THE WONDERBAG

A few years ago my friend Emma told me about her friend Sarah Collins who had launched a revolutionary new product — The Wonderbag. It wraps around an already hot pot of food and continues to cook it as a non-electric slow cooker. Sarah came up with the idea during a power cut, when she managed to keep her food warm using only cushions! It saves hours of labour, and reduces the noxious fumes from open fires since the pot spends a fraction of the time on the fire or stove. The bag comes in a beautiful selection of fabrics and patterns that make cooking even more of a joy.

“Every day, more than 3.5 billion people cook over an open fire jeopardising their health, causing widespread deforestation and burdening women and girls with hours of unpaid labour.”

A year or so after I first heard of the Wonderbag, Sarah reached out and asked if I’d like to try one and spread the word about this genius piece of kit. With their Women4Women bundle, you can buy a large Wonderbag for yourself, and at the same time donate one to a family in Africa via a wide network of community partners. Forever a fan of one-pot slow-cooked food (and Ayurveda is all about cooking your food low and slow to make it more digestible), I jumped at the chance.

I absolutely love the concept. Similar to oven pit cooking, a traditional way of cooking seen all over the world where a fire is built in a hole in the ground, this bag is the mini-portable, no-dig version. It’s a great way to rustle up one-pot dishes for a crowd (when we can finally “crowd!”) with minimum attention and minimum fuel, and easy to do from the comfort of your home. If you’re into camping or want to try your hand at slow cooking and don’t have a slow cooker, then give this a go. How it works is really quite simple, after bringing a pot of food to the boil you simply pop a lid on your saucepan and transfer it to sit within the foam-insulated Wonderbag. The food will then continue cooking for up to 12 hours without the use of additional heat. Simple… and effective — the brand’s studies have shown how using the Wonderbag reduces the amount of wood, charcoal, and other fuels used in the home by 70 percent. This statistic is all the more powerful when you realise just what that could mean for a family living in poverty having to buy expensive fuel.

Here’s how one Wonderbag can change one family’s life over the course of a year:

• 70% less fuel needed to cook

• 2 tons carbon emissions mitigated

• 60% less indoor air pollution

• 1,000 litres cooking water spared

• 1,300 hours diverted from unpaid labor

• 10x increase in the income of women living in extreme poverty

• 5 large trees saved from deforestation

A Wonderbag is also a great way to make homemade fresh yoghurt (see East by West page 259) and to ferment your dosa/uttapam batter or my Christmas cake batter. Or take a cue from the countries this bag was designed for and look at African, Middle Eastern and Indian stews — like Rose’s green banana stew, or the tarka dal on page 166 of East by West or the Harira - lightly spiced lamb and mung bean soup onpage 192. Check out the recipes featured on their website too.

And of course the real reason that this product innovation was born: it’s the most incredible tool for communities who cook via open fires. Wonderbags transform women's lives, giving them tools to revitalise their communities and ease their daily lives. In many places around the world it’s up to the women to collect firewood and cook, unpaid and time consuming tasks that often leave them little opportunity to educate themselves or seek paid work. Using a piece of equipment like the Wonderbag means they have the time (the brand has calculated it as 1,300 hours per year) to develop skills, seek an education or get a job.

If you don’t have a use for a Wonderbag for yourself, but would love to donate one to a family, then head over here.