A mum from Liverpool has shared her genius tip on how to save energy when cooking pasta at home.
Cortney Melia, 34, has been using this trick since she discovered it by accident. She had been preparing pasta to cook for her lunch, pouring the boiling water into the pan, and instead of placing it onto the cooker, had left it aside while she was busy tending to her youngest child.
Cortney, an optometrist from Crosby, told the ECHO : "I was rushing around trying to sort my own lunch after giving the kids theirs, my 18-month-old daughter was just about to take a nap, while my three-year-old son was sat watching Paw Patrol on Netflix. I had boiled the kettle by this point, and poured it into the pan, but before I had time to pop it on the hob, my daughter stirred from her nap so I immediately went to comfort her.
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"And as you do sometimes, I completely forgot that the pan with the water was left on top, without the hob on." It wasn't until Cortney's partner arrived home from work around tea time, that she had remembered about the pasta that had been left.
She added: "I hate waste, I was mortified that all this pasta could have went to waste, I was cooking extra as I was meal prepping at the time. I drained the pasta and checked it, and other than the fact it was cold, texture wise it was absolutely fine.
"I popped on the toppings I was going to use and zapped it quick in the microwave, and that's how I discovered it. Energy saving benefits that come with it are great, you are literally just heating it up quickly in the microwave and you have only used the kettle for like a minute anyway – saves having the hob or the gas on for like 10-12 minutes at a time.
"My kids' dad was made up, he didn't think I had cooked it any other way than the regular way to cook pasta. I do it all the time now, just leave it for about four hours and come back and it is done – It is a small saving, but with all this going on at the moment, every little bit really does help."
Do you have any energy saving tips? Let us know in the comments.