As a cooking technique, steaming is over 5, 000 years old, with ancient stoneware and steam pits being found in both China and America dating back thousands of years. Managed to snag some super fresh seafood or vegetables from the market? Steaming will allow the best of your ingredients’ natural flavors to come through in the final dish, on top of preserving its vitamins, minerals and enzymes. It’s also a popular way to prepare certain sweet treats in Asia, so you can literally make dinner and dessert with just one steamer!