5 Ways that Being Sustainable in the Kitchen Can Save you Money in the Long Run
As a chef, I am passionate about keeping waste to a minimum in our kitchen and ensuring that everything is used to not only save money, but to reduce our impact on the environment.
23/11/2022
"As the cost of living rises, some of the changes we’ll make in our kitchens arise out of necessity too. As it turns out, opting to upcycle food - using the same ingredients for multiple meals or growing home garden plants out of used veggies - is a means to make eating more affordable and sustainable at the same time," says Chef Norman Heath, Head Chef, Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront.
Affordability and sustainability meet when we have the most cost-effective ways of sustainably using produce and products for the good of our wallets and environments. As a chef, I am passionate about keeping waste to a minimum in our kitchen and ensuring that everything is used to not only save money, but to reduce our impact on the environment. And I enjoy sharing my tips on how to do this with others.
Reducing food waste with food heroism
One of the biggest contributors to food waste is overbuying. It has long been said that shopping on a hungry tummy increases the chances of adding unnecessary items to the trolley. Simple tips to counteract this include writing out what the next week’s menu might include for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When you already have an idea of what you might eat, you’re more likely to stick to it. Select an evening each week to plan your menu for the following week and use this to create a grocery list. This menu planning will also help to curb ordering takeaways when food is already in the fridge waiting to be prepared. Aim to use dinner leftovers for lunch the next day and use this food method to become a food hero in no time.
Upcycling food
The idea of using
one ingredient over several days has been around
for decades. Today, this is known as food
upcycling. Sunday roast chicken leftovers become
Monday's chicken mayo sandwiches, and the bones
and leftover chicken then become Wednesday’s
broth. This could turn into frozen chicken stock
to be used for future soups, stews, pie
fillings, and more.
Upcycling food is
sustainable because it reduces food waste and
gives your food a longer life cycle. There are
so many things that can be done with the foods
that one wouldn’t ordinarily think to use.
Vegetables like celery, radishes, green
onions, lettuce and sprouts can all be grown on
a kitchen windowsill. Instead of discarding
their roots after using them, immerse the bottom
of the vegetable in a glass with a little water
in it and place it in partial to full sun. Watch
the vegetables grow and use them as desired.
Mono-days
These are days when one ingredient becomes one meal. Like intermittent fasting, mono-eating was originally a means for our digestive systems to have a break. The body spends less time digesting a mixture of foods and is meant to be able to absorb more nutrients as a result. Think about eating only sweet potatoes for lunch or just oats and water for breakfast and a simple oven-grilled fish for dinner. These breaks in multiple-ingredient meals ensure less food wastage and give our bodies a day to experience something different, meant to boost the digestion process.
Sustainably sourced and affordably sourced
Ingredients like fish and meat produce have
become increasingly expensive because of the
costs of mass farming them for consumer needs.
To add to that, local retailers have turned to
sourcing some fish and meat products from
international markets. Local organisations like
the sustainable fish farming app, Abalobi, have
partnered with local fishermen. The groups sell
fresh local and sustainably caught yellowtail,
cape bream, snoek, carpenters and hardeers
caught by local fishermen. Another local
sustainable fish supplier, La Lunga, specialises
in locally caught tuna focusing on freshness and
affordability. Products are home delivered and
sold at select retailers across the country.
Look to local markets across the country for
independent local meat, fish and seafood
suppliers or look up local butchers.
Issues like climate change and food security are
greater than any one individual can solve by
their actions alone. However, as recent research
suggests, making a lot of small changes such as
eating less meat, selecting fish that is
sustainably sourced and recycling can make a big
difference to our environment over time.
Use food and waste in your garden
If you have green fingers or you have envisioned growing your own food, you can do just that with items you already have. Tomato seeds, for example, can be used to grow more tomatoes. Here are some tips on seeding out tomatoes for home growing:
- Take a tomato and use a toothpick to remove the seeds onto a separate plate
- Place seeds in a sieve and rinse with water
- Place clean seeds on a piece of tissue paper and place them on a sunny windowsill
- Dry for two days
- Place a few seeds a few centimetres apart in potting soil, place in partial sun, and water every few days and watch the plant grow
You can
also use food waste in your garden. If you have
a compost heap or bin, you could add your
off-cuts from fruits, vegetables and even egg
shells, while coffee grounds can be used as
mulch and fertilizer.
As a hotel and
restaurant, Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront and
Tobago’s naturally has a lot of coffee grounds
at the end of each day. We use a lot of this in
the hotel gardens for additional fertilizer and
we give it to the team to take home for their
own gardens, too. It should be noted that coffee
grounds are quite acidic so only add it to
plants that love acid.
Just these few
small changes can make a big difference to how
much waste you contribute to the environment,
but also goes a long way in saving you money.