Cooking In an Iron wok-Great Iron source for vegans

First off, as you as you tell people that you are vegan, they have a pitiful shocked out look on their faces, as if they just witnessed a starvation case or some such.The truth of the matter is , veganism is the only healthy way of diet . It is only because of lack of familiarity with any ingredients other than pieces of another animal's flesh that makes them think that vegans don't eat much.In fact we eat much better than the average meat eater.We tend to have a better variety in foods, more fiber and more vitamins too.  One concern that people often express is, "How can we make sure we get enough Iron and enough calcium?"

            I already wrote a brief but informative blog about vegan calcium sources. About Iron, yes, spinach is a great source and it is very commonly available too. Don't cook the hell out of your spinach though , because overcooking removes all vitamin C and vitamin c is what helps absorb both the calcium and iron abundant in the spinach. 

     Let us get back to Iron for a minute.I am going to write another mini blog listing common foods which have decent amounts of iron in them and those which are vegan but commonly available in the remotest of countrysides even. 

     Let us just talk about the wok shall we. I used to cook my noodles and stir fries in a large nonstick pan. It works great in terms of no trouble cooking. No stuck up food at the bottom of the pan, all even cooking and what not. Lately I haven't had enough time to make sure I eat spinach everyday. And that got me thinking of ways to ensure that i included enough iron in most of my vegan meals, spinach or not. That suddenly made me remember about the charm of Iron utensils. Of course, cast iron won't do. A pure iron wok is what you need. A pure iron wok for stir fries kinda scrapes small traces of iron each time you scrape together a stir fry in it. NO , I am not joking. Trust me, it does. Just as much as bits of Aluminium get scraped up when people used to cook food in large aluminium pans in yonder times.Till ofcourse Alzheimer's disease was associated with aluminium utensil usage. So, yes, don't use any mixed alloys or aluminium dishes or those cheap tin crock pots for cooking.Stick to good ole stainless steel or ceramic or clay. iron is just fine. After all, most of Hb(hemoglobin ) needs iron in its structure. So yes, An iron wok is a great idea irrespective of how much spinach you include in your diet. Especially women who lose some amount of Hb each month during menstruation. 

  Also make sure you use pure iron woks only. I reiterate here, don't use pathetic cheap lil alloys. As far as where you can get a good iron wok. Try china town. Ask for thick iron woks. You it as cheap as 4 -5$ if you know how to bargain. how to test if it is pure iron,"you scrape the surface and then smell. It needs to smell rusty or irony in some way" Ask the wok seller though.They will tell you if it is a mixed alloy . Cheers.