Bake a cake, and you’ll waste about 87% of the energy used to heat up your oven. Yep, the oven’s the humvee of the kitchen — which is why the popular appliance should be used judiciously. That’s one of the biggest eco tips in Cooking Green — Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen — the New Green Basics Way, a new book by Kate Heyhoe, editor of The Global Gourmet, that helps eco-foodies go beyond the 100-mile diet to make their dining choices greener than ever.
Cooking Green encourages you to think about your “cookprint” to become a serious “ecovore.” The book starts off with a challenging eco-quiz to test your kitchen efficiency knowledge — then devotes the rest of its pages to saving energy, and correspondingly, the planet.
The tips will likely save you money on your energy bills too. And luckily, many of the tips are easy to incorporate into your daily life. Why lug heavy tetrapaks of chicken or veggie broth when you can buy cubes and powders and mixes instead ? Why spend all afternoon cooking beans and rice when you can drastically cut back on the cooking time by pre-soaking the ingredients? Why waste precious gas on the oven when you can ditch the preheat and embrace passive cooking?
Cooking Green shows what cooking methods are more efficient than others. Hint one: Get a good wok and start stir frying! While some of the tips — like a call for slow cookers and the like — might seem more like a blast to the past, other tips call on you to abandon your pseudo-hippie ways. Sure, newfangled garbage disposals and refrigerator auto-icers are far from necessary, but other newer kitchen tools are models of eco-goodness. For example, environmentalists should be embracing the efficiency of the microwave instead of relying solely on the conventional oven.
This book will really help answer some of the more anal retentive questions that keep eco-foodies up at night: Should I steam or boil? Should I thaw fish fillets out on the counter or in the fridge? What color should my pilot light be? When should I run my dishwasher? All of these questions are tackled in nitty gritty detail in Cooking Green.
Of course, the biggest steps we can take to eating greener are steps we already know about. Eating less meat will give you the biggest eco-bang for your buck — and eating local, organic, less processed foods will also help drastically reduce your carbon footprint. Eco-foodies who already know this may be somewhat surprised by the large number of meat-centric recipes — from roast beef to pork tenderloin — included in the last part of Cooking Green. After all, eating less steak will do a lot more to green our world than switching cooking methods for the steak — though the latter can’t hurt if you just can’t forgo your fillet mignon.
Lots of vegetarian-friendly recipes are also included though. And if you love breads, rest assured that you won’t have to give up baked goods. Cooking Green has eco-recipes for skillet cornbread, Cold-Oven Clove and Crystallized Ginger Cake, and much more. My favorite recipe’s the Curry Scented Carrot and Quinoa Salad — a quick-cooking yummy dish that’s both vegan and eco-cookable.
Cooking Green‘s official publish date’s March 30, but you can pre-order the $17.95 paperback for $12.21 at Amazon.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Conscious Cook (http://gustoso.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/conscious-cook/) is another book that deals with ways to reduce your carbon footprint in the kitchen.
Comment by littlem — March 1, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
Maybe I’ll have to read the book, but I don’t know about this. It seems like some of the issues would have a different outcome depending on the whole big picture. I personally don’t use my heater, at all. The pilot light isn’t even on. I do however use my oven to cook things, especially on cooler days as a way to end up with food as well as warm my apartment. I generally stay away from my oven once summer time rolls around.
Some things taste ok when warmed in the microwave, but other things are pretty gross. If someone is just warming up prepackaged microwaveable meals and possibly tossing the multiple layers of packaging involved with frozen meals, is that better than making something from scratch on your stove? Does it really use less energy overall for me to go to a store, purchase a loaf of bread baked by someone else, bring it back in some sort of packaging and then eat it than just making the bread at home if I also use the warmed over for other tasks (like roasting squash or a head of garlic) at the same time? Frankly based on the way I currently cook, my electricity bill has never been over $20 a month and my gas bill has never been over $9 a month (and they usually aren’t even that high).
Comment by M — March 2, 2009 @ 6:53 am
M — I recommend reading the book. You seem to be comparing apples and oranges a lot in your comment — No one’s recommending “tossing the multiple layers of packaging involved with frozen meals” into anything, for example.
Cooking Green has a lot of tips for, say, starting something in the microwave and finishing it in other appliances to, say, keep sweet potato fries yummily crunchy, etc. That’s not to say your current cooking methods aren’t already quite efficient compared to most people — you might just get some additional ideas for further greening :)
Comment by Siel — March 2, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
I do look forward to reading. However, allow me to take umbrage with you this:
“For example, environmentalists should be embracing the efficiency of the microwave instead of relying solely on the conventional oven.”
FAIL. That’s fraudulaent, new-wave environmenalism, which shares nothing in common with the roots of this movement.
Comment by Zack — May 28, 2009 @ 11:27 am
Thank you for the fantastic review. I look forward to reading it!
Comment by Katrina — May 28, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
Zack — Your commen made me LOL. Do you own the roots of this movement and make its rules? Are memberships available? :P
Anyway — With accusations of fraudulence, it’s often helpful to name some reasons why. I suspect I know what they are, esp. as I’ve had one other person email me with a similarly alarmist, unsubstanciated comment. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with Umbra’s more sane take on microwaves.
Glad I could help, Katrina!
Comment by Siel — May 28, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
That came across rather harsh, Siel. :)
But know that my criticism was named at the author of the book, not you. And I wouldn’t call any of this alarmist.
No, there are no “rules”. But we all need to be aware of “greenwashing”, especially as it relates to modern consumer products that are hardly necessities. “Green” cell phones are a great example we’ll all be hearing about (ie. marketed) soon.
Keep up the good work, and thanks for entertaining alternative “green” opinions.
Comment by Zack — May 29, 2009 @ 6:08 am
*shrug* “Necessities” seem to depend a lot on individual interpretation. I’m guessing you have a cell phone, for example — something that definitely wasn’t a necessity 10 years ago and something many people (prolly a lot of crossover in this population with people who shun microwaves) still don’t think is necessary. After all, we know for a fact cellys contain toxic materials — and the jury’s still out on exactly what effect the things have on our long-term health.
Microwaves and cell phones actually have a lot in common in this respect — so if you use a celly, you might consider the similarities the next time you’re tempted to type “FAIL. That’s fraudulaent, new-wave environmenalism” — whether directed at me or someone else :P
The point, I think, is to try to act in a way that’s prudent while weighing potential risks and consequences of our decisions alongside efforts to lead a relatively normal, fulfilling life — vs. having kneejerk or alarmist reactions to new(ish) technologies. With regard to microwaves, I think Umbra’s advice is v. prudent: take advantage of the appliance’s energy-efficiency — and also take precautions for your health.
WTF is new-wave environmentalism anyway? It sounds fun — planting trees while listening to Depeche Mode?
Comment by Siel — May 29, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
I actually hate cell phones. :/
No, people who don’t subscribe to a liberal(centrist), modernist, convenient, environmentalist worldview are not kneejerk alarmists. They just share a different philosophy. And debate within “progressive” circles is healthy. :)
Comment by Zack — May 30, 2009 @ 12:44 am
Well, at least you’re v. consistent in your eco-actions / beliefs (as in no cellys OR microwaves). A lot of people are anti just one or the other, which I find odd :)
Comment by Siel — June 1, 2009 @ 3:50 pm