What’s the easiest way to make sure your food is sustainably sourced? Cook it yourself.
Cooking sustainably is a great way to reduce your impact on the environment, people and animals. Unlike dining out or buying prepared food — where there are many layers of sourcing, preparation and packaging that you can’t control — cooking at home allows you to make sustainable choices at every step of the process, from shopping for the most sustainable ingredients to reducing food waste as you cook.
Whether it’s using vegetable parts you normally would throw away, like broccoli and cauliflower stems; reducing the amount of meat in your meals; “whole cooking” a roast chicken carcass and vegetable trimmings into stock; or composting leftover scraps, there are plenty of ways to cook sustainably and in a way that decreases your foodprint.
And when you approach your cooking with sustainability in mind, you’ll also be saving money. Using the whole vegetable from stem to leaf — or the whole chicken from beak to tail — is a great way to reduce food waste, but it also means maximizing your food dollar. By learning to use your food for all it’s worth, you’ll be eating more delicious food, saving money and making decisions that are better for the environment, animals and people.
Ready to start cooking sustainably? Find out tips and tricks for using up stalks, peels, leaves and cobs to make stocks, jams, pickles and more.
Top photo by Rawpixel.com/Adobe Stock.