Feel-good food for the planet
Eating ethically offers both joy and comfort, knowing we are doing our bit for the environment. Sustainability champion and chef Melissa Hemsley has top tips for creating healthy planet-friendly food
Planet or plate? Or both? Is it possible and achievable to cook and eat seriously delicious, easy, healthy but definitely not boring food that is kinder to the environment? Yes, it is. Food, our health and farming are all intrinsically connected. In the wider media and even in the food world of which I’m a part, this is not talked about nearly enough.
Whenever I’m asked what kind of chef I am or how I would describe the way I cook, I say “tasty and hearty (heartily satisfying and heart-warming too) and packed full of vegetables”. My latest cookbook is called Feel Good and it’s full of quick and easy recipes for comfort and joy. Food affects our mood and our mood is affected by our food. More and more of us are cooking with our emotional health, mental health and gut health in mind, not just our physical health. I look for food that helps me feel my best: energy-boosting breakfasts, something uplifting that I can grab and go for lunch and then a really nourishing delicious dinner, where I can savour more time enjoying eating it than cooking or washing up after it.
However we choose to eat or label ourselves – plant-based, vegetarian, omnivore, pescatarian, flexitarian – I’m sure we can all agree on these three key principles for a more planet- and people-friendly future:
1 More plants on our plate and a diversity of them. Diversifying our meals and shopping impacts the diversity of our guts – ahealthy gut is essential for our brain and overall health – and it supports biodiversity in nature, too.
2 Much less waste in our bins. If food waste were a country, it would be the third biggest in the world. It is a tragedy to have both a hunger problem and a food-waste problem in the UK.
3 More celebration of our farmers and the seasons. This is one of the many reasons that I am a fan of Countryfile and why I adored speaking at the last Countryfile Live just before the pandemic. Farmers are the caretakers of the land. Connecting more to the provenance of our food and what we eat connects us better to not only ourselves but also to the land. During the pandemic, my friends set up Farms To Feed Us, a UK-wide database of farms and regenerative agriculture gatherings; see farmstofeedus.org
CAULIFLOWER, CANNELLINI AND TOMATO TRAYBAKE
SERVES 2
Enjoy this as it is, serve it in a wrap or with your favourite side, such as quinoa, buckwheat or rice. You can use any beans or chickpeas you like in this recipe.
INGREDIENTS
2½ tbsp coconut oil or ghee
½ cauliflower and a handful of cauliflower leaves (600g total)
400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
250g cherry tomatoes
2 tsp curry powder
½ tsp cumin seeds or 1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp fennel seeds
Sea salt and black pepper
FOR YOGHURT SAUCE
100g Greek-style yoghurt
Juice of ½ lime and a little grated zest
½ small garlic clove
A little chopped fresh green chilli or jalapeño
A handful of fresh coriander, saving a few leaves to garnish
METHOD
1 Preheat the oven to fan 220°C/gas mark 9. Put the coconut oil in a large roasting tray and place in the oven to heat up.
2 Cut the cauliflower into bite-sized florets and roughly chop the leaves, keeping any small leaves whole. Dry the beans in a tea towel so they don’t spit in the hot oil.
3 Add the cauliflower and beans to the heated tray, along with the tomatoes and spices. Season with salt and pepper and toss in the hot oil before spreading out in an even layer. Roast for about 15 mins, then toss before roasting for another 10 mins until the cauliflower and beans are golden at the edges and the tomatoes are collapsing.
4 Meanwhile, blitz the yoghurt ingredients together and season with salt. If you want to skip using a blender, then just grate or finely chop the garlic and coriander, though I love the creamy smoothness of the machine-blitzed yoghurt mixture as a contrast to the roast veg.
5 Serve in bowls, dolloping with the yoghurt to finish and topping with the reserved coriander, or spread the yoghurt over the base of each plate and pile everything on top.
10 tips to save money, effort and the planet
1. VOTE WITH YOUR SPENDING POWER FOR THE WORLD YOU WANT
Shopping more ethically is easier than we think, from choosing Fairtrade-labelled chocolate, tea, coffee, vanilla and sugar for baking, to subscribing to a seasonal organic weekly fruit and vegetable box. Shop at your local farmer’s market and seek out refill shops to cut back on plastic packaging.
2. DINE AT PLACES WHERE THE CHEFS CELEBRATE THEIR FARMERS
I like to eat at restaurants where you can clearly see that the chefs honour their suppliers on the menu. Whether they are keeping it hyper-local and sourcing from a mile away or seeking out companies that operate seasonally and sustainability, it’s fantastic to see a food’s provenance.
3. CUT DOWN ON FOOD WASTE
From broccoli stalks to cauliflower leaves, carrot and radish tops to asparagus ends and herb stems, no food needs to be a second-best ingredient. We need to rethink waste – when we throw away food we throw away free flavour and we throw our money in the bin. The ‘Fruit bowl bake’ recipe in my book Eat Green is ideal for using up squished berries, bruised apples and ripe bananas; my ‘Freestyle fritters’ use up any grated root veg, or try my ‘Fridge raid frittata’.
4. STRETCH GOOD QUALITY MEAT
Adding pulses is a fantastic way of padding out recipes that use sustainably sourced meat. I put lentils in my Bolognese, black beans in my burgers, chickpeas in my fish cakes, kidney beans in curries and Carlin peas in stews.
5. GROW YOUR OWN
Save money, save on packaging and increase your joy by growing herbs in the garden or in a window box. I love making fresh mint tea and a herbaceous jar every Saturday of whatever herbs I have. And I really enjoy growing rocket salad leaves, chillies and cherry tomatoes, too; watching them grow brings so much happiness. I’ll grow rainbow chard next.
6. SAVE ON ENERGY BILLS
When I turn the oven on to make dinner, I always load up a second roasting tray and bake any vegetables that need using up to make the most of the energy used to heat the oven. These can go into tomorrow’s ‘Fridge raid frittata’ for lunch, or be quickly whizzed into a hearty spiced soup.
7. EAT SEASONALLY
It really is an enjoyable way of connecting more to food and to nature; it also keeps things interesting on an inspiration level. Celebrating seasonal produce means you look forward to the changing seasons and you’re eating fruit and veg when it is at its most abundant, ripe and flavoursome.
8. CHANGE UP YOUR BEANS
Rather than be wed to an ingredient because we always buy it or because a recipe tells us too, change it up – be flexible. Eating different beans, legumes, pulses and wholegrains is great for our health as our gut likes variety, but also allows us to take advantage of price deals on different foods. In the recipe above, I’ve chosen cannellini beans, but if chickpeas or butterbeans are cheap, use them insted. Soaking and cooking dried beans also saves money and packaging.
9. USE SCRAPS AND CHEESE ENDS
When you’re chopping vegetables, put any scraps in a bowl next to you. I keep a reusable bag in the freezer and fill it with herb stems, veg peelings, onion scraps, tough bits of celery and then, once a month, make a pot of vegetable stock. It’s free, delicious flavour. Also keep Parmesan rinds and add them to your pasta sauces for a fantastic taste.
10. COOK ONCE, EAT TWICE
Make your freezer your friend by batch cooking your favourite comfort foods. In busy weeks I love knowing that I have nourishing dinners ready to go. Every time I freeze extras, I think ‘your future self will thank you!’. Plus it saves on gas and electricity bills, saves time, money, our energy and cuts down on food waste – win, win, win.
From Feel Good: Quick and Easy Recipes for Comfort and Joy by Melissa Hemsley (Ebury Press, £22).