Source: Gill King, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
Day 21 & 22 of 365 Days Of Low Carbon Living: I create a new meat-free dish with local ingredients.
How are you going with eating a lower carbon diet?
I find that hot weather, holidays, tiredness and being busy all contribute to lowering my imagination and energy when it comes to meal preparation.
However, in the interests of keeping the carbon footprint of my food down, and my success at the Climatarian Challenge up, yesterday I created a new dish…from local ingredients…with almost no cooking in this hot weather – and it was very easy. (Yay, me!)
What I did
An interesting and tasty salad containing black beans over Christmas inspired me to buy some black beans. It was the first time I had eaten them, and they intrigued me.
So I went out and bought some dried black beans from my local nut, bean and grain shop. I try to buy dry pulses because they have lower transport emissions embodied in them (because dry weighs a lot less than canned).
The shop even had Australian black beans, so (for people living in Australia) they came with lower transport emissions than ones overseas (usually USA or Canada). (I wouldn’t have bought foreign-grown beans because of their large transport emissions. Locally-grown produce also supports local farmers, which means stronger local communities (particularly in rural areas) – and resilient communities fare much better in times of stress, which we are increasingly seeing as the consequences of damage to our climate unfold.)
I have also been on the hunt for Australian-grown quinoa. Here in Australia, it would have much lower embodied transport emissions than quinoa from Bolivia. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I found some – the first Australian-grown quinoa I have seen for some years. Naturally, I bought it.
And together the black beans and quinoa formed the basis of my salad.
The remaining ingredients all came from my garden (rocket) or my local farmers’ market (tomato, red onion, olive oil and lemon juice). (I am still waiting for this season’s production of those ingredients in my garden.)
How
Preparation was very quick:
- soak the beans overnight
- rinse the beans and the quinoa separately then cook them separately in fresh water (about ½ hour on a stove-top)
- chop the red onion, tomato and rocket (arugula)
- rinse the beans and quinoa briefly under cold water to cool
- combine everything with olive oil and lemon juice to taste
Eat!
The challenge
See how many meals you can make with:
- climate-friendly protein
- local ingredients
Join me!
Any change or challenge is easier if you have company along the way.
So let’s embark on this journey together.
- Read my blog every day for ideas, thoughts and experiences for living a lower carbon lifestyle, more in harmony with nature – while also adapting to the consequences of our damaged climate.
- Subscribe to get posts direct to your inbox.
- Commit to taking action yourself.
- Add a comment to let me know you’re joining in the effort to turn around our world so it can remain liveable – and what your experiences are.
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A problem shared is a problem halved. We’re all affected by the changes to our world so we all need to be in on the action!
Till next time…