In the last week I’ve managed to eat less meat, mainly by eating chickpeas, which of course are imported. (This is an instance where it’s better to eat imported dried goods rather than local meat.) I’ve now chosen two of my five non-local items: chickpeas and quinoa – I’m now trying to decide between haricot beans and lentils! I made hummus, with rapeseed oil, raw garlic and cider vinegar instead of lemon juice – I thought it was okay, but my daughter Rachel didn’t like the substitution. I also made a really good spicy chickpea dish with vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, runner beans, onions, tomatoes), using lots of garlic, fresh turmeric, chillies and ginger (all from Simon’s Mayflower Organics stall in the Sunday market) – not quite curry as we normally have it, but very delicious all the same!
Cutting down on meat
The meat this week has been rabbit again, so no problem as far as greenhouse gases go, ox liver (see my first post for my justification for that) and chicken, which I had twice. (Angie at the Sunday market has boiling fowls occasionally, and I made some absolutely delicious chicken soup.) That’s not bad for seven days.
A real treat this week has been windfall walnuts from Trumpington, where I was visiting my son and his family, and apples from the village green in Swavesey – a present from Rachel, who says no one ever picks them. I also got some windfall pears from Maggie in my choir – they tasted a bit of toffee – lovely! Rachel also brought beautiful dark plums from her garden – they look a bit like damsons but are much sweeter.
Missing tinned tomatoes!
Interestingly, the thing I miss most is tinned tomatoes. I thought I wouldn’t, as we have masses of our own tomatoes at this time of year, but we aren’t growing plum tomatoes and so they just aren’t the same, even when cooked, for things like ratatouille – although they are very delicious.
Posted by Bev