Energy Efficient Cooking
Unless you’ve got your cooker hooked up to a wind turbine, or some solar panels on your roof, chances are that it guzzles the electricity or gas every time you use it! All energy used (and wasted) in our homes contributes to climate change.
Anyone fancy a ‘raw food’ diet ? (Not likely to be an Action many Generous members would buy.)
So here’s a more practical thought: when you cook your pasta, bring it to the boil, stick the lid on, then turn the heat right off. It will cook! Honest! It might take a bit longer than if you left it simmering, and you’ll have to keep an eye on it, but after a bit of experimenting you should find that you know how long it will take. It’s simple but effective… what about trying this also with rice, or when hard boiling eggs! Remember, every little we do makes a difference!
Join the fray by signing in.
Recent Comments
Recent people doing this
Related Actions
Improve your home’s energy efficiency
Choose To Have One Meat-Free Day A Week In Your Home
11 Feb 2006
I already do this with boiled eggs (switch off gas as soon as it boils and leave for 6 mins) and sometimes with poached eggs, but I hadn’t thought of doing it with pasta.
We eat a lot of pasta, as our son’s a pasta addict, so this sounds like a good move.
Stroud, GB , 11 Feb 2006
Very happy to give this a go. We too are pasta addicts (how did anyone manage before it was standard UK fare?) so this would be a great thing if it works..
11 Feb 2006
I tend to cook like this anyway and I also stem my food together too or if I am reheating rice, I put it over something else that is cooking.
GB , 12 Feb 2006
I always cook rice or pasta like this and steam the veggies over it, also works in the oven with roast veggies
Leicester, GB , 12 Feb 2006
Le Creuset or similar cast iron saucepans are good for this as they stay hot for so long. I use for rice, pasta, veg, cous cous, and if you’ve boiled them for a while, soaked beans such as chick peas. I was intrigued to see a refinement on the hay box cooker on the Yellow House website. Does anybody out there use one?
13 Feb 2006
I have tried this twice now and next time I am going to keep a lid on which I am advised will mean the pasta cooks even quicker, tastes even better.
13 Feb 2006
W tried this tonight for the first time with spuds and it worked!Also tried it on heating through a dish with extra vege. Again the results were fine.
14 Feb 2006
I’m intrigued by this! I do steam all veg, thereby using only one ring and will definitely give this a go.
25 Feb 2006
I have done this with rice previously ( the other advantage of this is that it avoids the scenario where you forget about it and the next thing you know you have burnt the pan when it boils dry) but I will try this with other things too now.
27 Feb 2006
This sounds interesting – I’ll give it a whirl and see how it goes.
16 Mar 2006
I cooked a pasta meal for 22 young people from Georgia U.S.A. who are over here in Wales for 1 week doing church & community work. I used this new system of cooking the pasta. It was perfect & resulted in 22 clean plates!
25 Mar 2006
Wonderful suggestion….the pasta is perfest! Thankyou
15 Apr 2006
This has led us to actually switching the hob off when not in use at the mains and the same for the microwave.
The process for perfect pasta works with most vege + rice.
Nottingham, GB , 22 Apr 2006
I was a bit sceptical about whether this would work – especially with pasta – but it’s great!
Stroud, GB , 22 Apr 2006
Following up on Kathryn’s comment earlier (as chief cook & bottle-washer) I can confirm that it does work…! We – or should i say ‘I’? – now do this with pasta (& noodles for the stir-frys). Will try for other boiled items over the next few weeks, but suspect that for brown rice it might get cold before the rice is cooked :-(
Reading, GB , 24 May 2006
Did it with pasta and rice, but potatoes weren’t cooking so ended up giving up and putting gas on. Think I should probably cut potato up smaller
12 Jun 2006
I do this with the oven, I turn the oven off 5 or 10mins before the end of cooking and let the dinner finish with the heat thats already in there.
Sheffield, GB , 05 Jul 2006
it took me a few goes to remember but nnow i do it this way automatically
18 Jul 2006
If you make your own, real fresh pasta, then this is not an issue, it only takes 60 seconds to cook.
Of course it does call for some hard work, but it is worth it.
Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade, it does not need to boil rapidly, all that does is to make lots of steam and waste energy.
Turn the heat down to a really low simmer, it might not seem as hot, but it is, just as hot, get a thermometer and prove it to yourself.
20 Aug 2006
Ooo goody having pasta for supper tomorrow night so will give this a try.
03 Sep 2006
Tried it and my pasta was perfect – normally it is overdone so I am thrilled that my cooking has improved by way of saving a wee bit of energy. Did it on my spuds too :o)
04 Oct 2006
rather cowardly i thought i’d not try this out at teatime! but i did try it out with some cooking apples and it worked perfectly so i will experiment with other things i promise!
Godalming, GB , 09 Oct 2006
This works for potatoes, too. In fact it’s esepcially good for the kind that disintigrate when cooked on too high a heat such as King Edwards.
18 Oct 2006
We’re totally convinced about the wondrousness of this idea, which we became hooked on while camping in the summer. (nothing like our old camp stove for making you aware of fuel consumption.)Anyway, I can never manage to synchronise meals to have it all ready at once, so nothing to lose!
Leicester, GB , 16 Nov 2006
I have to admit feeling dubious about this, but I’ve just read everyone’s comments which are all very positive so I am determined to give it a try. Has anyone tried using this method with brown rice or wholewheat pasta?
Dundee, GB , 22 Dec 2006
Can I ask for some practical advice?
I cook rice this way, putting the rice in the water, soaking it for a few mins, then bring to the boil and turn off.
However with pasta I generally bring the water to the boil and then put the pasta in. For this method does the pasta need to go in at the start as for rice?
I know I could just try it and see what happens (I will too) but I don’t want to waste buckets of pasta if I can help it!
Plymouth, GB , 05 Mar 2007
Have just started doing this. Rice and frozen veg work too. I did potatoes tonight. Will try lots more things and turning off the oven early too.
09 Apr 2007
the reality is, we’re always cooking in a hurry…despite all resolutions to SLOW DOWN…Hmmm!
Reading, GB , 29 May 2007
My Mum used to do a similar thing ironing when I was little. Start with the things needing the hottest setting and turn it down as she went before ironing the last few things with the iron turned off. Not relevant to cooking but still another energy saver.
Kingston upon Thames, GB , 07 Aug 2007
What an ingenious idea. I’m always after tips like this for saving energy – can’t wait to try it out with tomorrow’s pasta dinner ;)
29 Aug 2007
One of the Mennonite cook books has a method of cooking in a box. The idea is get the pan going then place in a box and wrap with a blanket. That allows the cooking process to continue they say. Not tried myself but interesting.