Make a short crust pastry with 200g flour and 100g vegan butter. Use this to line a flan dish
Lightly cook a colander full of green leaves (spinach, chard, dandelion, herbs etc). This can be done easily in a microwave.
Make a white sauce using 3 level tablespoons of yellow pea flour and about 500ml of oat milk. (Again this can be done in a microwave). Flavour with yeast flakes and black pepper.
Sautée an onion in some oil.
Place the onion in the encase of the flan, add the green leaves and pour the sauce over the top.
Bake at 200C for about half an hour or until the quiche is golden and the middle firm.
Government and the farming industry is part of a system that needs to change if we are to adapt to climate change and forestall a worsening of the current climate crisis. Nevertheless individuals can also be part of the process of change. We can buy less meat and dairy products and more – and more varied – plant based foods – ideally those that are locally grown and organic. We can support through donations and volunteering, habitat restoration and re-wilding schemes.
Particularly relating to food, you might choose to reduce – or cut out completely – animal products from your diet. You might choose to only what is in season to avoid importing food over long distances. https://greentau.org/2021/08/14/green-tau-issue-12/
You might support charities such as Practical Action that help poorer farmers change their practices to adapt to the new and more extreme climates – https://practicalaction.org/
3. Paying a fair price for the food we eat. You might buy direct from a farm or a group of farms, or via a local vegetable box scheme. You might support a local farmers’ market. You might buy from a local independent green grocer. Similarly you might buy milk etc from a milk round where the price reflects the cost to the farmer. For cheeses, look to buy from small scale producers via a local cheese shop. And again buying fair trade options for imported foods can help ensure a fair price for the producer. Alternatively look out for products – coffee beans and chocolate in particularly – that have been sourced directly from the grower. These are often available through local independent shops and cafés.
Another option would be to subscribe to the OddBox fruit and veg scheme which buys food stuffs that would otherwise go to waste because they are misshapen, because the supermarket doesn’t want the crop, or because the crop has been too large or too small for the supermarket buyer – https://www.oddbox.co.uk/
4. Buying from local producers and local retailers helps to improve local supply chains.
5. Again the best approach to improving global food security and ensuring there is enough food for everyone is to reduce – or cost out completely – animal products.
If you have time, the cheapest and healthiest way of reducing meat and dairy is to cook from scratch using ingredients like beans, tofu and lentils, rather than relying on processed vegan foods. Processed foods also have a higher carbon footprint than cooking a meal from scratch.’
Drawing on both home grown food and OddBox food, earlier this week we had a ‘foraged soup in that I foraged the garden for green things and the remains of the OddBox, thus-
3 cloves of garlic and 3 shallots all sliced.
1 beetroot, 1 parsnip, 1 apple all diced
All these I softened in some rape seed oil. Then I added,
A jar of cooked split green pea
A handful of red lentils
A teaspoon of miso
A colander of young dandelion and nettle leaves.
I added water and left to simmer. Once cooked I liquidised everything to create a thick nourishing soup.
“Cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by two-thirds, according to the Oxford study, published in the journal Science.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714
Major institutions are helping people make this change in lifestyle by serving less or no meat in their canteens. In 2022 Stirling became the first UK university to ban the sale of meat in its campus food outlets. This year Cambridge University has voted to do likewise. Newcastle Hospitals has meat free Mondays, which is an approach followed by various schools and colleges.
Tomorrow is the start of Veganuary. This annual campaign encouraging people to rescue their consumption of animal products. 600,000 people officially taking part in 2022, up on the 580,000 who took part in 2021. YouGov tracker data suggests 2-3% of the UK population are now vegan and 5-7% vegetarian – and growing!
Ginger biscuits have the smell of Christmas. Rather than using just ginger, add other spices too such as cinnamon, allspice and cardamon.
The following is a simple recipe
75g margerine, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of syrup. Melt these gently in the microwave.
Add 225g plan in flour plus 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp of more of your choice of spices. Mix and add oat milk/ the juice of an orange to bind as necessary to for a firming dough.
Chill.
Roll out and cut into shapes.
Bake at 180C until cooked. They will still be slightly soft but leave on the baking tray. This completes the cooking and gives rise to the term biscuit meaning twice cooked.
Delegates at the Biodiversity COP are working to define what it is to be ‘nature positive’. I would hope it means a default of working with rather than against the natural environment wherever possible. One of the Guardian correspondents commented that little is being said about how we as individuals can be ‘nature positive’, adding “Dietary changes, for example, is one of the most significant things people reading this could do to reduce their impact on biodiversity, namely cutting meat consumption.”
The Green Tau 