How to Save Cooking Gas in a Pakistani Kitchen

Gas bills keep rising, LPG cylinders are expensive, and in winter many areas have low gas pressure exactly when you need to cook. Pakistani food doesn’t help: we love slow-cooked salan, nihari, haleem and pulses that simmer for hours. The good news is that a few changes in how you cook can cut gas use a lot, without changing what you eat.

1. Use a pressure cooker

This makes the single biggest difference. A pressure cooker cooks food at a higher temperature, so dishes that take hours in an open pot are done far faster. It’s ideal for:

• Chickpeas, rajma, lobia and mash daal
• Tough cuts of mutton and beef, paya, nihari and haleem
• Yakhni and stock

Our pressure cooker guide explains timings for common dishes. Always follow the manufacturer’s safety instructions and replace worn gaskets.

2. Soak pulses and rice

Soak chickpeas, beans and whole pulses overnight, and rice for 20–30 minutes. Soaked pulses cook much faster and more evenly. For chana, a pinch of baking soda in the soaking water softens them further.

3. Always use a lid

An uncovered pot loses heat constantly. With a lid, water boils faster and food simmers on a lower flame. For salan and daal, keep the lid on, just slightly open if it tends to boil over.

4. Match the pan and the flame

• Flame under the pan, not around it. If flames lick up the sides, heat is going into the air. Turn it down.
• Use the right burner for the pan size: small pans on small burners.
• Flat-bottomed pans sit closer to the flame than warped or rounded ones.
• Turn down once it boils. A gentle simmer cooks just as well as a hard boil and uses much less gas.

5. Keep burners clean

A healthy gas flame is mostly blue. A yellow or orange flame often means the burner is clogged or not getting enough air, and it wastes gas and blackens pans. Clean the burner holes regularly with a pin or brush. If the flame stays yellow after cleaning, have it checked.

6. Use retained heat

Food keeps cooking after you turn off the gas:

• Rice: cook on dum with the lid sealed and the heat off for the last 10 minutes. It finishes perfectly.
• Daal and salan: turn off a few minutes early and leave covered.
• Eggs: bring to a boil, cover, turn off, and leave for 10–12 minutes.
• Insulated cooking: wrap a covered pot of simmering pulses in a thick towel or blanket, or put it in an insulated box, and it will continue cooking slowly.

7. Cook in batches

Cook two days’ worth of daal or salan at once, or boil a big batch of chickpeas and freeze them in portions. Reheating uses far less gas than cooking from scratch. Our freezing guide explains what freezes well.

8. Small habits that add up

• Thaw frozen food in the fridge before cooking, not on the stove.
• Boil only the water you need for tea.
• Cut vegetables and meat smaller so they cook faster.
• Plan the order of cooking so one dish goes on as soon as another comes off, while the burner is already lit.
• Use the tawa’s leftover heat to warm roti or toast spices.

9. Electric options

If you have reliable electricity, an electric kettle, rice cooker or electric pressure cooker can take some load off the gas. Whether it saves money depends on your electricity tariff and gas or LPG prices, so compare your own bills.

10. Stay safe with gas

Saving gas should never come at the cost of safety:

• Check for leaks with soapy water on pipe joints and cylinder valves; bubbles mean a leak. Never use a flame to check.
• Ventilate the kitchen. Keep a window open, especially with LPG and in winter.
• Never use a gas stove or oven to heat a room. Gas heaters and stoves in closed rooms can cause dangerous carbon monoxide build-up.
• Turn off the cylinder valve at night and when you go out.
• If you smell gas, don’t switch on lights or lighters; open windows, turn off the supply and get help.

A gas-saving week

Soak pulses the night before, cook them in the pressure cooker, use a lid on everything, finish rice on dum with the gas off, and cook daal twice a week in double batches. Most families who do this notice the difference within a month, and the food tastes the same.