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Green Kitchen

EWG’s 2018 Dirty Dozen™ and Clean Fifteen™ Produce List

Strawberries in a bowl

VegKitchen regularly shares the Environmental Working Group’s annual lists of the Dirty Dozen™ and Clean Fifteen™ produce. The Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables that are the most pesticide-laden. Consumers would do well to buy the organic varieties of the produce on this list.

On the other hand, the Clean Fifteen list features fruits and vegetables that have little or no pesticide residue. That’s where you can make an informed choice and save a bit of money on your food bill, though you’re always welcome to buy these in organic form if available.

There’s always the argument that organic fruits and vegetables aren’t necessarily more nutritious than conventionally grown. That may be true, but who needs to consume all those toxins? Remember also that pesticides become part of the soil, groundwater, and air. And the human factor is rarely discussed. We gloss over the fact that farm workers who harvest pesticide-laden produce get sick at a far higher rate. Continue Reading…

May 23, 2018 By
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How to Grow Fresh Vegetables With Hydroponics All Year Round

Colorful bell peppers

Have you ever thought about starting an indoor garden? Home gardening brings great joy to growers. It also helps people save money, and produces fresh vegetables for a plant-strong diet. What’s more, it lets gardeners control how plants are grown —that is, organically and without pesticides — making it safer and healthier. Let’s take a look at this introduction to how to grow fresh vegetables with hydroponics so that they’re available and fresh all year round!

Some people assume that an indoor garden needs a large space, soil, irrigation system, and sunlight. It’s not that hard. There are some great solutions to growing food at home; hydroponic gardening is among the most efficient of them. Continue Reading…

November 29, 2017 By
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Growing Your Own Herbs Indoors

Fresh herbs

Have you ever thought about growing your own herbs? I don’t just mean the usual candidates like rosemary and thyme – though you should definitely find a spot for them – but also more unusual plants like lovage, dill and yarrow. Herb growing, no matter how much or how little space you have, is simple, quick and very rewarding.

I think that every kitchen windowsill in the county should be crammed with overflowing pots of tasty, aromatic leaves. Many herbs are well-suited to growing indoors and will provide harvests all through the year. Some, like chives, are so prodigious that you may well find yourself under-harvesting them! Continue Reading…

August 27, 2017 By
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Benefits of Growing Your Own Vegetables

Healthy veggies on table

As a vegan, you probably care deeply about where your food comes from. It should be responsibly sourced, sustainable and free from harmful chemicals and practices. What better way to achieve this than to start your own vegetable garden? Whether in a specially acquired allotment or your own back yard, you can start growing the freshest ingredients to put into a great vegan recipe. Today, we’ll talk about the benefits of growing your own vegetables, and some ways to get started.

The simple fact about taking control of your vegetables is that you know exactly what you get. Any pesticides that you may take issue with are a problem no more. This may mean that the final product is healthier and more nutritious than the mass produced vegetables found at your local supermarket. Continue Reading…

August 23, 2017 By
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Preserving Garlic

garlic cloves

Preserving garlic by any method is not a substitute for fresh, but it does have its own charms and advantages, especially if you grow it and have a bumper crop Here we’ll explore how to preserve garlic: freezing, drying, garlic vinegar, garlic salt, garlic oil, and refrigerator garlic pickles. Different methods of preserving garlic lend themselves to their own culinary uses, so explore them all and see which ones best suit your needs. There are six excellent methods for preserving garlic.
Continue Reading…

July 21, 2017 By
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5 Ways to Prevent Food Waste in Your Kitchen

freshworks produce saver

Tackling food waste starts in your kitchen! Up to 40 percent of the food purchased in the U.S. is wasted. It’s easy to blame supermarkets and restaurants that toss out mass quantities of spoiled, imperfect, or uneaten food, but even small amounts of food waste coming from home kitchens have a big impact. Here are some simple tips for preventing food waste.

