As you might have read in previous posts, I like to work out. One of the main reasons I like to do so is because I love food. The kitchen is therefore one of my favourite rooms in the house. Healthy food is important, but the best thing is if you can cook something which tastes great while being healthy and sustainable. In this blog I want to explore five tips on how I made my kitchen more sustainable. I will probably go into some recipes in later posts, but for now let’s explore how to make the actual kitchen a more friendly place for you and the environment!

1 – Refrigerator

I guess most of us have a refrigerator these days. The first house use models were produced in 1913 and have been keeping our food fresh ever since. There are however a couple of things you can do to make a change with your fridge. First of all, do not buy one of these huge American style fridges which have ice cube dispensers. These huge fridges need a huge amount of power and the ice cube system is working over time. The more empty a fridge, the more power it needs to consume. Make sure your fridge is full. Filling up the freezer is also a good idea, use boxes with water or newspaper to fill up the empty voids and thus reduce the need for cooling. The best tip yet however, is the energy label. Usually I do not support buying anything new, but a fridge is an exception. Fridges with higher energy labels consume way less energy. We switched fridges last year and it saves a quarter of our energy bill just having a better fridge. Make sure to bring your old fridge away for recycling.

2 – Get rid of gas

We can all agree that use of fossil fuels should be reduced as much as possible. In the Netherlands people still love gas, especially for cooking. Using gas for cooking or for the stove is less efficient than using an electric solution. Cooking on an induction plate is faster and has an efficiency of 90%, almost no heat waste there. My gas bill has dropped significantly while switching away from gas, but my electricity bill has not rising too much. This means I save money and do less harm to the environment while cooking. I also have an Airfryer and electric oven, the Airfryer is pure magic. It takes about half of the time to heat stuff up with respect to a normal oven and it uses little energy. A great plus is that you never need to use fat again for frying.

3 – Dishwasher

Now this may come as a surprise, dishwashers are sustainable! Since most people leave tabs running while doing the dishes, a lot of water is wasted. Only if you use two tiles of water and don’t have real dirty dishes washing by hand is more energy efficient. In my case my water and gas usage has gone down since we have a dishwasher. We have a small dishwasher, which we always run on eco-mode. Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and clean the filters every now and then. The great thing about a dishwasher is that is electrically heats your water, so again no gas needed. It only pumps up water once, so there won’t be an excess of wasted water. Do be mindful of how much you use it. I always reuse plates and cups for the day before I put them in the dishwasher. Washing less is always better.

4 – Soap

Cleaning in the kitchen can also be green. I always use Method or handmade cleaners and soaps for cleaning pans and surfaces. Regular cleaning agents usually hold a lot of chemicals and palm oil. Making your own is a lot of fun, I will share some recipes later. If you do not have the time to DIY go for a brand with uses natural ingredients and which focusses on sustainability.

5 – Use cloth not paper

Antoni used to have an obsession with paper wipes for cleaning the kitchen. Some people think it is more hygienic. I always use cloth since I can reuse it. Just wash it and done. I think it saves a lot of trees and money to use cloth. I also feel that it cleans surfaces much better since it does not break. You can make cloth out of anything, an old shirt, I saw fellow bloggers making them with crochet, the possibilities are endless.

With these tips anybody can become a green master chef in their own kitchen! If you have any tips to add please leave a comment 🙂

Love,

Rinoa