5 affordable eco-friendly habits that are easy to follow in the kitchen right now

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If you have decided to become more attentive to the planet in 2022, the time to start is today. Our tips are easy to follow, but they will help you reduce food waste, be more careful with products, and cook more consciously. Our habits have great power for the environment!

Tip # 1. Get a special container for leftovers in the kitchen

In the kitchens of some restaurants, where caring and attentive employees work, there is a special bucket where they put everything for the broth. Trimmings of onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, and potatoes are not thrown away after processing vegetables, but are stored in the same container along with pieces of roots and stems of spicy herbs. This helps to prepare vegetable broth from what would otherwise go into the trash.

This practice is easy to transfer to the home kitchen. Put clean vegetable waste (preferably dried as much as possible) in a large food container and put it in vegetable broth for soups, sauces or risotto. If there is no time for this, send the container to the freezer. It is optimal to divide food waste into portions sufficient to cook 1-2-3 liters of broth or as you prefer. This can be done by lining portions of vegetable scraps and pieces with parchment paper.

Tip #2. Use 100% of the products

We know that many will laugh at this statement – chips are made from potato peelings, marinade for turkey from olive oil, remember the peasants, famine, the USSR, but using pumpkin peels, onion skins, potato broth, water left after cooking rice or Italian pasta, liquid from cans of canned tuna is not bliss, but a healthy solution! All this is edible, you just need to know how to use these leftovers. Sometimes the new life of such “secondary” products is the result of the long experience of different peoples or the experiments of modern chefs. Using leftovers is a great way to save money when chips are made from potato peelings, turkey marinade is made from olive brine, and eggs are replaced in mayonnaise with liquid from a can of canned beans or chickpea broth.

Tip #3. Don't throw away expired foods

In order not to throw away products whose expiration date is approaching, choose recipes for quick and nutritious dishes. Why quick? You are unlikely to want to cook something complicated and time-consuming from something that you can simply throw away out of habit. Pay attention to recipes for sauces for Italian pasta/meat/poultry/vegetables, fillings for stuffed vegetables or pizza, omelets/eggs/frittatas, broth/soup.

IMPORTANT! Expiration date is the time interval during which a product can be eaten or used for cooking. The shelf life determines the time during which the product retains its original qualities (fresh taste, smell, consistency and nutrients). During the shelf life, products do not lose their consumer qualities. Expiration dates are always longer than the shelf life or they are equal. Example: the shelf life of honey and olive oil can be calculated in months, and the expiration date in years.

Tip #4. Keep leftovers in the refrigerator in sight

Those who have been practicing “green” habits for a long time know that in order to eat food on time and not throw anything away, it is better to store leftovers in glass jars. Opaque containers, foil, cling film – all this hides products from us, and therefore we can simply forget about them.

In a well-organized restaurant kitchen, containers with products, preparations and food waste are clearly visible, since they are all labeled and dated. This is a very useful habit!

Tip #5. Plan more, buy less

Let's take another example from catering establishments, where “green” habits are implemented much more actively than in the home kitchen. It is believed that if restaurant/cafe employees buy 2% more products than necessary, this can potentially reduce the profit of the establishment by half.

We think this math is also relevant for the home, so make a weekly menu for your family and check your food supplies before going to the store or market. Divide your shopping list into two parts: mandatory and additional. If for the sake of the mandatory it is worth going to several stores, then the products from the additional part that you did not find right away can be bought later.

We often succumb to impulses and tend to buy more than we need. Therefore, limit yourself either by the amount you plan to spend or by the weight you will carry in your hands/load into the trunk of your car when returning from the store.

Start the change with small steps. We cannot save the world alone, we will not change our lives in one day, so we need to be lenient with ourselves. Just choose a few available “green” skills, for example, these 5, and implement them into your life.