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Posts from the ‘Sustainable Eating’ Category

Mar 29

Head-to-Tail Cooking, Vegetarian Style

photo 2Head-to-tail eating has been all the rage for a few years now.  Chefs such as Fergus Henderson of St. John in London and his compatriot Hugh Fearnsley Whittingstall brought this concept — eating the entire animal, head to tail, so that nothing is wasted — back into style.  American chefs are also exploring this sustainable approach to cooking meat.  Preparing and enjoying food this way makes sense for many reasons: less waste, more nutrients, more mindful use of resources and a greater connection with our ingredients.  

I think we should be bringing this idea to the vegetable world. Why throw away the skins, or the green tops of the beautiful vegetables we find at the farmers’ market, not to mention the vegetables we have nurtured in the garden?  I’m not saying we should be eating banana peels, but I am offering up three ways to use more of the whole vegetable. Read more

Jan 11

A Fishy Issue

Watercolor by Jana Bouc

 

Eat fish!  Don’t Eat Fish! It’s good for you! It’s bad for you!  Fish is great, long live fish! There is no more fish, stop eating fish! OH MY WORD, there is a lot of craziness surrounding this issue.   People are understandably confused which leads to food anxiety and that’s not good.   Let’s go through some of the major issues surrounding this fish problem and see if we can sort out some sensible guidelines:

PRO EATING FISH
There is general consensus that fish is: Read more

Mar 6

Ruminating on Ruminants

Image by Leslie Kuenne

The grumpy adolescent boy looked at the kale and quinoa on his plate and then stared me down with indignant brown eyes.  Mum, you’re going to have to choose between your cute little vegetables and me.  I’m a growing teenage boy and I NEED MEAT.

My own offspring was reading me the Riot Act. Never mind that I had been preaching the gospel of less meat, more lentils, less meat, more greens, less meat, more carrots, kohlrabi and cabbage.  Possibly because of all my preaching (he is a teenager after all) this progeny was begging for a steak, a hamburger, meatballs, OMG, Mum, SOMETHING with meat in it!   Since this is a kid who will happily munch on fennel, endive and sushi, I figured he wasn’t being finicky.  I put it down to a growth spurt and gave him some beef. Read more

Nov 28

Taking Stock From Thanksgiving

Anytime stock pot

After the excesses of Thanksgiving, I like to have a few days of brothy soups to clear the body of all that stuffing. I am always surprised by how easy it is to make a nourishing bowl of aromatic broth from modest beginnings. Think of it — an old carcass, some water and a paltry handful of vegetables, add some heat, skim a bit and soon you have a steaming bowl of flavorful stock — really, turning dust into gold is nothing compared with this type of alchemy.

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