Save Energy in the Kitchen: 10 Cooking Tips

These 10 tips are worth their weight in gold, especially with energy bills being what they are! And they are so brilliantly simple that you’ll find them easy to incorporate without feeling put-upon or strained in any way.

Find out the ten simple cooking tips that will save you some energy in the kitchen, right here:

1. Cover pans while cooking to prevent heat loss.

2. Make sure your pan covers the coil of your range. If you can see coil peeping out from the sides of your pan, you are losing energy and you need a bigger pan!

3. Try one-pot cooking. Stews, soups, and other great peasant meals only take one burner to cook and they are so nourishing and satisfying! We have lots of great one-pot recipes in our Care2 Green Kitchen channels.

4. Just before your food is cooked completely, turn off the oven or burner and allow the heat in the pot or pan to continue the cooking process for you.

5. The less liquid and fat you use, the quicker the cooking time.

6. Always make more food than you plan to use and freeze it for your own “fast food.”

7. Leftovers take less energy to reheat on top of the stove rather than in the oven.

8. Most of us eat a lot of pasta. Make extra, toss with olive oil, and keep in the fridge so you don’t have to heat an entire pot of water to the boiling point every time you want some.

9. If you have one, use a pressure cooker. It really saves on energy.

10. Try using a solar box cooker.

Read more: Home, Reduce, Recycle & Reuse

Inspired by The Green Kitchen Handbook, by Annie Berthold-Bond (Harper Perennial, 1997).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Cheryl B.

2:07PM PDT on Aug 8, 2011

thanks for the info

send a green star

Trev B.

4:29PM PDT on Jul 16, 2011

Good ideas - i already do most except the pressure cooker. I think we should not neglect the microwave oven for energy savings, as it heats the food directly not by convection by heating the food container first.

Thorn R.

1:14PM PDT on Jul 5, 2011

good ideas and remidners ...

Val G.

2:49PM PDT on May 29, 2011

Thank you Annie. Great reminder!

Loretta K.

8:51AM PDT on May 18, 2011

thanks

Jennifer C.

5:13PM PDT on May 17, 2011

Wonderful article. Thanks.

KS G.

4:56AM PST on Feb 16, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Pinke A.

5:40PM PST on Nov 25, 2010

Most of these things I do already,but Solar-heat cooker,I do not know.In the summer,we use Solar heath in the summerplace,but special cooker ?

Christine F.

12:43PM PST on Nov 25, 2010

I already do most of these, including the switching off the heat before cooking time is finished - it works for me with gas burners. It must work even better for folk with electric plates or rings.
I haven't used my pressure cooker for years. It always seems to take much longer than a pan to come to "boiling", or "pressure", so I didn't reckon the savings would be all that much for cooking potatoes, etc. But maybe I should look it out again, and use it instead of my steamer, for a while. Then check the fuel consumption for cooking....

Diptima B.

7:00AM PST on Nov 25, 2010

Rice can be cooked in a pressure cooker too- Measure the rice and use double the amount of water.