Casseroles, risottos and soups are all great; even better if they're made in a slow cooker. Try Arthur's chicken with sweet potato available in the Good Energy Good Kitchen guide.

Good Energy's Martin broke allegiance with an old friend for today’s low-carbon kitchen challenge.



It kept nagging away. Gnawing at my conscience. We’ve all done it – snubbed an old friend. You know you shouldn’t, you know it’s wrong, but…It was at the back of my mind as I chopped the onions, fleetingly taking my mind off the fact that I was crying like a baby. Why is it that the older I get, the more I seem to cry when I chop onions? Is it a “thing”?

All I need to do is get it out of the cupboard and turn on the gas. No, I need to be disciplined – I’m doing a “one pot”. Sesame and ginger rice with, and here’s the thing – poached chicken. Not fried or barbequed, not even blackened in my trusty griddle pan. Those lovely crusty lines of flavour. My poor grill-pan, sitting there forlornly. Still, no high heat on the wok-burner to get it nice and hot, just slice the chicken and throw it on top of the rice simmering on a really low heat. The result? A simple, low-maintenance, high flavour, low energy dinner. The only issue being that as I cooked it's my wife that benefits from the reduced washing up – I bet she'll leave me four saucepans tomorrow night!