It looks like a beanbag. So how does it cook soups and porridge to perfection?
Squashy, shapeless and stuffed with recycled polystyrene beads, it’s an unlikely contender for the year’s must-have accessory. But, before long, I’ll bet you’ll find one nestling in the kitchens of Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio and every other celebrity with eco-credentials.

The £30 (Dh176.50) Wonderbag, you see, is no mere style accessory. It might look like a Seventies beanbag, but it’s actually a non-electric slow cooker. Tuck a pan of hot ingredients into its cosy folds and it will keep them stewing slowly for hours.

Its inventor, Sarah Collins, 42, admits: “It’s the oldest technology in the world. I don’t understand how someone else hasn’t made it already.”
Our ancestors buried hot stew pots in the ground to keep them cooking without fuel. Our grandmothers tucked them into hayboxes — and I have a friend who swaddles pans of rice in her duvet when she goes to work.

With the Wonderbag, Collins has simply brought the idea up-to-date and made it portable. A South African eco-entrepreneur, she came up with the idea four years ago during a power cut, when she managed to keep her dinner cooking by surrounding the pan with cushions.

The comical-looking prototype she later developed with a friend is already having a significant impact on the developing world. According to scientists, each Wonderbag can prevent the emission of half a ton of carbon dioxide a year, and could save a poor family a tenth of their income by cutting fuel costs.

Unilever has ordered five million Wonderbags for South Africa, and global companies Microsoft and JP Morgan have thrown themselves behind the goal of getting 100 million of the bags into our homes by 2015. And the bags are now being used in 150,000 homes in South Africa.

The bag comes with a recipe book, but you don’t really need it. The principle is simple: heat your food to boiling point for a few minutes on the stove in a normal saucepan, pop on its lid, then transfer it to the bag.
Interested customers in the UAE can buy the Wonderbag by visiting nb-wonderbag.com — or by emailing uksales@nb-wonderbag.com

— Daily Mail

By Lydia Slater

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