What to Cook for the Climate Cook-In
There are thousands (if not millions) of fantastic plant-based and low carbon recipes out there to make hosting your Great Climate Cook-In as easy as it is tasty.
Eating plant based meals, seasonal foods or limiting your kitchen food waste can be a great way to cut your Carbon footprint, bring mindfulness to your meals and start important conversations about climate change with your friends and family.
But where to start? We’ve created a list of our top 5 tips for creating low carbon meals to get you inspired and ready to go:
1. Make your favourites vegan or vegetarian.
Did you know? Meat and dairy accounts for around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
Meals can be really easily modified to incorporate more plant rich foods. For a vegetable centrepiece, the whole roasted cauliflower is an incredibly simple and surprisingly mouth-watering creation. And, if you don’t fancy cauliflower, why not try a different vegetable centrepiece with this whole roasted miso aubergine or this delectable roasted celeriac?
Craving a ‘meaty’ taste? Try to incorporate foods that increase the umami flavour of your meals, such as dried mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, seaweed, fermented foods, miso and marmite. These are great ingredients to keep in your pantry and experiment with.
2. Get creative with your scraps.
There’s no need to peel a lot of fruit and veg. Skins aren’t just edible, they’re often packed with nutrients. Leaves (like those from cauliflowers and broccoli) are also thrown out unnecessarily when instead they could be roasted, pickled, curried, or blended into a soup.
A great way to use broccoli stalks is to pickle them and use them in sandwiches and salads, Check out this recipe by @logamchef:
Check out this recipe by @maxlamanna on how use up carrot tops to make pesto:
A tip from our digital communications assistant, Ro, is to save your veg scraps from your day-to-day cooking in the freezer until you have enough to make vegetable stock with. It’s a great way to get the most out of your produce before it reaches the compost pile. Here is their recipe:
Good veg scraps to collect: Carrot peel, onion ends and papery layers, celery hearts and strings, dry garlic, parsley stems, (Shiitake) mushroom stems.
Veg to avoid: Cruciferous veg (like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale) as they create bitterness in stock and avoid potatoes as they are to starchy.
Fresh extras to include to balance the flavour:
2 onions diced
2 bay leaves
1tsp peppercorns
1 tsp tarragon
1tsp thyme
water
1. Caramelise onions in olive oil with a pinch of salt for 30-45 minutes
2. Add veg scraps and cover with water in a 2 parts veg to 3 parts water ratio.
3. Bring to the boil then reduce to simmer for 1 hour
4. Strain your stock and store in containers. You can freeze it to use at a later date
3. Eat seasonal
Choosing to cook with vegetables and fruit that are in season is a way to dramatically cut down the carbon emissions of your food. This is due to the vast amounts of energy needed to power hothouses to grow produce out of season and the emissions linked to importing fresh fruit and veg by air.
In addition to helping us reduce the environmental impact of what we eat, seasonal food is fresher and so tends to be tastier. You can check out this handy guide to see what’s in season right now.
4. Substitutes for the fridge
For those new to cooking vegan there are lots of brands of low-carbon meat substitutes so you can create your favourite dishes without the carbon footprint. We love the range of sausages, burgers, mince and even Schnitzel at Fry’s Family Foods and Birdseye have just launched a new range of Green Cuisine which features meatballs, pies and even sausage-rolls that are all meat free!
5. Don’t forget dessert:
No dinner party is complete without dessert so if you are avoiding dairy for your Climate Cook-In event, why not try this chocolate cake, Eton mess or even lemon cheesecake? All of which are easy and low carbon!
