How to prevent food sticking to the pan without using butter or oil | The Times of India (2024)

Heating the pan or sauce pan before cooking is the best way to avoid the food from sticking as a slightly hot pan creates a layer of steam, which helps in cooking the dish easily without adding oil. But make sure the pan is greased and then heated.

This may sound confusing, but if you have ever tried frying those frozen meats or delicacies in a hot pan, you would have experienced this. Thus, it is best to dry the food completely and then place over an oiled or grease pan or else on the sauces like pesto, marinara to name a few.

You can add some water to the pan and then add ingredients, the presence of liquid takes no time to heat and create a steam, which helps in cooking the veggies, sauces and other ingredients. The steam cooks the food properly inside out.

There are several reasons why your food often sticks to the bottom of the pan, but one of the major reasons is due to the chemical bond formed between the food and the pan, the heat increases the chances of sticking and to prevent this chemical bond lubricants like butter, oil or ghee are added. Well, there are other ways also to avoid this from happening.

When you add a liquid base to the pan first it gives ample moisture to the pan to cook a dish. In fact, if you are cooking a saucy vegetable mix or curry, make sure you add the sauce or puree first and then add rest of the ingredients, this way you can reduce the chances of burning food.

Yes, to cook healthy meals you can do it even with you adding a teaspoon of oil. Just wash, clean and brush some oil over the surface to prevent food from sticking to the pan. You can also dip a cotton ball in oil and wipe the cooking surface of the pan, which is enough to prevent food from sticking. Make sure you repeat this 2-3 times to form a coat.

Cooking with less oil is healthy yet tricky, this is because the food can anytime stick to the bottom of the pan and spoil the entire dish. Non-stick pans may be an easy alternative to cook food without oil or less oil, but excessive heat, scratches or errored Teflon coating may also result in sticking of food at the bottom of the pan. So, what’s the resort to this? Well we have curated some brilliant hacks to prevent the food from sticking to the bottom of the pan that too without adding oil, butter or ghee.