Scrumptiously Sustainable - 5 Easy Steps To Reduce The Ecological Impact of Your Cooking

Picture this: you're hard at work at the stove, whipping up your traditional family lasagna recipe handed down from your grandmother to your mother and then to you. The kitchen air resonates with the bewitching aroma of fresh herbs, sauteed garlic and vibrant tomatoes. All those gorgeous smells, textures, and flavours have you feeling like the domestic legend you were born to be.

Just as the revelry is reaching its apex, a troubling thought sneaks its way through a slightly ajar window in your mind and begins ransacking the blissfully harmonious peace of mind that you were just moments ago relishing. Look around. The oven’s on, you have three burners firing simultaneously, the green scraps bin is overflowing, and vegetable cutoff detritus is littering the counter. It’s then you start wondering: Here I am providing mouthwatering meals for my family, but am I also looking after our planet?

Caring for the environment has become part of the fabric of Australian culture. It’s drummed into our kids at school and consistently appears as one of the top election issues every time we hit the ballot boxes. You may be surprised, however, to find out how a few simple tweaks in the kitchen can have a massive impact on your ecological footprint. Sustainable cooking isn't about munching on limp salads or sacrificing your favourite comfort foods. It's about cooking smarter, not harder, while looking out for Mother Nature.

Here are some simple yet delicious ways you can boost your Stovetop Sustainability Game:

Step 1 - Energy Efficiency: Your Countertop Champions

Here's where the magic happens, folks – your countertop appliances are about to become your new best friends in the sustainability stakes. Think of them as the compact cars of the kitchen world: they get you where you need to go with maximum efficiency and minimum environmental impact.

Slow Cookers: The Gentle Giants of Green Cooking

The humble slow cooker is capable of so much more than just comforting soups and stews. Slow cooking aficionados get their appliances into the game to cook a surprisingly broad range of foods from bread to risotto, roast chicken to chocolate fudge. Aside from being incredibly versatile, your average slow cooker is an energy-saving superhero draped in a ceramic cap, using about the same amount of electricity as a light bulb. Compared to a regular oven, you can cook the same meals using 80% less electricity. To put that into perspective, slow-cooking a melt-in-your-mouth beef bourguignon for eight hours uses less energy than it takes to roast a chicken for two hours in a traditional oven.

The magic of slow cooking extends beyond energy savings. These patient performers transform tough, less appetising cuts of meat and vegetables that are past their prime into tender, flavourful masterpieces. So, rather than throwing away food that has seen better days, the gentle, extended cooking method brings out the best in your ingredients. After hours simmering away, nobody will ever know that the celery was limp and colourless, or that the meat was tough.

GreenPan’s gorgeous slow cookers are all coated with our technologically advanced, PFAS-free ceramic coating for optimal performance and safety. The easy-to-use controls offer a range of convenient presets and a handy LCD display to ensure maximum ease of use.

Air Fryers: The Speedy Sustainables

Air fryers have taken the world by storm for good reason. Aside from being a fast, easy and low-fat way to prepare your favourite fried foods, they're also the undisputed world champions of energy-efficient cooking! Most air fryers use up to 50% less energy in operation and cook food significantly faster, so the total energy use is a mere fraction of conventional ovens or stovetops. When you've got a hankering for crispy chips, wedges or perfectly golden chicken wings, your air fryer delivers the same crispy goodness as a frypan using rapid air circulation technology that requires minimal oil.

The real genius of air fryers lies in their versatility. From roasting vegetables to baking small batches of muffins, reheating leftovers to dehydrating fruits, these mighty machines can handle multiple cooking methods in one compact unit. This means less appliance clutter, lower energy consumption, and more counter space for your sustainable cooking adventures.

Step 2 - Batch Cooking: The Art of Sustainable Meal Prep

Batch cooking is to cooking what mass transport is to moving people - a more efficient and sustainable way to do things.

The batch cooking philosophy is all about maximising efficiency of time, effort and energy. Cooking large quantities less frequently can drastically reduce your gas or electricity use and thus your kitchen's environmental impact. If you’re organised, you’ll always have ready-to-heat-and-eat meals at your fingertips, with little to no food waste.

