I recently found a great book by Joanna Yarrow, a UK based consultant and leading expert on sustainable living. The book is called How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint and features many fab tips that are really easy to adopt. No brainers, in fact - so easy that even we can do it!

So, with this in mind, I’ve decide to feature a selection of these tips in a ‘treading lightly’ series of articles. The first one deals with how to tread lightly while cooking. Here goes:

Use one pot
I love soups and stews so this is something I’ve done for a long time. By cooking a ‘meal-in-a-pot’ once in a while, you’re saving up to 30% of the energy. Try a great bean casserole (beans, tomatoes, veggie stock, onions, left-overs…) or a nice chicken soup with potatoes to give it a bolster. Serve with a hunk of bread and savour….! Oh - and only one pot to wash, too!

Keep your surfaces nice and shiny
Cast your mind back to those Physics lessons! If you keep your cooking appliance surfaces nice and shiny then this will maximise the amount of heat reflected back towards the food.

Choose gas over electric
Gas ranges produce less than half the CO2 emissions per kilowatt hour of electric ones. But get one with electric ignition which will use about 40% less gas than one with a pilot light.

Use a convection oven for the big stuff
These babies cook your food in about 60% of the time!

Go Micro for the small stuff
A microwave can save big on heating small portions and leftovers, but try not to use it for defrosting as it’s very inefficient. If 10,000 people microwaved one meal instead of firing up their electric oven, then the energy saved would heat your hot tub for a year!

Turn your microwave off completely
When you’re not using your microwave, then turn it completely off. The clock alone will use almost as much energy of time as the microwave itself!

Cook in batches
OK - so this one may be a test of your planning skills to avoid eating the same thing 5 days in a row, but if you have the imagination and the freezer space then it’s far more economical to cook up that big pot of veggie chilli than to prepare from scratch each day. It takes less time and saves on energy. Pick 5 of your favorite dishes and for one week of effort - you could end up with a month’s worth of meals!

Buy local and seasonal
Avoid the supermarket ‘all year round’ mentality and try to buy local, seasonal produce. You’ll reduce the amount of freight emissions associated with your meal and also support your local farmers!

They aren’t plenty more fish in the sea
Make ‘healthy ocean’ choices when it comes to buying seafood. Some species are being fished so aggressively that we can’t breed them fast enough. Help by only buying species that aren’t endangered, such as bass or trout. Ideally, we also only want to buy fish caught with little or no ‘bycatch’ (ie, where other animals are harvested by accident and thrown back dead or dying). Click here to get all the facts and that way you can support responsible fishermen and help reduce wasted catch.

Size DOES matter
At least in this case! If you chop up your ingredients into smaller pieces, then they cook faster and…yes, you’ve guessed it, take less energy to cook!

Use Small Pans
Use the smallest pan you have to do the job as small pans require less energy to heat up! Oh, and please keep the lid on!!!

Match the Pan to the Burner
Now you’re using the smallest pan to do the job, you now have to make sure that it matches the size of the burner. If the pan is too small for the burner then heat escapes to the sides and only goes to heating up your kitchen (and probably your air conditioning bills).

Use flat bottomed pans on electric elements
This will ensure that the heat is conducted more efficiently and your food will cook more quickly and evenly.

In fact, forget the pan - let off some steam instead
The most frequently used item in my kitchen (apart from the corkscrew, of course) is my steamer. The one I have has multiple levels that allows me to cook masses of veg at once! Perfect!

Can you take the pressure?
If you have a pressure cooker then use it. It cooks food in a fraction of the time and you can bung it all in one

Pop-Up Your Toast
OK - I’m sure none of you fire up that huge broiler any more just to brown your bread but, in case you still do, then consider using a pop-up toaster. It uses up to 3 times less energy than the broiler in your oven! That’s a no-brainer!

Skip the Pre-Packaged Meals
Got left-overs in the fridge, then why not whip up a quick stir-fry instead of buying those satanic pre-packaged, plastic riddled, stuffed with unidentifiable ingredient type meals? Just a thought.., no pressure!

Turn off the heat when it’s almost ready
This is a great idea - when the food is almost cooked then turn off the heat as the food will still cook in the residual heat! Oh, and, talking of residual heat - items like rice and pasta can be cooked in this manner as soon as the water is boiling. Just turn it off and let it sit. It’ll take about 50% longer to cook, but nibble on a cracker or something while you wait!

Don’t preheat the oven
It’s not necessary, unless you’re cooking pastry, bread or a souffle. The oven will heat up quickly enough for most other things.

Leave well alone
Resist the temptation to keep opening the door to peek at your fabulous culinary creation! Each time you open the door 25% of the heat escapes!

Location, location, location
Install your fridge and freezer in a cool spot, as far away as possible from your stove and with a nice 2 inch gap all around for air to circulate. This alone can cut your CO2 emissions by up to 350lbs per year!

Spring clean your coils!
OK - not such an easy task, but if you can keep the coils at the back of the fridge free of dust then this will improve efficiency by up to 30%.

Defrost Regularly
A frosty freezer use more energy just to keep going. Defrost when the ice is about 1/4 inch thick.

Keep it tidy
By keeping your fridge organised, you can cut down by almost 30% on the amount of cold air that escapes each time you open the door!

Recycle, don’t reuse
Once your old, energy-guzzling fridge has seen it’s last veggie samosa, then don’t put it on the second hand market. Please arrange for it to be dismantled by an approved re-cycler.

Let food cool
Don’t put hot food in the fridge as the condensation it will produce makes the fridge work harder.