Do you know how to cook?
Sami Grover
From 5 ways to beef up vegetarian sauces, through finding ways to eat less meat, to learning how to use cheaper cuts of meat, Planet Green tries to focus not just on recipes, or simple instructions, but on really learning how to cook. And it's important.
The head of a renewable energy research center once described cooking to me as "the most important eco-art of all." I think he might be right. Beyond simply giving us more options than food-in-a-box ready meals, or trash intensive take out, cooking also reconnects us with the simple pleasures in life. It is, after all, an activity that we humans have been doing since, errrm, the invention of cooking. (I once heard an anthropologist argue that cooking actually helped make us human—providing access to vital nutrients that helped us develop our mental capacities.)
But how does one become a good cook? Many of my friends seem perplexed at the idea of cooking anything more complex than a grilled cheese. And many others seem tied to a few tried-and-tested, if bland, recipes. Yet they all seem to want to cook, and often ask me how I come up with ideas for meals.
Mostly, I'd say, it's about mindset. So here are a few ideas on how to become a cook.
