WHEREVER you stand on the plastic straw debate, food writer Melissa Hemsley is right: "You don't get two in your mojito on a Friday night now!"
Things are undoubtedly changing. Call it the Blue Planet II effect, or simply an inevitable waking up to the demands we put on the planet, but more than ever before, the choices we make daily – and especially at dinnertime – come with a side of: is this environmentally justifiable?
It's an idea that threads its way through Hemsley's lively new cookbook, Eat Green. Veg-heavy (but not fully vegetarian), it focuses on all the little ways we can cut waste and get dinner on the table without feeling like quite such dreadful, energy-sapping humans.
The London-based 34-year-old, of sister double act Hemsley+Hemsley – best known for popularising the spiralizer, bone broth and cauliflower rice – calls it a guide on how to "get the most out of food, be frugal, be thrifty – but in a positive way".
"[For] my Roman Catholic Filipino mum, throwing food away was a sin," says Hemsley of her upbringing, "which can make you feel guilty and is a bit preachy and scary. But I've really realised that for those of us who care about the planet, [the stats around food waste are] something we could all probably do with addressing."
She is well aware how easy it can be to succumb to the panic and despair those food waste statistics can induce; a third of all food produced is wasted somewhere along the line, and according to charity WRAP, 85 per cent of that waste happens at home.
"There is this deep sadness about what's going on in the world, but also, you go to marches and you talk to people about it, and there's also a very, 'We're all in this, let's get on with it' optimism. A, 'Let's share what we know and do the best we can' [attitude]," muses Hemsley, who cooked for Extinction Rebellion during several of the group's 2019 climate protests.
"But I agree that sometimes it can be so incredibly overwhelming that you don't know where to start. You might freeze, you might give up, or you just think, 'Ugh, I'll deal with it another day', and I understand that."
However, she adds: "I really feel lots of us can get behind food waste. It can tick so many boxes – saving money, doing your part for the planet. We mustn't, mustn't listen to this idea that what we do won't have an effect.
"Life happens," she continues, "things do end up in the bin but what can we do to stop that happening as much as possible?"
Eat Green presents some of those possibilities. Packed with tips for using up some of the most binned fruit and veg items (looking at you, carrot tops and cauliflower leaves), it's positively boisterous, teeming with feelgood ways to stretch your food, fill your belly with good stuff and greenery, and make your cooking life a little easier.
Self-taught chef Hemsley encourages batch-cooking, cooking from scratch, avoiding plastic (wherever possible), not overusing the same ingredients (poor beloved avocados and chickpeas), eating seasonally, making a judgement on eating certain items past their sell-by-date, and being flexible ("My mum basically taught me: be flexible, use what you've got").
And that's not even mentioning her favourite thing; filling up the freezer, so all you have to do is defrost dinner in culinary Blue Peter style – here's one I made earlier. Ta-dah!
"I only feel good when I've got food in the freezer," she says with a laugh, describing how she recently had a nasty fall down the stairs and "genuinely had the thought in my head, 'At least the freezer is full'. Of all the things to cross my mind!"
She also hopes to help override that feeling we all get upon opening the fridge, that there's nothing to eat. That dinner can't be rustled up. "There is always something," says Hemsley. "So why waste your energy trekking out in the rain and the cold to the shops, to just go and spend more money?"
It's simpler if you have well-stocked cupboards and a chest-freezer of buried, edible treasure, of course. But Hemsley is clear – she just wants her recipes to be helpful and useful: "I don't want to tell anyone how to live their lives."
But if she does manage to help you cut waste and align better with the seasons ("I don't want to offer people cherry tomato recipes in December"), that can only be a good thing.
"What I do know is that every single one of us can play a part," she says, adamant. "With no judgment or guilt tripping, what can you, I, do, that feels sustainable in terms of, can we repeat it every day? And if so, let's do it, and let's keep on doing it."
:: Eat Green by Melissa Hemsley, photography by Philippa Langley, is published by Ebury Press, priced £22. Below are two recipes from the book for you to try.
RESCUE NOODLE SOUP
(Serves 4)
1tbsp ghee or butter
1 large leek or onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1.2 litres vegetable stock or bone broth
1 big handful of a mix of fresh herbs, like parsley and dill, leaves and stems chopped
1tbsp fresh thyme leaves or 1tsp dried
1 bay leaf, dried or fresh
2 celery sticks, diced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 handfuls of 2cm chunks of root veg like sweet potato, squash, pumpkin, potato or (in the summer) courgette
400g noodles or spaghetti, any type
1tsp olive oil
300g mix of cabbage, rainbow chard and/or chard, stems finely chopped and leaves shredded
300g leftover shredded chicken
Juice of 1/4 lemon or 1tsp apple cider vinegar
2 big handfuls of frozen peas or sweetcorn
Sea salt and black pepper
Method:
In a large wide saucepan, heat the ghee or butter and fry the leek or onion over a medium heat for eight minutes while you prep everything else. Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Add the stock or broth, chopped parsley or dill stems, thyme, bay leaf, celery, carrot, root veg and some salt and pepper, pop the lid on and cook for 15 minutes until the carrot is almost tender.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles in a separate pan until almost tender (check the label for suggested timings), then drain and rinse under cold water to stop them cooking further. Toss with the olive oil to stop them clumping and set aside.
Back to your soup pan: add the chopped cabbage and chard stems, shredded chicken, lemon juice or vinegar and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the chard leaves, frozen peas or sweetcorn and cooked noodles for a final two minutes so that the chard wilts, the peas cook and the noodles heat through. Season to taste and serve up straight away, topped with the fresh herb leaves.
TAHINI CHOC CHIP COOKIES
(Makes 16)
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g light tahini
110g smooth nut butter
100g good-quality dark chocolate, broken up into squares, or chips
30g black and/or white sesame seeds
A pinch of sea salt
Method:
Preheat the oven to fan 170C. Line a large baking tray with reusable baking paper. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs then mix in the baking powder, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Add the tahini and nut butter and mix together until very well combined.
Roughly chop the chocolate (if not using chips) and fold through the batter along with the sesame seeds. Measure out 16 balls of the cookie batter, roughly one tablespoon each, and bake for 10-15 minutes on the lined baking tray (making sure to leave a little room between each one) until the cookies are just set. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with a little sea salt and allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.
(For vegans, replace the two eggs with one large mashed ripe banana. You can also swap the nut butter for the same amount of a seed butter or tahini for a nut-free alternative.)
