How to Be More Eco-Friendly When Cooking
Chop Small
Chopping your ingredients into smaller pieces helps reduce cooking time as it means your food will be heated through quicker. This not only saves precious energy but you’ll also save money on your fuel bills cooking this way. As a bonus, you end up with smaller, more bite-sized pieces of food that are easier to chew and digest.
Use Pan Lids
Putting lids on your pans during cooking can reduce cooking time by up to 40% as it prevents heat from escaping. It will also prevent your kitchen from steaming up, reducing condensation on walls and windows and making the room more comfortable to cook in.
Switch to Induction Cooking
Induction hobs are one of the most efficient types of stoves available. This is because they transfer energy directly to the pan, meaning the hob itself stays relatively cool and less energy is wasted. If you do switch to induction cooking, you’ll also need to invest in induction pan sets that will work on your new hob.
Use the Right Size Pan
When cooking on a traditional gas stove, ensure that any pans you’re using are the right size for the burner. Placing a small pan on a large burner or vice versa means you’re wasting energy. As a rough guide, your pan should just cover the burner, so that if the gas is turned up to full, you wouldn’t see flames around the sides of the pan.
Cook Bigger Portions
A pan’s efficiency is reduced by 80% if it’s only a fifth full. Make the most of the size of your pan by cooking larger batches of food in one go. Even if you’re only cooking for one or two people, any leftovers can easily be portioned out and stored in your refrigerator or freezer to eat later. This saves energy, time and money and means you can have home-cooked food every night of the week without always needing to cook from scratch.
Don’t Forget Your Microwave
When heating or reheating smaller amounts of food, a microwave can be a much more efficient way of heating smaller amounts of food so when reheating your leftovers, think microwave before you turn on your oven.
Use Your Kettle
Rather than bring water to the boil in a saucepan to cook pasta or rice, it’s more energy-efficient to first heat your water in a kettle and then transfer it to the pan once it’s already boiled.
Eat Seasonally
Buying locally-sourced produce and eating in keeping with the seasons can help to reduce the carbon footprint of your food as it reduces the distance your ingredients have travelled before getting to your plate and it reduces the pressure on farmers to continue to grow produce that is out of season.
Reduce Meat Consumption
Eating less meat is one key way that you can help the environment. You may not be ready to go fully vegetarian or even vegan but simply by reducing your meat consumption by just by one day a week you can lower your carbon footprint and help protect the planet. There are plenty of plant-based recipes that even the most seasoned meat lovers can enjoy and you may be surprised at how tasty meat-free dishes can be and feel inspired to eat more veggie meals throughout the week.