Hybrid kitchens: How families are cooking with less LPG

Chefs and cookery experts share smart kitchen hacks, hybrid cooking methods and appliance tips to help households reduce LPG use without compromising on food

For 79-year-old Jaya Sundararajan, life did not come to a halt when her regular food supplier said he could no longer deliver lunch because of the LPG shortage. With the help of her domestic worker, she bought some vegetables and returned to cooking her own meals.

“I don’t depend on an LPG gas stove,” she says with a smile. “I’m used to a steam cooker where I can stack stainless steel containers and cook rice, vegetables and dal all at once.” The method, she adds, is not only efficient but also convenient. “The food tastes better and there are fewer vessels to wash.” To supplement this, she also uses an induction stove to boil milk and heat water, further reducing her dependence on LPG.

Cooking in a pressure cooker reduces the time

Families are rediscovering smart kitchen habits, hacks and practical tips to cook traditional South Indian meals more efficiently. Many households are now adopting hybrid kitchens, where LPG stoves are used alongside electric appliances such as microwaves, air fryers and induction stoves.

Cookbook author Sabita Radhakrishna says the current situation reminds her of her early days as a newly-married bride in the 1960s. “LPG was a rather new concept in those days, and we would receive only one cylinder, which would last for two to three months, and then book a refill and wait for it to be delivered.. So I would focus on saving the fuel so that it would last many days,” she reminisces.

Today, she notes, Indian kitchens are far better equipped with modern electrical appliances that help speed up cooking. “In a hybrid kitchen, we can use the microwave to cook vegetables for a stir-fry and then transfer them to the air fryer to grill or crisp them. Electric rice cookers also come in handy to prepare rice, ven pongal, dal khichdi, vegetable biryani and stew,” she says.