinly as possible, and better yet, eat it with the peel, since it contains more vitamins than a peeled tuber.
• Frozen potatoes will lose their unpleasant taste if they are 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, and gum disease. Grated tubers can be mixed with apples and seasoned with lemon juice and honey. An important condition is the absence of pesticides.

Potatoes allow you to diversify your menu and saturate your body with useful microelements. If according to indications the tubers are prohibited from being eaten, soaking will correct the situation. Without starch and pesticides, potatoes are good for everyone.