Struggling to prepare healthy meals that not only are kind to your waistline, but also taste good on your fork? You’re not alone. Many home cooks have a tough time figuring out how to make healthy food taste delicious. And many wrongly assume only unhealthy food tastes good, while healthy food is doomed to taste less flavorful, smell less appetizing, and look a little sadder on the plate. Fortunately, they’re completely wrong. And professional chefs have discovered (and shared) numerous tricks that make healthy food taste incredibly delicious.
When it comes to food and drink, the best thing we can do, both environmentally and financially, is make the most of what we buy rather than throwing it away. By the time food has reached our homes, it’s taken a huge amount of energy, water, and packaging to be produced, transported, and stored.
Harvard University Housing's Sustainable Community Leaders hosted "Harvard Hates Waste," an event to combat food waste. The Leaders focused on cooking with leftovers, while their guest speaker, Sasha Purpura, Executive Director of Food for Free, talked about her organization's work. Food for Free focuses on farm and retail supply chain waste and distributes food that would otherwise be wasted to great local causes. Read more about Food for Free's partnership with Harvard.
The Leaders took some of the most common leftovers and, by combining them with store-cupboard essentials, cooked up some really easy delicious meals, proving that you don't need to be a top chef to save money, reduce waste, and cook for a crowd.
Tactics to reduce food waste
Resource contributed by Sustainable Community Leader Tom Etheridge.
1. Planning
Planning is everything. Planning your meals is one of the most effective ways you can cut waste and food bills.
Top tips to help planning:
Keep a pad and pen in the kitchen (or use a note or app on your phone) and write down items when they run out so you don't buy things you already have.
Work out a weekly meal plan. Shopping for specific ingredients with meals in mind and taking a list helps ensure we use what we buy.
Don't plan every meal! Life at Harvard is busy and there are always events that come up during the week. Just thinking about 4-5 meals allows you to be flexible with unexpected leftovers, especially if you keep some meals in the freezer as a back-up in case your plans fall through.
Buying foods that can be used for several different dishes gives us flexibility to create different meals.
2. Storage
Make sure you store food correctly according to the label. Often, foods come with lots of packaging which seems wasteful, but is often designed to help keep the food fresh, so keep it in its original packaging when you store it.
Make sure your fridge and freezer are at the correct temperature. A fridge that is too warm will lead to waste.
Use your freezer! It's an amazing resource to prevent waste when your plans change.
Food can be frozen any time before the ‘use by’ date on the label so if you buy something and don't use it straight away, you can freeze it anytime before the use by date and it will still be safe.
3. Cooking Leftovers
Try to keep your store-cupboard and freezer well-stocked with a variety of canned, dried, and frozen goods. These store-cupboard essentials have a long life and can be mixed with other foods to make delicious meals.
Use leftovers for lunch the next day! Find out where there is a fridge and a microwave at your department or school, make sure you remember a fork and you're all set to eat well, save money, and reduce waste! A small investment in a plastic tub to carry leftovers can pay-back very quickly.