Is Slow Cooking a Sustainable choice??

I am a food lover 😋- I love going to the farmers markets, picking out fresh produce, experimenting with flavourful herbs and exploring different cooking techniques…

Coming from the land of Tandoori cooking 🍛, the rustic nostalgia of flavourful slow charcoal cooking is my favourite one! It transports me to dreamy summer vacations in my grandparents’ village -savouring mouthfuls of sumptuous meals cooked on charcoal stoves with dollops of Ghee (clarified Indian butter)

The curious part about this traditional cooking technique is that it is used in combination with clay utensils made from terracotta clay. My giant clay pot (Handi) is a prized possession in my kitchen, ideal for a lip-smacking Biryani...

However, this is where I question my choices and stand at crossroads with my current understanding of the concept of sustainability.

Is slow charcoal cooking/ tandoori cooking or using clay pots for cooking a sustainable choice??

Reasons why I think this is NOT a sustainable choice:

😟 The kind of fuel used is a non-renewable source of energy.

😟 Slow cooking takes longer cooking time (obviously!) thus making it more expensive with the current gas prices/ coal prices?

😟 Along with the smoky flavours comes the SMOKE too, thus ambient pollution!

Reasons why I think this IS a sustainable choice:

😇 The clay pots are made of natural, sustainable materials; durable AND go back to Mother Earth when not useful anymore.

😇 Clay pots, when used for cooking, preserve the nutrients in food up to 90%.

😇 The manufacturing industry provides employment to local potter communities and is in line with sustainable employment.

For those in western countries who have not experienced this delectable goodness of the Tandoori cooking or slow charcoal cooking in clay pots, they can find a parallel in the summer barbeques.

These are precious childhood memories that connect us to food in an inseparable bond, the kind of bond that is the most difficult to break!

If we were to rank between Slow cooking using clay pots and charcoal, clay pots and gas, Tandoor style cooking (clay barrel oven fired with wood and charcoal) and summer barbeques in terms of the most sustainable to the least sustainable method, what would that ranking look like?

And…

The bigger question is, do we give up on these timeless pleasures when walking the path of Sustainability?

How much would it truly help on an individual level to ease out the environmental issues??

If you have answers to my questions, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below…