{"id":16263,"date":"2015-11-05T06:08:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T04:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.radioislam.org.za\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/05\/water-saving-tips-in-the-kitchen\/"},"modified":"2015-11-05T06:08:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T04:08:07","slug":"water-saving-tips-in-the-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/water-saving-tips-in-the-kitchen\/","title":{"rendered":"Water saving tips in the kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 If you use a dishwasher, always fill it completely and choose the fastest setting.
<\/span>
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 When washing by hand, soak to soften the residue, then scrub with a brush or sponge. Only use running water for a final rinse, never as a cleaning tool.
<\/span>
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Dilute dish detergent in advance and use a small amount so it will dissolve properly. Excess soap goes down the drain or need more water to be rinsed off.
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\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Install a sprayer on your tap. This distributes a smaller amount of water to a larger area.
<\/span>
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 When washing utensils, don\u2019t fill items like glasses, pots and bowls. Tilt them so that the water reaches the sides and bottom.
<\/span>
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Defrost foods in the refrigerator to avoid soaking.
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\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 When washing a jar or glass, put in a small amount of soapy water and shake with the cover on. Then transfer the water to the next utensil. Wipe and rinse.
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\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Use a minimum of cooking water to retains nutrients and save on cooking time. Pasta needs much less water than the package instructs, just stir frequently.
<\/span>
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0. Save cooking water for soups, grains, and bread dough. Don\u2019t reuse water from washing dishes, but water from cleaning vegetables can be reused in the washing machine, toilet or garden. A microwave or pressure cooker retains more moisture than the stovetop or oven.
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\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Dishes. A trick that was taught me is to keep a plastic tub inside your sink while washing dishes. Fill it up with hot soapy water and use that bucket to wash, rather than leaving the water running the whole time. (A large pot or bowl works, too!) Depending on the size of your tub, you\u2019ll only only use maybe 2 gallons of water total compared to 2 or more gallons PER MINUTE! This first round of soapy water isn\u2019t good to pour on your garden, so you pour it down the drain. However. The second round, the rinse water, is totally fine. Rinse the dishes under running water, catching it in the tub. When the tub is full, use the \u201cgray water\u201d on your plants outside. This is the best reason to use an earth-friendly, phosphate-free, plant-based dish soap.
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\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Please stop rinsing. Unless your dishwasher is an antique, rinsing dishes before putting them in is unnecessary and maybe even harmful; it\u2019s definitely a waste of water and your time. Dishwashers and dishwashing detergents are made to remove food and oils from dishes. Without some debris to work on, the machine and detergent are just working on each other. If your machine doesn\u2019t seem to be getting things clean without pre-rinsing, double check your loading arrangement. Make sure to put the larger dishes and platters around the outside of the bottom rack; face plates towards the center so their dirty sides are towards the spray arm; put glasses and plastic containers on the top rack; make sure no bowls are facing downward because that will block the water spray. Also check for water deposit build up on the spray arm holes and make sure the drain isn\u2019t blocked by a forgotten fork or an adventurous GI Joe. When choosing the cycle, most often you\u2019ll just want to use the regular one. To save more energy, set it to \u201cair dry\u201d but open the door as soon as the machine goes off. The heat inside the machine will cause the dishes to dry almost immediately as the steam escapes. Just like when you put drained, boiled potatoes back into the hot pot to dry them out.<\/p>\n

<\/span>
KEEP AN EYE WHEN COOKING<\/span><\/strong>
You can save buckets of water by making simple changes to your cooking habits. To start, don\u2019t defrost anything using the hot tap. Try and leave it in the fridge overnight. Similarly wash your vegetables in a bowl of water, rather than under the tap.
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Make sure you only boil the recommended amount of water for what you\u2019re cooking. In fact, you can afford to boil a bit less: most pasta, for example, tends to require less than the quantity recommended on the packet. Be sensible. You don\u2019t need a swimming pool to parboil two potatoes.
<\/span>
Steam instead of boil, when possible.Steaming will retain more nutrients in your food and it will use a lot less water. Even better, if you\u2019re already using your oven for another dish give roasting a try. Your oven is already in use and you won\u2019t use any water.
<\/span>
Reuse cooking water. Save and cool leftover boiling water from pasta or steaming vegetables. This water can be reused for watering plants once it has cooled.
<\/span>
Capture running water while waiting for the temperature to change: this excess water can be used to water plants.
<\/span>
When washing dishes by hand, use as little water as possible. Use only the required amount of dish soap and put the dishes in a rack to rinse them all together and reduce rinse water. Be sure to use short bursts instead of letting the water run when rinsing. When you do use the dishwasher, use appropriate water and energy efficient settings.
<\/span>
Keep a container of drinking water in the refrigerator. With cold drinking water on hand, you’ll waste less than you would while waiting for the faucet to change temperature for each glass of water.
<\/span>
Do not defrost frozen food with running water. Use the microwave or defrost in the refrigerator.<\/span>
When cooking, use only the amount of water required; this reduces the amount of water wasted when straining.
<\/span>
In the laundry room, be sure to match the water level with your load size. If your washing machine doesn’t allow manual water level adjustment, wait until you have a full load before you run your machine.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 If you use a dishwasher, always fill it completely and choose the fastest setting.\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 When washing by hand, soak to soften the residue, then scrub with a brush or sponge. Only use running water for a final rinse, never as a cleaning tool.\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Dilute dish detergent in advance and use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Water-Shortages.png?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-4ej","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 11:49:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}