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 Being green in your attitude to food and how you prepare it will not only help reduce your carbon footprint, you will economise with your food shopping bill and waste less food. These tips will help you start with a greener shopping list
Odds and ends of vegetables in the fridge at the end of the week can be arranged in a gratin dish, topped with a cheese sauce and grated cheese and baked until golden.
Tomatoes that are going a bit too soft to use fresh can be whizzed in the blender with some garlic, a dash of balsamic and fresh herbs and either frozen to use as a tomato sauce base or kept in the fridge for a day or two.
Most food wastage comes from the fridge. A well-stocked larder not only saves on energy to store food but also contains plenty of foods that will keep for months or years. Make more use of your cupboard space!
Special half-price offers at the supermarket or low-cost near-sell-by-date items may not be the bargain they appear to be. Only buy them if you know you can use these products.
In the shop, it pays to spend time seeking out the packs with 'use by' dates furthest away so you have more time before they get stale or over the top. Most shops make sure these are at the back of the shelf, with the oldest goods at the front.
Plan out your shopping. Make a list and work out recipes in advance if you can. This will make it much more likely that you eat what you buy.
Avoid so-called 'money-saving' offers which involve buying bigger packs or multiple packs, unless you really are going to be able to store the extra for as long as is necessary.
When cooking for the family, keep your nerve and cook just enough so that everyone has a modest portion, rather than cooking twice as much as you think you'll need. Leftovers may get eaten but more often than not, they are thrown away when you find them rotting at the back of the fridge a week later.
If you do have leftovers, use them up as soon as possible, and visit iVillage.co.uk for ideas on how to use them.
Store fruit and vegetables in the fridge in bags or crispers. They will keep for twice as long compared with leaving them in a vegetable rack or fruit bowl and they will retain their vitamin C.
Two green recipes
Rack of lamb with herb crust
100g breadcrumbs
small handful fresh thyme sprigs
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
handful fresh apple or spearmint
handful fresh parsley
3 tbsps olive oil
2 racks of British lamb, most of the fat removed
- Remove the thyme leaves and rosemary leaves from their stalks. Chop all the herbs, mix them together in a bowl and combine with the breadcrumbs thoroughly.
- Pour in the oil and mix well, then press the crumb mix into the fat sides of the racks. (Stand the racks propped up against each other in a small roasting tin to make this easier.) Cook at 190C for 25 minutes or until the crumb is golden and the lamb still pink inside. Divide each rack into two sets of cutlets to serve.
Panzanella salad
200g - four large slices - stale-ish farmhouse type bread
2 tbsps olive oil
500g ripe tasty tomatoes
15cm piece cucumber
1 large red pepper
2 cloves garlic
bunch basil
8 black stoned olives
approx. 6 tbsps classic vinaigrette
- Brush the bread slices with the olive oil and dry them out in a warm oven (when you are using the oven for something else) until somewhat crisp, or toast them lightly.
- Roughly chop the tomatoes into a serving dish, then chop and add the cucumber and the de-seeded pepper. Finely chop the garlic, tear any large basil leaves and roughly chop the olives, then add all of them to the dish.
- Toss everything in the dressing, then tear the bread into bite-sized pieces and add that to the dish. Serve immediately.
Recipes taken from The Green Food Bible by Judith Wills
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