A Green Kitchen Means A Healthy, Wealthy And Wise Nation ! – #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
My most striking memories of a kitchen go back to the time when I was a 11 year old kid studying in the 5th grade. During summer vacations my sister and I were usually packed off to my uncle’s place in Manamadurai in Tamil Nadu where we used to have a great time with all our cousins.
My grandmother and aunt used to do the cooking and as is the wont in Indian society all the girls were constantly encouraged to learn cooking. All the boys were excluded from this chivying. This used to strike me as extremely unfair. Why should girls have all the fun?
My grandmother’s kitchen was unlike anything you would ever come across these days. She used to cook using what was called a veragaduppu in Tamil. I am not sure what the English equivalent is, but in Hindi I think it is called Bhatti. Here is an image.
Dry wood was used as fuel. While cooking, the entire kitchen would be a fog of smoke and my poor granny and aunt used to cough a lot.
There used to be no modern grinders in that kitchen. So Dosa and Idli batter had to be made manually using a stone-grind called ammikal in Tamil. Here is an image.
There used to be no modern grinders in that kitchen. So Dosa and Idli batter had to be made manually using a stone-grind called ammikal in Tamil. Here is an image.
I started off with the intention of writing about an environment friendly, green kitchen and I find myself getting carried away by memories of my childhood and seem to be digressing from the topic. Let us shift our attention to kitchens of today and how one can make them sustainable. Talking of environment friendly kitchens what are the things in a kitchen that contribute to making it green? Simple answer : everything.
From what you eat and how you cook, to the kind of utensils you use and the appliances you have in your kitchen, simply everything matters. I will deal with the various points one by one.
Of course one gets flabbergasted when one hears from chefs that what we eat has a role to play in keeping our environment clean. Sounds far-fetched doesn’t it? But yes; the truth is, you eat healthy, your body stays healthy and so does the environment. You eat junk, your body becomes unhealthy and so does the environment.
My wife is very particular about feeding us sabjis made of fresh vegetables and she generally gives us home made fruit juice and makes sure that no item that can be even remotely harmful ever finds a place in the kitchen. So what type of food items should we eat to keep the environment and our body healthy? It is best if we eat vegetables that do not require too many fertilisers and pesticides for growing. These harm the environment, sometimes contaminate the vegetables themselves and in turn our bodies when we consume them.
For example we can eat green peas instead of soybeans. Tomatoes, Spinach, Lentils and Nuts are also very healthy for the body and very environment friendly. These vegetables leave very little carbon footprint.
As far as possible try to buy vegetables and fruits locally from nearby farms if there are any near your place. You can even buy them from local vendors. There is nothing wrong in buying vegetables from these fellows you see in the market who come early in the morning with fresh vegetables piled on a hand-cart even if they sell it at a slightly higher price than the super-markets. Please do not assume that what they sell is unhygienic just because you see it in a hand-cart instead of a posh super-market shelf. Most of us tend to make a bee-line for the super-markets thinking the stuff there is superior in quality. Vegetables and fruits in super-market shelves are transported by trucks from distant places and leave more carbon footprint.
As far as possible try to avoid processed food. All packed stuff like packed Masala Rice, Pulav and ready to warm Parathas, Puri, Chappathis etc are easy to cook rapidly and consume. They come in very handy when you are in a hurry or when you are alone at home and do not know how to cook. But the problem is they are high in preservatives which are used to keep them fresh and this is not good for the body. Try and avoid them as far as possible.
Let us turn to beverages. When I was a young man I was a connoisseur of aerated drinks. I gave them up once I realised what effect they were having on my body. These drinks are not suited to everyone’s health. Only few people’s physiologies can handle the dissolved gases in such drinks. Another fact is, these drinks are manufactured and transported from distant factories. Generally most manufacturing processes have at least some effect on the environment. Factories making aerated drinks are no exception.
There is nothing simpler than buying fresh fruits like apples, oranges, guava etc and making fresh fruit juice at home. All it takes is a mixy and some patience. And it is also extremely important to be sure that the water used for drinking or making juice is pure and uncontaminated. The best part of processing fruits at home is that you can eat the fruit raw if you like that or consume them as juice if you prefer that. The choice is yours.
