5 Ways to use Alkaline Water in Cooking

Water is an essential yet often forgotten ingredient in what we cook for ourselves and our families. It might not seem like a key element for your culinary dishes, but once you take a step back and realise how much we consume aside from merely drinking it, then you quickly realise its significant portion of your wider diet. As such, it may be of benefit  to consider using zazen alkaline mineral water in both cooking and preparing your meals from now on.

What is alkaline water and is it safe for cooking?

For context, we must first take a look at pH levels (the balance of acidity and alkalinity). All foods, liquids we consume, and even our bodies will have a pH level.  The range is between 0 (highly acidic) to 14 (highly alkaline), with 7 denoting a ‘neutral’ balance; simply put, alkaline mineral water holds a higher pH level than drinking tap water, it can only do that due to the content of naturally occurring minerals. Water that is simply filtered and not mineralised will not have a pH fit for human hydration.

Why is this worth noting? Well, our modern lifestyle choices including our modern diets are holding higher acidity levels, which effects the natural pH level of the human body. The body’s average pH level ranges between 7.35 to 7.45, meaning it rests in a more alkaline state. Lifestyle choices including smoking, alcohol consumption and diets high in processed foods and sugars  lower this closer to (and even past) a neutral balance of 7, potentially leading to dangerous issues known as acidosis and causing a range of adverse health effects. Proponents, therefore, believe introducing alkaline mineral water into your diet will offer a range of benefits to the body, namely supporting that natural, alkaline pH balance.

What’s more, products like the zazen Alkaline Water System offer a 10-stage filtration and remineralisation process to replicate Mother Nature’s water cycle, removing nasty contaminants potentially found in drinking water and reintroducing essential minerals required for proper cellular hydration.

This then leaves the question of how you can introduce more alkaline water into your diet. Certainly, you can drink it, but another is incorporating alkaline mineral  water into your cooking.   With an at-home alkaline water filtration system, you won’t even have to wonder where to buy alkaline water to use in your cooking from week to week.

Why Does Water Quality Matter for Cooking and Fermentation?

Our latest culinary craze is thankfully a healthy one - making ferments at home and eating more fermented foods is great for our gut health.  Water quality matters when we’re drinking it, so why wouldn’t the same apply to when we use it for cooking or fermentation? Creating a sauerkraut, or a home-made kombucha or yoghurt requires a process known as fermentation, this requires water without disinfectants like chlorine which have been designed to kill all bacteria.  The tastiest ferment is all about culturing bacteria, so you don’t want chlorinated water anywhere near your kombucha.  All municipal tap water will contain chlorine so using a high quality mineralised, filtered water system like the zazen Alkaline Water System is ideal for growing those delicious ferments.

Water plays a primary function in both cooking and fermentation, it makes sense to choose the best quality water source which removes the chemicals, toxins and contaminants which could otherwise affect the outcome of your efforts in the kitchen.

Tap water, for example, can hold a range of chemicals and compounds, such as fluoride and chlorine, that can lead to negative health effects. 

How Can Alkaline Water Improve Your Cooking?

Alkaline mineralised water has a higher pH level than regular tap water, meaning it can help to bring more minerals into your body faster and in a more absorbable form uniquely designed for cellular hydration. Containing a  higher concentration of minerals,  can give your food a boost of flavour and make them easier to digest. It won’t make any changes to the preparation and cooking methods of your meal, so there will be no interruption as you follow your usual routines in the kitchen. You will simply enjoy a more flavourful dish and the potential added health benefits! 

How to Use Alkaline Water for Cooking

Food Preparation

We have all been taught to wash our food before eating it to help remove any lingering bacteria or contamination. But have you ever stopped to think about whether the water you’re using to prepare your food is clean in the first place?

Before you even think about using alkaline water for cooking, you can use it for your food preparation, too. This will not only help to remove any unwanted surface chemicals, but also tenderise meat and even nullify strong odours (such as the smell of seafood when preparing fish). Alkaline water is also said to eliminate the bitter taste in a lot of your foods whilst enhancing more of the natural flavours.

Fermentation

Fermentation refers to the process of fundamentally changing a particular food’s properties with the help of microorganisms. This is commonly found in the act of converting carbohydrates into alcohol or organic acids. Using alkaline water for fermentation may not be seen as a common practice, but nations across Southeast Asia and Africa widely consume alkaline-fermented foods. The key to this process is to only use a slight amount of alkaline water for fermentation, so as not to affect the ferments.

Cooking Methods

Even an amateur in the kitchen will be familiar with some of the many cooking methods requiring water in the process. What they might not be as acutely aware of, however, is the techniques and ingredients to retain the most nutritional value and flavours within your meals.

In using alkaline water for your cooking methods, especially when you know how to create alkaline water through your home benchtop water filtration system, you can help hold on to more nutrients as you make various foods. These include: 

• Soups & Stews: Where you once may have relied simply on tap water, you can easily swap to alkaline mineralised water to enhance the flavour of all your ingredients, as well as improve their nutritional value.
• Vegetables & Fruits: Whether you are simply washing them, steaming them or boiling them, again, alkaline mineralised water can improve the flavours and nutrient content, as well help  eradicate any slight bitterness
• Rice, Lentils, Pasta Grains and Beans: Each of these foods require a good amount of soaking before being eaten, so substituting regular tap water with alkaline mineralised water can actually improve the texture and nutritional value.

Beverages

Simply swapping regular tap water for alkaline water when looking for a drink is an obvious change you can make, but it is hardly cooking. Fortunately, many of your other drinks consumed at home and on the go can also be improved by making the switch. For example, if you enjoy your coffee and/or tea with a more potent flavour, then alkaline water can help to enhance this while neutralising any bitterness. Even smoothies can be improved! As mentioned above with the benefits of alkaline mineralised water in cooking your fruits and vegetables, the same applies when making your smoothies, helping to boost nutrients and balancing out any bitter leafy greens you might add.

Ice Cubes

How often do you reach into the freezer for a handful of ice cubes, simply to cool down your drink? Well, here is a perfect opportunity to mix more alkaline mineralised water into your diet. It can even help to improve the flavour of many of your beverages, such as dialling back the sweetness or sourness in fruit juices.

So, should you use alkaline water for cooking?

Given its widespread use in our kitchens, the potential benefits of using alkaline mineralised water for cooking and fermentation makes a strong case for the substitution from regular tap water. What’s more, knowing how to make alkaline water for cooking at home with devices like the zazen Alkaline Water System ensures the process is incredibly convenient, without having to worry about where you will buy the water.