Microwave ovens save housewives and save them a lot of time and effort that they need to spend to reheat food, but these advantages sometimes come at the expense of the taste of food that comes out hot from the microwave, but it is different in taste or texture.
In order to keep the food as fresh, we show you some simple tricks that you can use in order to enjoy the advantages of the microwave without compromising the delicious taste of your food, and avoid the most common problems of it, such as uneven heat distribution, and dry food during heating.
Separate the ingredients of the meal
Instead of reheating all the rest of yesterday's meal in one dish and leaving the food ingredients varying in the degree of their heating, it is preferable to separate the parts of your meal, and heat each component separately to keep it tasty and good.
And try not to transfer food directly from the refrigerator to the microwave in its cold plate, as this increases the heating time inside the oven.
Use flat dishes
Using flat bowls when heating food in the microwave helps the heat to be distributed more evenly, and you don't have to reheat it again.
Use a round bowl
Using a circular or oval dish helps avoid uneven heating of food - which is one of the common problems of microwaves - as the corners of square and rectangular containers receive more heat compared to the middle of the dish, so the food is heated unevenly in them.
And if the plate is in the shape of a rectangle, you can stack the food inside it in the form of a ring.
It is also advised to stack the parts of thick foods, such as meat, on the edges, and place the rest of the parts, such as vegetables and rice, in the middle.
The use of flat bowls when heating food in the microwave helps to distribute the heat evenly (Pixels)
Leave an empty ring in the middle
While stacking the food in a circular manner, try to distribute it on the edges of the plate and leave an empty ring in the middle, to avoid the food coming out hot from the edges and cold from the middle, as advised by the “Allrecipes” platform.
Distribute the food evenly
Placing food in an irregular or hierarchical manner may cause the edges to heat up faster and a small part of the heat to reach the center of the plate, so distribute the foods inside the plate in one even layer, preferably a thin, not thick layer, to make sure that all parts are heated together.
Keep food moist
The microwave heats the food to the point of making it dry sometimes, and to avoid this and keep your food moist, add a little water, broth, or sauce to it before putting it to heat.
Using a microwave-safe lid helps keep food moist and prevents splashing that can cause oven dirt.
Add seasonings to dry food
Seasoning the meat before cooking it makes it tasty and keeps the rest of it tasty as well. When you reheat it, you can add a little seasoning or broth to it to keep it moist and textured.
Add water to vegetables
Adding just two tablespoons of water to the vegetable dish, keeps it moist as if it was steamed.
To keep the color of green vegetables bright, do not cover the food bowl completely, and leave a small opening.
You can put a piece of baking paper under the pizza slice, in order to absorb excess moisture and preserve its taste (Pixels)
Put the pizza on parchment paper
Everyone loves pizza, but no one likes it when it becomes rubbery after reheating it in the microwave, and to keep it crispy, you can put a piece of baking paper - also known as "butter paper" - under the pizza slice, so that it absorbs excess moisture and preserves its taste.
Put a glass of water with food
If you don't have parchment paper or a microwave cover, you can put a cup of water in with the leftovers while heating them, to keep them moist and prevent them from drying out.
Stir the food as it heats up
Food Network recommends reheating yesterday's food in short intervals, from 30 seconds to one minute, and between these periods, stir the food and large pieces of food so that the heat reaches all parts evenly.
Stirring also helps keep the sauce and food coming out as fresh.