Big Green Cookbook contains hundreds of clever, environmentally-friendly cooking tips. Here’s a tiny taste!

• Put a lid on it!

  This is one of my favorite green cooking techniques—even if it goes against how I was trained to properly cook. Let the lid do the cooking. When food on the stovetop is being simmered, sautéed, or boiled (like pasta), finish the cooking by covering it with a tight-fitting lid (to trap the heat), turning off the burner, then allowing to gently finish cooking with the trapped heat. No peeking—or it won’t work properly! Try this for pasta: Bring water to a boil; add pasta; bring back to a boil; cover and turn off the heat; “lid cook” for the time (or 1 minute less) than the package recommends. Voila … “lid cooked” pasta.

• Get skinny

  You don’t need to be skinny! Rather, choose foods that are thin to start with, like skinny-cut French fries instead of thick-cut ones. And before cooking a food, consider making it thinner. For instance, slice a boneless, skinless chicken breast into thin cutlets or pound it into a super-thin filet (that’s called a “paillard”) with a kitchen mallet. The slimmer the food, the faster it’ll cook—saving you and the planet energy.

• Serve casual, home-style meals

  Aim to prep, cook, and serve in the same pans or bowls (like Le Crueset stoneware) when it’s logical—so you’ll have less washing to do. When you need, wipe rims with a clean kitchen towel or a half sheet of unbleached paper towel for a prettier presentation.

• Say hello to “hypercooking”

  Heard of hypermiling, where you take any advantage you can to conserve gas while driving? Well, you can do the same with cooking. “Hyperbake” by placing foods, like cookies, into a non-preheated oven, then turn on the heat and bake partway, then turn off the heat and continue to bake until done. Generally, you can turn off the oven 5 minutes before the end of cooking. “Hyperfry” by placing foods, like chicken nuggets, into room temperature oil, then turn on the heat and fry until done

• Put it on ice

  When making pasta salad, the pasta is cooked and then often continually rinsed under cold water until it’s cooled down. But using so much of this precious resource (water) is not an eco-conscious practice. So instead of all of the rinsing, try this: Drain the cooked pasta, add several ice cubes, toss until the ice melts, then drain again. The pasta should be sufficiently cooled off and ready for pasta salad making. (By the way, I don’t have an automatic ice maker installed in my freezer. So I make ice the old-fashioned way in a tray. I actually use a covered tray meant for a dozen eggs. I love my half egg-shaped ice cubes. I call them “Artisanal ice cubes” to make them seem more glamorous—and green.)

“Eco-Savvy Cooking Tips” adapted from Big Green Cookbook by Jackie Newgent, RD (Wiley).

Go to next TIPS page:
Cook Green, Save Green Strategies