First courses: sustainable recipes at home and at work

Office lunch: a healthy and eco-sustainable way to organize it

Sustainability, much celebrated today, has a definition with a broad and articulated content: its implementation, however, is made of practice - rather than words - and starts from considering what impact our actions may have on the environment.

This principle is valid in every area of ​​life, therefore also in the kitchen; using environmentally friendly ways to prepare meals to be consumed at the moment or to take with you outside the home, is an easy and suitable activity for everyone: just adopt conscious behaviors, really adhering to the needs of the ecosystem and make them your own, in such a way as to repeat them spontaneously.

Short supply chain, seasonal ingredients, no waste of energy and food resources, drinking water contained in a bottle, cooking a few more portions and having it available for lunch in the office: these are just some of the precautions that make the idea of ​​environmental sensitivity concrete. 

3 recipes (first courses) to avoid waste

Starting to have a different vision of gastronomic preparations makes it natural to behave in a sustainable way even in the kitchen: the first step to take is to choose a "green" menu, without excessive expenses and, above all, without waste.

Let's start with a "svuotafrigo" soup, which is prepared using vegetables (potatoes, onions, carrots), cooked for other dishes and left over at the table.

Using pre-cooked food offers two advantages: saving time and an already defined flavor, because it will be enough to skip the vegetables in a saucepan, adding aromas to taste and pasta or rice, to obtain a perfect first course to be consumed immediately or to take with you to the office. .

The ideal transport without the risk of spills? What happens using a lunch kit, perhaps with a food warmer, which allows you to consume the soup at the ideal temperature.

If we have very little time, take out the leftover pasta salad from lunch the day before and enrich it with a classic basil pesto, or make it really worthy of a chef with a pistachio or almond pesto and some dried tomatoes cut into small pieces. .

An espresso first course that can also be obtained with a simple, pre-cooked white pasta, made to "revive" by adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and your favorite seasoning.

Finally, if we feel like risotto, why not prepare one with wine (white or red), emptying the bottles left halfway during dinner the night before?

Rice is such a versatile base that it becomes "universal": just a fried shallot and an addition of peas, radicchio, legumes or proteins (such as meat or fish), to obtain a quick first course, because it is ready in 15 minutes , but fragrant and tasty like a gourmet dish.

Watch out for waste: conclusions and advice

Why go to fast food or restaurants when you can eat well and economize at the same time?

With a minimum of organization you can plan, for the whole week, lunch to be consumed at the desk: grilled meat and fish, omelettes to be cut into strips and combined with pasta or rice, are ingredients that, in addition to solving the dinner, they can be a resource for sustainable recipes at work.

It is important to use tools that make it easy to transport ready meals: for example, a lunch box, or an eco-bio lunch box, made of natural and BPA free material, complete with everything, including cutlery.

Already very functional in itself, the lunch box becomes even more precious if equipped with a warming plate with integrated timer and digital display, the ideal ally for enjoying any dish at your favorite temperature.

Flexible and practical, when equipped with dual voltage, the food warmer can even be used in the car, making our favorite dishes available in every situation.