The average person throws out more than 20 pounds of food per month. The forgotten leftovers in the refrigerator and over-ripe bananas on the kitchen counter contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in the landfill – not to mention the amount of land, water, and other resources it took to produce that food in the first place. To highlight what a huge global problem this is, see more about the issue in Wasted Yet Wanted. Continue Reading…

April 14, 2017 By
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How to Use Less Energy When You Cook

steaming mixed vegetables in the wok, asian style cooking vegetarian and healthy, selected focus, narrow depth of field

Trying to use less energy when you cook is an admirable goal. Energy efficient cooking reduces emissions and it can help save money in the household budget. California’s Consumer Energy Center estimates that cooking casserole costs $0.03 in the microwave, versus an electric oven at $0.16. Rather than trying to cook everything in the microwave (good luck frying anything), there are also plenty of other ways to save energy while you cook. Continue Reading…

March 10, 2017 By
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Which Vegan Foods Release the Least Amount of CO2?

Buddha bowl of mixed vegetable with avocado, carrots, spinach, romsnesco cauliflower and radishes

One of the biggest advantages of eating vegan meals is being able to reduce your carbon emissions to help the environment. By now, eating less or no meat to reduce our carbon footprint is pretty cemented in the green living lexicon. The vegan carbon footprint is far smaller than other diets.

The Guardian even estimates that giving up beef can lower your carbon footprint more than using a car. Red meat uses 28 times more land and 11 times more water than pork or chicken. Red meat also produces five times more climate change emissions. Taken a step further, red meat requires 160 times more land and produces eleven times more greenhouse gasses than vegan staples like potatoes, wheat and rice. Continue Reading…

March 3, 2017 By
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Creative Tips for Starting Your Own Urban Garden

Tomatoes on a terrace garden

There are few things quite as rewarding as biting into a vegetable you grew yourself or sprinkling newly picked parsley into your hummus. Gardening continues to be one of America’s favorite pastimes, even ranking as the #1 most popular, according to the National Gardening Survey. For city-dwellers, though, gardening can seem unrealistic. The pastures, neat rows, and white picket fences we associate with growing food are hard to come by in urban areas. Continue Reading…

July 14, 2016 By
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Easy ways to reuse cooking oil so it doesn’t end up in the drain

portrait of people cooking healthy vegetarian chinese food capcay

While the salads and raw dishes are common in a vegan diet, it is almost impossible to avoid cooking grease altogether. From leftover frying oil to coconut oil, we don’t always think twice before rinsing our pots and pains over the drain. It’s a common habit for us to rinse our pans, and along with them, rinse the cooking grease straight into the drain, but is this really that bad? While we may have never asked ourselves this question, rinsing cooking grease in your sink, whether it’s from frying, sautéing or roasting vegetables, is in fact a problem with terrible and expensive consequences.

In the same way fat and cholesterol block our veins and arteries, fat in drains leads to blocked pipes, sewer blockages in municipal lines, and costly sewage backups in your home and the environment. Rinsing cooking grease with hot water doesn’t help either. Cooking grease will quickly cool and congeal in the pipes. So, what is a healthy, vegan cook do? Continue Reading…

July 6, 2016 By
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10 Tips for Shopping at Natural Foods Stores

Chard at market

Most of us are aware of the tried-and-true supermarket food shopping tips — shop the periphery of the store (as that’s where the least processed foods and fresh produce usually are); don’t buy foods just because you have coupons for them; don’t shop when you’re hungry or without a list; and the like. Shopping at natural foods stores can be a nice break from the big box experience, and introduce you to foods your supermarket may not carry. They’re great sources to provide foods for the plant-based diet.  Continue Reading…

January 29, 2016 By
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10 Tips for Going Vegan in “Veganuary”

Quinoa burger with sautéed potatoes

What better time of year to make the switch to vegan than in January? That’s how the Veganuary movement got its name. Explore this fantastic organization for resources, recipes, and community, to help you  transition to a plant-based diet.

From the founders:  “There are so many reasons people decide to try vegan. For most, a love of animals is the catalyst. Some people want to feel better about themselves and the impact they make on the world. Others would like to set themselves a challenge, and many combine Veganuary with their ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ and see trying vegan as the healthiest start to the year. Whatever your reason, we’re here to support you. Continue Reading…

December 31, 2015 By
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Vegan recipes by VegKitchen