After food, the next thing that comes to the mind is the vessels we use in our kitchens, the bottles we use to store the grocery items and the glasses we use for drinking. These are of paramount importance and go a long way towards making your kitchen environment friendly. Generally avoid utensils made of Aluminium. They are harmful for health.
I remember when I was a child, in many orthodox households it used to be considered a privilege to be served food in Silver plates. Silver is costly but it is not unsafe as generally believed. Utensils made of Stainless Steel, wood and Silicon are extremely environment friendly and non-invasive. Avoid using Plastic or Teflon. Use non-sticky utensils as far as possible.
The next thing that comes to the mind is waste disposal. Till a couple of years back, the waste disposal system in the apartment building where I live was very slipshod. We were all given a kind of bag in which we had to dump all the waste higgledy-piggledy and place it outside our doors. This would then be collected and disposed off by the cleaning staff. But off-late they have introduced a new system and we have been given separate Red and Green buckets. All of us have been told to put the non-biodegradable waste in the Red buckets, the biodegradable waste in the Green bucket and place them outside our apartment front doors for disposal.
There is a reason for this. It helps in segregating harmful waste and useful waste. Biodegradable waste can be recycled and used for so many purposes. On the other hand non-biodegradable waste is toxic and nothing can be done with it. It has to be disposed off safely so that it does not harm the environment. One can see that being stringent about waste disposal not only keeps the environment clean but also helps in economic welfare.
In general keep your kitchen neat and clean. A hygienic kitchen helps a lot in keeping the environment clean. I have never been inside a kitchen in a restaurant or a hotel. Sometimes the kind of things I hear about the state of hygiene inside these kitchens makes my stomach churn.
In restaurants and hotels the kitchens are out of bounds and we do not know what the state of hygiene is like inside these kitchens. Maybe some of the things we hear are just wild rumours. But the least we can do is to maintain our kitchens at home properly. It does not take too much effort to keep our kitchens clean. I will wind up this narrative with these final words:
A green kitchen leads to a healthy life for all members of the family. If members of all families in the nation are healthy, all citizens of the country are healthy. If all citizens of the country are healthy the entire nation becomes healthy, wealthy and wise !!!
Author’s Note: This article has been written as a part of SuperBloggerChallenge2018 conducted by Healthwealthbridge.com, Fashionablefoodz.com, Allaboutthewoman.com and should not be repurposed, republished or used otherwise. The content herein is owned by the blogger. SuperBloggerChallenge2018 is not responsible for any kind of infringement caused.
This article has been written in response to the prompt provided by celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani for #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa week – 3 : “Sustainability In The Kitchen”
http://allaboutthewoman.com/
http://healthwealthbridge.com/
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This article has been written in response to the prompt provided by celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani for #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa week – 3 : “Sustainability In The Kitchen”
http://allaboutthewoman.com/
http://healthwealthbridge.com/
https://fashionablefoodz.com/
I like the concept of green kitchen and I agreed these small changes could bring a major change to our health. I enjoyed reading your article and pictures are awesome too. #Superbloggerchallenge2018
It’s good to know that biodegradable waste is now being segregated:)
The points you have made are apt and I agree with them!
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I can so connect to your post. In my childhood as well, I used to go to our village where meals were prepared on Chooolhas. I guess that was the reason people of that time remain healthy for longer time. They used to follow healthy food practices that maintained their bodies till very late. And yes Green Kitchen is what we all need. I have started making my own kitchen a Green Kitchen. I have started from getting rid of all plastic from my kitchen.
A very comprehensive article about sustainability in the kitchen. Verage adipu.. my grandmom house had that too.. she was hailed as the kitchen queen as for many years she cooked for 30+ people on a daily basis!
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Hi Jai! I loved the beginning ..our ancestors were much wiser even though not as educated. The waste management and disposal was a surprise pointer but a pertinent one. Very practical post. 🙂
Lovely Post , I do have childhood memories where my granny used to cook in Lakdi ka Chulla and now our kitchens are much better than theirs .
