Recycle, reuse, follow a zero-waste drill: Take stock of your pantry in the time of #lockdown

Every problem has a solution, right? Now that you’re housebound till mid April, it’s likely that you can’t make frequent trips to the markets. In a scenario like this, learning methods of preservation and storing food items in the right manner can really come in handy. There are several traditional techniques, like sun drying, cool storage and pickling that help increase the shelf life of food.Subhasree Basu, who runs a catering and delivery kitchen in Mumbai, says, “In this time of crisis, treat your pantry as your friend and make your food work harder for you. Always remember that hoarding food is not a sustainable solution, if you want to be future-ready. Eventually, hoarded food will rot and go to waste. The wisest thing to do is try and cook one-pot nutritious meal, which will lower the stress of cleaning up later.” Food preservation can actually help you sail through in this situation and you can also save some money. So, here’s what you can try...

Freezing: You can freeze shelled peas, sweet corn, capsicum or bell peppers, deseeded and cut into chunks. Spinach can be boiled, pureed and frozen in icecube moulds. Everything must be zip locked first and then frozen. Slice bananas and freeze them. Put them in the mixer with yogurt or milk, some granola or breakfast cereal and your healthy breakfast smoothie is ready.

The same can be done with any berry or mango puree. Peeled, cored and sliced apples freeze well too. However, they don’t taste great when thawed. So, you can cook them with some sugar, cinnamon powder and lemon juice to make some apple jam or baked apple for breakfast or dessert.
Dehydrate: Root vegetables, like potatoes, beetroots and carrots can be sun dried and stored in the fridge or airtight containers. Cut into thin slices and dry for at least two to three days. Rehydrate in warm water for about 30 minutes before cooking.
Fermenting: It is the process that encourages the growth of good bacteria to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria that can spoil different food items. Fermenting can be used with items like fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, grains, legumes, dairy and eggs. The process is used to make wine (from grapes), sauerkraut (cabbage), cured sausage (meat) and yogurt (milk). Even rice is fermented at home to prepare idlis.
Pickling: This is the process of soaking food in a solution containing salt, acid or alcohol. Items like fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, legumes and eggs can be pickled.

However, pickled food can be unsafe if prepared carelessly or stored at room temperature. Pickling is often combined with other methods of preservation such as fermenting, canning or refrigerating.
Sun drying: Sun drying is a reliable method of preserving food during an emergency. It is also one of the primitive methods of food preservation. Fruits like apples, tomatoes, pears and apricots can be sun dried and stored for several days. In many regional cuisines, different types of fishes, seafood and meat are sun dried.

Roast more chicken than you need or cook extra minced meat. The leftovers can be used in noodles, pasta, sandwiches or stuffed in rotis. Boiled chickpeas can also be used to make many dishes like chhole, hummus, salads or even chaats. Soak green moong dal or any other lentils in water for three days. The sprouts are not only healthy but tasty too.

To keep lemons from drying, rub a tiny amount of vegetable oil on its skin.

Coriander leaves will stay fresh for days if cleaned, dried and stored upright inside a glass jar and then kept inside the refrigerator.

Traditional method of preservation is implemented in various cuisines of Bengal, Odisha, Northeast and even in the southern parts of India, where each item is considered a popular delicacy of that particular region. Doma Wang, an expert in Sikkimese cuisine and chef-owner of a Kolkata-based restaurant serving Tibetan, Nepali, Bhutanese and Chinese cuisines, says, “We sun dry the meat and also pickle and dehydrate vegetables that stay fresh for long. In times of crisis, one of our most common dish is Tsamba, which is sun-dried makai or corn seeds (you can also use wheat flour) — roasted, powdered and mixed with salty Tibetan butter tea. You can have it as a single meal. We add chillies and other spices to enhance its taste. Tsamba keeps your tummy full for really long hours.”

Pakhaḷa is another such summer-time dish in Odia cuisine. It is nothing but cooked rice, washed or fermented in water. The liquid part is called toraṇi. This dish is also popular in other states. It is known as paani bhat in Jharkhand, poita bhat in Assam, bore bhat in Chhattisgarh and pazhaiya sadam in Tamil Nadu. Its Bengali counterpart is called panta bhaat. The dish is served with roasted vegetables, such as potato, brinjal, saag or fried fish.

The concept of zero waste is to prevent as much food as possible from ending up in the landfill. The first step is to go absolutely plastic-free. Replace all the storage items with glass jars, boxes and tumblers. As for food items, peels of many vegetables can be reused to whip up delicious finger foods or condiments. For instance, you can dry potato peels and then fry it in cooking oil with a little salt and pepper.

In many Bengali households, peels of green peas are also fried and eaten with rice by adding a dash of mustard oil and chopped green chillies. Similarly, orange or lemon peels can be brewed along with tea leaves to add a nice lemony zest to the hot beverage.


It’s very easy to recycle, reuse or follow a zero-waste drill in the kitchen. In order to preserve vegetables, I steam them up lightly and freeze them. You can make a sabzi out of supposed wastes, like lauki peels, cauliflower leaves, stalks etc. Doctors are prescribing high protein diets to fight the crisis. So, I make dal with vegetables or meat. A little meat goes a long way if put into dal, cooked with vegetables or added to khichdi.

In Bengal, we have a dish called bhanga maachher torkari, (broken fish sabzi) prepared with rui, katla or mrigel, where a few pieces of fish are fried, broken up and added to a vegetarian dish. My aim is to get maximum nutrition out of the little that we have.


Minimalism is the key in this hour of crisis. Be frugal and conserve everything — energy, food, power. Eat simple, try not to fall ill as everything is in short supply, including medicines. When it comes to storage, the best thing is to cook the food and freeze in small portions as per consumption pattern. Avoid reheating and refreezing. For long-term storage, try pickling. Also Asian forms of pickling, like soaking fruits and vegetables in vinegar and lime, is a regular practice.

When it comes to Punjabi cuisine, we make pickles out of everything, like jackfruit, chana et al. You can also dehydrate and rehydrate veggies, like our grandmoms used to do with mushrooms, cauliflowers etc.