Green Kitchen Essentials

I love to get into the kitchen and cook. Many of us here at Green Calgary do. I also love that it's one of the easiest places to make a real difference in my environmental impact! The average Canadian throws out about 170 kg of food every year, making up about 40% of what we buy! So, I make it my mission to cook and eat as sustainably as possible, and I've found that, actually, it's not that difficult! I'll go through a little list here of some general tips, and some specific ingredients you can use! Here are your Green Kitchen essentials to live by:

Plan your meals: My partner and I always plan two weeks of meals at a time, so when we buy groceries, we know when we're buying things we need versus things we just want... That helps remind us that we don't need to purchase too many unnecessary or unhealthy foods.

Have a storage plan: Plan where all the food is going to go. Partly, this also means planning on what you do if your lettuce starts to go bad, or how you plan to deal with leftovers (glass jars are great for this).

Cook as often as you can: Cooking has triple benefits. You don't drive to get food or to get it delivered for you, so you're saving on the emissions. You control what ingredients you buy, so you can buy ingredients with less packaging. You can put all your kitchen scraps in the compost, making rich fertilizers to grow more food!

Eat less meat: It's okay if you aren't prepared to go 100% vegan! Start making changes one step at a time. Eliminating meat from a single day a week makes a huge impact! Some calculations suggest that skipping eating a single 1/4 pound hamburger (114g) can save the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions as driving 560km and the equivalent water of filling 10 bathtubs! That's a lot. So, every little bit helps.

Be Prepared: Having some kitchen essentials on hand means that when you're stuck on what to make, your plans fall through, or it's too cold to go out on date night, you have something to rely on! Here are some easy staples to have on hand:

• Beans and rice: together these make up many of your essential nutrients and they happen to be easy to store. I buy bulk black beans and cook them ahead of time in large batches, and then freeze them in jars, but you can keep some cans on hand, too. I also have different kinds of rice ready for when different kinds of meals come to mind.
• Lentils: Lentils are delicious, easy to cook, and are a major Albertan crop! They can go in a lot of different soups and stews, adding a nice texture and their earthy flavour. They're packed with fibre and protein, and they last for a long, long time in the cupboard!
• Vegetable stock: Having stock on hand can turn many bland meals into delicious meals! Veggie stock, in particular, seems really versatile to me, and I can use it to make sauces, soups, or cook rice and beans in!
• Miso paste: Another way of adding a ton of flavour, season with miso remembering that it's very salty (so cut back other sources of salt). Miso paste adds that deep umami flavour that we crave from meaty, fatty foods, and can be used as a soup base, or in sauces, marinades, and salad dressings.
• Vinegar: An unsung hero of the kitchen, adding a little acid to a lot of foods elevates their taste like crazy! I add just a little to many soups, stews, and marinades, and I have a few different kinds on hand to match with different dishes. Oh, it also lasts forever.

These are some of my favourites to have on hand, and they tend to be pretty efficient in terms of packing a flavourful punch and having a long shelf life! I throw out far less food now that I have a plan, and a few things on hand to fill in missing meals! What are your favourite kitchen essentials? Any tips you want to share about keeping waste down in the kitchen? You can let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.