Unlike boiling, where the food is actually submerged in hot water, steaming involves cooking food in the water vapor rising off the boiling water. This means your fish, vegetables, or fruits will be moist and tender, but not soggy or mushy, as long as you don't overdo it. Plus, there's no need to add oil, butter, or fat to your recipe, which lowers the calorie count.
Another benefit of steaming is that it doesn't reduce the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in your food as it cooks. It's a quick-cooking method, as well, compared to many other kitchen techniques such as baking, roasting, or stewing.
While you might think that the only foods you can steam are vegetables, this easy cooking technique is also perfect for turning out many tasty dishes. Steaming is commonly employed in Asian cuisine to prepare delicious rice, spring rolls, dumplings of all sorts, and fish.
Turning out perfectly steamed foods requires a steamer of some sort, of course, and that's where we come in. We did the research for you and whittled down your choices to the best food steamers in six categories.
Here are the best food steamers:Updated on 7/10/2020. We updated prices and links for accuracy and removed the best budget electric food steamer due to stock issues. We also added a selection of relevant buying guides.