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No cooking at all
- overnight oats – soak oats in milk overnight with dried fruit etc
- soak/sprout chickpeas to use raw in salads or hummous.
- soak lentils/chickpeas to reduce cooking time in curries, stews etc
How to reduce cooking time
- chop/grate ingredients finely
- keep lids on pans and turn down to simmer
- switch heat off early as dish will continue to cook in residual heat
- switch appliances off at plug when not in use (not just on stand-by)
Energy consumption of different cooking methods
From bbc.co.uk/food/articles/energy_savings_tips Originally published March 2022
Figures from Sarah Bridle, Professor of Food, Climate and Society at the University of York, based on Wattage numbers from Supplementary Data of supplementary table of Frankowska et al Nature Food.
Baking one potato
- In the oven (120 minutes) = 6.07kWh (assume oven on for 2h including warmup time). If you put in 4 potatoes, each one = 1.52kWh
- In the microwave (10 minutes) = 0.14 kWh
- Part microwave (5 minutes) part oven (30 minutes cooking plus 15 minutes warmup) = 2.34kWh
Boiling one cup of water
- In microwave (4 minutes) = 0.05kWh
- In electric kettle (2 minutes) = 0.07kWh
- In kettle or covered pan on induction hob (2 minutes) = 0.14kWh
- In pan on standard electric hob (5 minutes) = 0.18kWh
Reheating stew/casserole
- In microwave (8 minutes) = 0.11kWh
- On induction hob (5 minutes) = 0.35kWh
On standard electric hob (12 minutes) = 0.43kWh
In the oven (45 minutes) = 2.27kWh
Cooking porridge
- In microwave (5 minutes) = 0.07kWh
- On induction hob (5 minutes) = 0.35 kWh
- On standard electric hob (10 minutes) = 0.36kWh
Hungerford Food Festival 