Did you know that `dishwasher cuisine’ is not just a possibility, but a verified method of eco-friendly cooking that is currently taking Italy by storm? And not even in an empty dishwasher – but in a fully loaded one, with dirty utensils and soap. The idea of food being prepared in a dishwasher is a bit hard to digest, like a wet pair of sneakers being dried off in a microwave, but if you stop to think about it, the whole thing does make some sort of absurd sense.

Every time you turn on your dishwasher, the appliance is using 1800 watts of electricity on an average to heat the water for cleaning. So why not throw in some airtight containers or food vacuum bags with couscous, fish, veal, fruits etc and let them cook at the same time? Imagine how much prepping it will save before meals, you won’t have to use your stove or oven, and you’ll get clean dishes, glasses, bowls and cutlery in the bargain.

It’s certainly an eco-aware way to maximize use of energy and minimizing time spent in the kitchen, and by all accounts, the food comes out tasting really good.

Ask Milan’s cook-cum-environmental-campaigner Lisa Casali, whose bestselling book Cucinare In Lavastoviglie (‘Cooking In The Dishwasher’) is converting thousands of Italians into enthusiastic dishwasher chefs.

Lisa struck on this idea 7 years ago, when she began experimenting in her own kitchen with recipes that could be executed in airtight containers while the appliance was in cycle.

“Cooking and the environment are my greatest passions, and it really was a spontaneous urge to combine these two ingredients together,” says Lisa. “Just as if I were creating a new dish.”

Besides her obsession with dishwasher cooking, Lisa also propagates the nutritional value of so much precious food we throw out as scraps.

She has 4 books to her credit and Ecocucinaen, a website where she journals her efforts in this unexplored, new culinary field.

And once you get over the gnawing mental visual of your dinner in a jar, bathing in wave after wave of soapy water with pasta particles and meat morsels floating past, you too might discover Lisa’s pioneering new world of cuisine that is quick, nutritious and a conversation piece.

* If you’re inspired by Lisa’s cooking philosophy, you can buy her book Cucinare In Lavastoviglie (Cooking In The Dishwasher) right here.

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