There are just a couple of easy steps to get your batch cooking mojo rolling.

Family-Sized Cookware: Maximise Your Capacity

Investing in larger pots, pans, and other cookware isn't just for restaurants or that family with 27 kids you saw on TV. When you add large capacity or commercial-sized cookware to your armoury, you’re acquiring the tools to cook smart for the environment.

Preparing larger quantities of food allows you to use your oven, stovetop, and other appliances more efficiently per serving. A high-capacity Dutch oven bubbling away with a hearty stew for six people uses roughly the same amount of energy as cooking a single-serving meal, but produces enough food to feed your family for days.

Stock pots become your soup-making MVPs. Where vegetable scraps would otherwise end up in the bin, you can use your cookware heavyweight to transform them into versatile stock that forms the flavour base for potentially dozens of your favourite recipes for a fraction of the cost and no packaging to add to landfill. Shift it up a gear and let your creativity loose to create appetising soups that the whole family will love. Large stockpots become your soup-making MVPs. Where vegetable scraps would otherwise end up in the bin, you can use your cookware heavyweight to transform them into versatile stock that forms the flavour base for potentially dozens of your favourite recipes for a fraction of the cost and no packaging to add to landfill. Shift it up a gear and let your creativity loose to create appetising soups that the whole family will love.

Moving from the stove to the oven, large sheet pans become your roasted vegetable workhorses, where seasonal produce gets the caramelised treatment, gently turning their sugars into rich flavours that add complexity and depth to salads, pastas, pies, and so much more.

Now that you’ve cooked enough food for a legion, it’s time to think about where you’re storing it for those days when your hectic lifestyle means you need something quick, easy and nutritious to feed the family.

The Freezer: Your Sustainability Secret Weapon

Your freezer is the ultimate time machine – it preserves the fruits (and vegetables) of your labour while preventing food waste and reducing the need for frequent shopping trips.

Dish out your batch-cooked meals into family-friendly portions using reusable containers. Suddenly, you have a hidden cache of homemade culinary convenience that puts anything you can find in the supermarket freezer section to shame. Soups, stews, casseroles, and even pre-prepped smoothie ingredients await patiently on the bench, ready to burst onto the field of play and metamorphose from frozen to fabulous with minimal energy expenditure.

For extra credit, make sure to take your pre-frozen meal out of the freezer well ahead of time to allow it to thaw to room temperature. This will further reduce the energy required to heat it.

Step 3 - Choosing Cookware Wisely: The PFAS-Free Revolution

Now, let's talk about the elephant in the kitchen – your cookware choices can make or break your sustainable cooking journey. This is where the rubber meets the road, or is it, where the spatula meets the pan? Either way, you get our drift.

The PFAS Problem: Diamonds aren’t the only thing that are “Forever”

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are the uninvited guests at the dinner party of life. Nobody expected them to arrive; they refuse to leave, which makes everyone nervous, uncomfortable, and stressed. Unaffectionately known as "forever chemicals", these substances pose not only health risks but also environmental harm, persisting in our ecosystems for centuries, if not millennia. Traditional non-stick cookware often contains these forever chemicals, making them a no-go for the environmentally conscious cook.

When PFAS-coated cookware reaches the end of its life or becomes scratched, these chemicals can leach into the atmosphere, groundwater, and soil, affecting wildlife and water systems for generations. It's like leaving a mess for your great-great-grandchildren to clean up. Not exactly the kind of legacy any eco-conscious cook wants to leave behind!

So, how can you avoid PFAS Chemicals in your kitchen and protect the health of your family, as well as the planet?

Ceramic Non-Stick: The Hero of Healthy Cooking

Enter ceramic non-stick cookware: the caped crusader of sustainable cooking! GreenPan has built a global reputation for excellence on the back of our revolutionary, non-stick and non-toxic cookware coating technology. Made from sand-derived materials, all our products are entirely free from PFAS, PFOA, lead, and cadmium. Creating the safest, highest-performing cookware has been our driving mission since our technology burst onto the cookware scene in 2007.

GreenPan products are perfect for everything from gentle egg scrambles to heavy-duty searing. They're also incredibly easy to clean, which means less water usage, fewer harsh detergents, and more time for the fun parts of cooking, like eating!

