Cooking healthy food with Salter Megastone pans

Stuart Forster cooks healthy food with Salter Megastone pans and a Salter Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker.

Disclosure: I was supplied with Salter cooking equipment to write this review. Some of the links below and banners are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Warm and tasty home-cooked meals are especially pleasurable on cold winter days. That’s all the more true when you know what you are eating is healthy.

To facilitate the writing of this blog post, I was sent a Salter Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker, a Salter Megastone Eight Piece Pan Set and the company’s Bakes 8-Piece Silicone Utensil Set.

Salter’s Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker has a non-stick coating making it easy to grill meats and vegetables without using fat or oil. Likewise, the British company’s Megastone pans have a non-stick coating. That means it’s easy to cook with only a small amount of oil or, if you prefer, none at all.

To test the equipment, I decided to cook a batch of coconut and cashew dal and serve it with grilled chicken and parathas, a type of flaky flatbread with Indian origins.

Cooking with Salter Megastone pans

The Salter Megastone Eight Piece Pan Set includes 20cm, 24cm and 28cm frying pans, a 28cm wok, a 28cm griddle pan plus 16cm, 18cm and 20cm saucepans. The set is available from Amazon.

With a 10-year guarantee, they are made of aluminium and feature easy-to-grip, soft-touch Bakelite handles. The pans are designed for use on hobs, whether that’s a gas hob, induction heated, an electric solid hob, a halogen hob or a radiant ring.

The saucepans and wok come with tempered glass lids that have a steam vent. Using a lid while boiling or simmering hot water proves more efficient than doing so without, so can help save energy.

Metal utensils can be used with the pans. However, I don’t like the sound of clattering metal and using wood, silicone or nylon cooking utensils helps maximise the cookware’s longevity. So I used the heat-resistant spoons and turner from Salter’s Eight-piece Cooking and Baking tools set. Made from durable silicone, the set of utensils is also available from Amazon.

Like the grill, they have a Megastone non-stick coating that makes it possible to cook without oil or with just a small amount. It also means they are relatively easy to clean.

Cooking coconut and cashew dal

I used the Salter wok to cook a lentil-based coconut and cashew dal recipe published in one of Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15 cookbooks. Following the recipe fairly faithfully, I had to swap out green chilli for red chilli flakes because I’d forgotten to put the former on my shopping list.

First, I fried chopped onion in a tiny amount of cold-pressed rapeseed oil (rather than the coconut oil that Joe Wicks suggests) in the Salter Megastone wok. Then I gradually added the other ingredients. This short video of me cooking coconut dal will take you less than two minutes to watch:

Video of Stuart Forster cooking coconut and cashew dal with Salter Megastone pansWhen the dal was ready to serve, I heated frozen parathas in the Salter 28cm frying pan. Doing so allowed me to cook a couple at a time. (Preparing wholegrain rice in a Salter saucepan would have been a healthier alternative.)

Meanwhile, I used the Salter Megastone grill to cook spiced chicken to serve with the coconut and cashew dal and parathas.

Salter Megastone Health Grill

The Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker proved super easy to use. The metallic exterior looks smart and it has a heat-proof handle.

It features a temperature control dial and a switch to raise or lower the height of the upper grill plate. Keeping the upper plate low means thin strips of vegetables or meat can be effectively grilled on both sides. Raising it means chunkier items, such as sandwiches, can be heated and grilled without being squashed.

Ridging on the grill plates gives whatever is cooked on the Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker the lines archetypally associated with grilling. That can enhance the presentation of dishes.

Pressing a button on the right-hand side of the Megastone Health Grill opens it so that both plates face upward simultaneously. That enables both grill plates to be used for cooking. I imagine that would be ideal if friends came for a traditional British breakfast: ingredients such as bacon, sausages and tomatoes could be cooked together.

Grilling marinated chicken

First, I marinated sliced free-range chicken breast in Greek yoghurt mixed with a heaped teaspoon of Madras-style curry powder and a teaspoon of chilli flakes for four hours. Then I grilled it for six minutes on medium-high heat.

The result was a tasty and healthy source of protein. After being cooked on the Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker without oil, the texture proved excellent.

It’s a dish that can be prepped on a morning, or even the night before, and left in the fridge for a quick evening meal. Served in a wrap with grilled peppers and onions it’s both filling and delicious.

For me, spending time in the kitchen cooking never feels like a chore. However, cleaning up afterwards often does. This piece of equipment has a drip tray to catch run-off helping make the clean-up easy. Once the Megastone Health Grill and Panini Maker cooled, wiping down the grill plates with soapy water and then rinsing them was a swift and simple task.

There was plenty of coconut dal left to freeze for easy midweek lunches. Reheating the defrosted dal takes a matter of minutes in one of the Salter Megastone saucepans.

Further information

Established in 1760, Salter is the UK’s oldest housewares brand. The pans from the Salter Megastone pan set can be washed in a dishwasher but I found it easy to handwash them in warm water mixed with Fairy Liquid.

Remember never to expose hot cookware to cold water. That can damage the non-stick coating.

Stuart Forster is an award-winning journalist who appreciates good food and drink.

Thanks for visiting Go Eat Do and reading this post about cooking healthy food with Salter Megastone pans. If you enjoyed it, you may appreciate posts on my spaghetti carbonara with Parma ham recipe and my delicious Christmas burger recipe.

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