Flicking the Vs: May 2018

Things have been a little quiet on the blog, as I've been away ill. Not one of those couple-of-tissues-in-your-pocket, still-well-enough-to-go-to-work-and-sneeze-on-your-colleagues type things. Oh no, a proper full-on, I-can't-get-out-of-bed-and-nothing-in-my-brain-works one. I wasn't happy. Or well. I recovered just in time to be able to finish off a 4,000 word essay that was looming. It wasn't, in short, a great couple of weeks.

So, this is a post to reassure you I'm still around, if not blow you away with a stunning piece of culinary content.

May in introduce you to the omelette quattro stagioni? It was my brilliant ideas for using up the scraps of veggies that were cluttering up the fridge - it's got a couple of asparagus spears, a few beetroot slices, half a tomato, and some carrot scraps, shaved into wafer thin slices (you don't get enough Monty Python references on this blog, do you?)

The omelette base was a mix of chickpea flour and some tofu blended together, which gave a nice custardy texture, but was rather on the bland side. Any suggestions for flavourings? Maybe a bit of mustard and miso or something?

Next, onto a festival of cauliflower. No, don't go, hold on, it's good, I promise you - I didn't cook it! I have roundly praised the vegan pizzas at 400 Rabbits more than once, mainly because a) they've not tried to fob herbivore off with a margharita with no cheese, or something equally grim b) and their pizzas are really, really good.

Every month, 400 Rabbits have a new special or two, and every so often they're vegan. After a collab with Greedy Khao recently, 400 Rabbits has got Chantelle Nicholson on board - the chef known for levelling up the vegan options at Marcus Wareing's Tredwell.

Her pizza collaboration is very cauliflowery - cauli puree and cauli florets. Along with all that, there's cherry tomatoes, zhoug and lemon yoghurt. It's a non-traditional and completely delicious pizza.

And after that symphony in cruciferous, I decided to get creative with cauliflower at home. I'm only a beginner with cauliflower steaks (you can see pretty much my only successful recipe here), but I'm a sucker for if at first you don't succeed, make, make, make more cauliflower steaks again. Think that's how the saying goes. Anyway.)

I thought I'd experiment with a sort of cauliflower florentine-gratin thing: a mix of chard, cheesy sauce, with some breadcrumbs on top. It was actually pretty decent, and I made the same thing again the next day.

The undercooked harissa quinoa that I served with it? Umm, maybe back to the drawing board on that one.

If you're reading this from England, you'll know that the weather has gone slightly off-kilter recently. I'm writing this from the middle of an impressive thunderstorm, and 24 hours earlier it was 28 degrees of beautiful sunshine, and I was sitting outside enjoying a brilliant blue sky. And it wasn't the first day like that: the last few weeks have had more than their fair share of sunny days. It's been starting to feel like summer (just ignore the thunderstorms and torrential rain, and leave me to my self-delusion!)

And when I can successfully delude myself into thinking the good weather is here, I feel like I should make some appropriate food: lots of little dishes you can dig into. I'd call it tapas or mezze, but it might sound a little grander than it was.

The falafel was made with a packet mix (I can't make decent falafel to save my life), and so were ridiculously salty, but the rest of it was respectable. Then there was broccoli and tahini mash, a recipe that I got from my month of cooking with Bowls of Goodness and which has been on regular rotation ever since. Then there was fava beans, spicy roast potatoes, ajvar, and some green for good measure.

There was even good weather! Maybe if I make it again, I can charm the sun back? If that's what it takes, I'm prepared to make falafel every day from now on.

asparagus

All the way from cauliflower steaks to cauliflower pizza

Things have been a little quiet on the blog, as I've been away ill. Not one of those couple-of-tissues-in-your-pocket, still-well-enoug...

food waste

Need to use up some past-their-best veggies? Here's my favourite ways to do just that

Do you ever open up your fridge, and see plastic boxes with half-forgotten odds and ends in, and a crisper drawer full of wonky veg? Then yo...

cheese

Vegan cheese face-off: Which are worth the honour of topping your crackers?

If there's anything that can convince me to let the moths out of my wallet and spend a little cash, it's a good cashew cheese. There...