Step 4 - Waste Not, Want Not: The Zero-Waste Kitchen Philosophy

Sustainable cooking isn't just about what you cook with. It's about maximising every ingredient that enters your kitchen domain. Here’s where creativity meets conservation, and where your inner resourceful chef gets to shine!

Root-to-Stem Cooking: Everything Has Potential

Those broccoli stems you usually toss? They're delicious when peeled and sliced into stir-fries. Those leafy tops of carrots, beetroot, radish and other root vegetables? You will be gobsmacked at how you can transform them into the most delectable pestos! The celery leaves you usually toss? Did you know that they add incredible flavour to stocks and soups? Surely citrus peels are destined for the trash, no? Not so fast, buster! These flavour sensations can be candied, zested, or even used to make refreshing, citrusy cleaning products. When you stop seeing straps as waste and start viewing them as ingredients, your cooking becomes infinitely more creative and significantly more sustainable. All it takes is a marginal change in perspective to make a significant leap in your kitchen sustainability, while saving money and broadening your cooking horizons.

While you’re cooking up a storm, you might not have a bright idea for every offcut, but don’t let this be a barrier. Keep a container filled with vegetable trimmings and offcuts in your freezer, and add to it as you go. When it's full, leap into action and transform these forgotten treasures into rich, flavourful stock that puts store-bought versions to shame. It's like alchemy, but tastier!

Step 5 - Seasonal Sensations: Cooking with Nature's Calendar

Mother Nature is the ultimate meal planner. When you use each ingredient when it’s at its flavourful peak season, you’re also achieving a low environmental impact. Seasonal cooking isn't just a view-attracting Insta-trend; it's the most natural way to reduce food miles, support the local agriculture industry, and enjoy fresh, vibrant ingredients at their absolute best. Need help planning out your menu according to the seasons? Here’s a quick guide:

Spring Into Action

Spring unleashes a delicious kaleidoscope of tender asparagus, vibrant peas, delicate herbs, and a smorgasbord of other fresh vegetables. The months of September through October are the perfect time to embrace lighter cooking methods that require less energy. The warmer weather means more quick sautés, fresh salads, and gentle steaming that preserves the delicate flavours of young vegetables. You can create all this magic with a minimal carbon footprint.

Summer's Bounty: Nature's Top Gear

Summer fruits and vegetables practically cook themselves! Juicy tomatoes, delectable stone fruits and herbs flourish in the warm sunshine. The warmer months are grilling season, where outdoor cooking reduces indoor energy usage while creating incredible flavours through high-heat, quick-cooking methods.

Autumn's Abundance: Harvest Time Happiness

Autumn brings hearty root vegetables, winter squashes, and apples that are perfect for slow cooking methods. This time of year is when your slow cooker shines brightest, transforming the tougher autumn vegetables into silky smooth soups and stews while using minimal energy. It's also prime canning and preserving season, when you can lock in the remnants of summer's flavours for winter enjoyment.

Winter Warmth: Comfort Food Season

Winter cooking is all about maximising comfort while minimising waste. Root vegetables, stored grains, and preserved foods become the stars of the show. Long, slow braises transform humble ingredients into extraordinary meals, while batch cooking ensures you're always one freezer dive away from a warming meal.

Your Sustainable Cooking Journey Starts Now

The path to sustainable cooking isn't about perfection. It's a deliberate journey of building step-by-step progress. Start by making one small change in your kitchen. This could be investing in energy-efficient appliances, choosing PFAS-free cookware, or committing to wasting less food. You select the steps you’re most comfortable tackling in the order that suits you. Each step builds momentum. Before you know it, you'll be cooking with confidence, knowing that every scrumptious meal is also a gift to future generations.

It’s crucial to keep in mind that sustainable cooking is primarily about focusing on the basics: using wholesome ingredients, cooking with care, and sharing meals with the people you love. It's about slowing down in our fast-paced world and reconnecting with the fundamental joy of nourishing ourselves and our families.

So, grab that apron, fire up your energy-efficient appliances, and get ready to cook your way to a better world, one scrumptious, sustainable meal at a time. The planet is counting on you, and sustainability has never tasted so good!