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Hey Jai, the dosa and idli mix you have shown here is called Kallor in Tamil. My maternal grandmother was a Tamilian and we used to have this kallor at home. She was busy making the idli and dosa mix all the time. #SuperBloggerChallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Doesn't this take us to our old traditional ways of cooking and serving. I guess India was already there where world needed to be, just that we got little lost
I still feel that it was sheer marketing gimmick that has brought India far away from its roots. We were always sustainable. In this world of artificial food, we have to make a diligent effort to bring back sustainability in our kitchen. A lovely post. #SuperBloggerChallenge2018 #instacuppa
This is an extremely well thought post about sustainable practices in ones kitchen. We too like to have fresh fruit juice made at home. Our kids have been told that aerated drinks are toilet cleaners. thus no aerated drinks in our house.
I agree with these points.
They will help build a sustainable nation.
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Yes like drops in the ocean, if all of us put in a little effort in the direction we could keep our environment clean and healthy. One so of ten hears of the global warming and how we are already facing a crisis. Time we all pulled up our socks and did our bit to ensure a better tomorrow for our children. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Yes. Proper waste disposal is extremely important and it is most often neglected. The number of dumps one finds in several places in the city because of inadequate waste management efforts is really maddening. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Yes. Those days people used to make sure everything was cooked in such a way that the nutritious content of the food was not lost. Taste was given importance but not at the cost of health. While cooking vegetables like karela (Bitter gourd) in restaurants they often make efforts to completely remove the bitterness which in turn removes the nutritious value. But I remember when my granny cooked there was always some bitterness and we used to groan but she would insist it was good for health and make us eat it. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Those days people had a strong constitution and used to do a lot of work. They used to work outside in the fields and the fresh air they breathed used to keep them healthy for a long time. No wonder they lived long lives.#Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Yes. When I saw those Green and Red buckets given to us and asked my wife for the reason I too was surprised. Of course I knew waste disposal mattered and I was happy our apartment people were taking so much trouble to arrange for proper waste management for usually they are lax about everything. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
That is funny. I have never heard of kallor. We always used to call it ammikkal. In fact I used to insist that my granny allow me to have a go at it everytime she used to fill it with wet rice. She always used to allow me though very reluctantly. But Tamil has several dialects and in some parts of Tamilnadu it might have been called Kallor. Anyways glad you brought it to my attention. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Yes. It did create a lot of smoke. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Exactly. We were a great nation. We got subjugated and lost our traditional methods of doing things in the process. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Yes. Sustainability in the kitchen is very important. Our forefathers followed time tested methods that were viable and useful. The minute we started copying others we lost a lot of our own culture. #Superbloggerchallenger2018 #Instacuppa
Thanks you so much. I gave up aerated drinks a long time back and it really felt good once I got rid of the addiction to coke and pepsi. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Yes. Sustainable kitchen sustainable nation. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Green kitchen is certainly the need of hour but we are getting addicted to the frozen food. Yes, we should buy vegetables either from the farm or the vendors because that's the way they earn their living. Thumbs up to green kitchen as it will certainly give healthy and good life.
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Yes Paresh, you are very correct. Vegetables from nearby farms and local vendors are always of high quality. In addition buying from these people also helps them to make a living. With the advent of super-markets these local vendors are really struggling to make a living. #Superbloggerchallenge2018 #Instacuppa
Very wholesome post touching on all aspects.
I am sure our kids would get to see an ammikal only in museum 😛
Old is Gold. It's great to know that our older ways are so effective. Our generation and the younger generations should know about it.
The idea of green kitchen is superb.
So true it is that “A green kitchen leads to a healthy life for all members of the family.” I totally agree with this.
My mother still use to use cook beasn ki roti in chulaha. Yes we should avoid processed food.
Yes Lakshmi, I remember it quiet well but my daughter would probably gape at it if I show her one. Thanks for visiting.
Yes. Agree with you. Thanks for visiting…
Yes Parag, Thanks for the comment.
Thanks Bushra for visitng and yes, I do agree with you.