If you're rolling your eyes at the post title, then I don't blame you. Let me start by saying this is my list, and it's what I use to do what I can. Everyone has different physical, mental, financial, time and other resources, so don't worry or feel bad about not doing everything, just do what you can. Every step you take is a step worth taking.

So, back to the purpose of this post. Here's my checklist for trying to go shopping in a way that's better for my wallet and better for the environment.

Do I really need to buy it?

The best way to save money with a new purchase is, well, just don't buy it. If you don't buy something, you spend precisely zero pence, and zero resources, energy and so on are used to make it. This is one of the most obvious ideas, but also one that I struggle with - sometimes you don't really need something (hello, donut the size of my head) but you do want it. The way I've learnt to deal with the conundrum between want and need is to wait a period of time (a week is good, a month is better) and then see if I still want that intended purchase. Oftentimes, the desire to buy whatever it was has lapsed. More often than not, I forget what the thing was I wanted in the first place. If that's the case, I definitely didn't need it to begin with.

Can I borrow it, mend it, or get it secondhand?

If I still really do need something, it's worth asking if there's another way of getting it that doesn't involve shelling out cash for an entirely new item. Can I borrow one from a neighbour or friend, for example? Handy for tools or if you need extra glasses for a party. And if it's books or similar you're after, making friends with your library is always a sound idea. If I have one that's broken or not quite new, can I repair it myself? I can't claim to have fixed much on this front, but I'm happy to darn socks to oblivion before I buy new ones, and have tried my tiny hands at fixing up decaying shelves and drawers to good effect (I swear there's nothing that can't be fixed with panel pins and a bit of wood glue) and I'm cackhanded as anything. Last of all, can you get it secondhand? Freecycle, charity shops, online auction sites and social media selling groups, your mates and relatives are all a good source of secondhand goods with a lot of life left in them.

What happens when I'm done with it?

When I go out and buy something new, once it comes through the door, I like to know where it will go on to in its next life. Depending on what it is, perhaps it could be given away. Kids clothes are a great example - the rate at which kids grow means they're always needing new gear, and there's no shortage of sites, shops and events to let people pass on or swap outfits they don't need any more. For other things, there's always the question of recycling. Take electronics, for example: old computers and phones that may have outlived their usefulness can be repurposed or refurbished for others to use - there are lots of charities that take unwanted laptops and desktops, buff them up and sell them on. For electronics without resale value, retailers should have a takeback service for recycling and lots of local councils also offer recycling points for small bits of hardware. In short, I try and think about the whole lifecycle of everything I buy, so it doesn't end up in landfill.

Can I buy it from a more ethical producer or retailer?

This is a tricky one, given everyone's definition of what's ethical varies, but here are a couple of examples. If I can buy something from a vegan business (I'm thinking cake as an example here, because I think about cake a lot) I'd rather do that if that's an option than buy it from a non-vegan business. I'm also keen on good social infrastructure, so I try to avoid large online retailers that practice tax avoidance (I pay my taxes down to the last penny, so I'm not sure why companies earning millions should be allowed to get out of doing the same). If I can buy something from a local retailer rather than a chain store, I like doing that too. And if some smart folk have put together a list of ethical sellers of a certain product, like the Food Empowerment Project, I'm very happy to get involved there too.

Can I buy it with less, better, or no packaging?

Packaging feels like it's inescapable for most purchases. I've waxed lyrical on more than one occasion about Hetu, London's zero waste shop, but for now zero waste shopping is the exception not the norm. There are still ways to cut plastic packaging waste though: if I'm buying clothing, can I pick it up from a physical store to avoid the plastic shroud that seems to be wrapped around every piece of clothing that's bought over the internet? If I'm buying fruit and veg, can I get it from the greengrocer who doesn't swathe everything in sealed plastic bags, and carry it home in a reusable shopper? And for stuff that always comes in some form of wrapper, can I find it with packaging that I know is recyclable? If I never see one of those bottles that comes with a mixed-materials spray nozzle that will outlast humanity, it will be too soon.

So, there you have it. I'd be lying if I said I nail everyone of those things all the time, but I do try and what I can, when I can. If you've got any other ways on how to shop better and save money, let me know - I'd love to hear your ideas.