Reviving limp veg

Found at the back of the refrigerator today:

Oops. Thankfully not the end of the world, but I've rediscovered my zeal for the little things and the infinitesimal difference they make in the grander scheme. It's the principle that counts. An attitude of thrift at the limp broccoli level will reinforce my attitude of thrift at all the other levels. I aim to manage my fridge better this week, prevention is worth a pound of cure after all.

I've had success with reviving tired celery in the past, as well as potatoes, parsnips and carrots, by placing them in cold water in the fridge (it works better than leaving them out on the side for some reason I don't understand). So I trimmed a sliver off of the dried out ends of the broccoli stems and placed them in a jar of cold water in the fridge.

An hour later:

Perky and crisp enough to chop up into pasta.

Ful medames

I made ful medames using the recipe card that came with my Hodmedod's order (helpfully they've put their recipes online).

Whilst not entirely authentic (this Claudia Rosen version looks pretty good), and the beans having taken significantly longer to soften than the suggested 1 hour, they were delicious. Even the pickiest among us gobbled them up with the seeded pitta breads from the freezer (yellow-stickered for the win!) and so I can add another dish to my repetoire - another dish that can also be made entirely from pantry ingredients if you substitute dried for fresh herbs.

On the subject of Middle Eastern cuisine, I watched the first two episodes of Nigel Slater's Middle East and I thoroughly recommend it. The Turkey episode blew me away - that 'rootedness' and sense of place that I was banging on about, Nigel banged on about it too. It's available on iPlayer now.

British beans

My first order from Hodmedod's has arrived. This is not a paid advert, I am just that excited that someone is reviving some of our native crops and making our food system a little more resilient.

Everything here is UK grown. I plan on replacing all of my usual imported pulses with these - carlin peas can sub for chickpeas, haricot for any small bean, marrowfat peas for soups and purees. The camelina seed are interesting, they can be used as a vegan egg replacement much like chia seeds. They also stock British grown quinoa and a few other pulses that I'd like to try next time.

I want my vegan diet to be as ethical as possible, the 'vegan' bit was the easiest choice I had to make in an edible minefield of carbon footprints, habitat destruction and human and animal exploitation. I make my choices as best I can on a modest budget; and usually focus on buying from my local shops, buying British, avoiding overpackaging and buying luxuries like coffee Fairtrade. A 'locavore' diet is not necessarily the most planet friendly, in this instance however replacing my imported pulses has a raft of other benefits:

The handwritten delivery note scribbled on the back of a 10% off voucher for my next order; and a stack of recipe cards is also much appreciated.

Make the most of celery

Did you know that you can eat celery leaves? I discovered this nugget of wisdom last week, having lived my life thus far believeing that they were toxic. They have an intense celery flavour (surprise!) with a peppery warm undertone. I've been chopping them up and throwing them into salads and pasta sauce. They seem to be a frugal substitute for parsley.

Stringy, salty celery was my food nemesis as a child, right up until I discovered cardammon and coriander leaf and came to know true hate. It's taken years to retrain my tastebuds; and it's still a rare occassion that I eat is as a crudité. Still, we always have a bunch in the fridge, to be finely diced and added to sauces, stews and salads. And yet, whilst it is ever so useful, I still occassionally find limp celery buried at the back of the fridge - a completely preventable waste.

The most reliable way to store a head of celery is to immediately remove it from its plastic wrapper and rewrap it tightly in foil. Stored in this way in the bottom of the fridge, it will keep its crunch for a couple of weeks. Alternatively, it can stored upright in a jar of water in the fridge, which is all I have space for this week. Individual cut stalks can be stored submerged in water which extends their shelf life by a few days. The water must be changed every few days to prevent spoiling.

Incidentally, both of these methods can also be used to revive already flagging celery - lightly trim the dried out base or stalk ends before adding to the water. The colder the water the better; iced water apparently works the fastest but I have never tried it.

Chopped and sauteed celery can be frozen in batches to add to dishes when needed. I sometimes sautee large quantities of onion, carrot and celery and freeze them in batches - these flavours are the base of many dishes from pasta sauce to shepherdess pie.

And when all that is done, the end of the celery can go into either the stock pot or the compost bin.

It seems that some have had success at regrowing celery from their scraps, but I just don't have the space for that. What a beautifully frugal idea, though. 

A healthy, frugal packed lunch

Being both determinedly thrifty and a vegan, I try to be organised and take a packed lunch or dinner to work. If I forget, I'm forced to resort to those very unfrugal instant noodle bowls or chips from the canteen, topped up with Rich Tea biscuits. Unhealthy, boring and spendthrift to boot.

The past few weeks I have been bringing my lunch A-game. Here is yesterday's menu:

A few smushed falafel, salad, vegan mayo and chili sauce stuffed into half a baton makes for a very filling lunch main for less than a pound. I packed a small jar of nuts and and some cherries on the side for a nicely balanced lunch and resisted the urge to buy a pack of biscuits too. It was good.

My preferred option is to take in last night's leftovers. This was a lentil bake served over the biggest jacket potato I have ever eaten (that's a regular dinner plate, for scale):

Instant noodles or rice, bulked out with chopped veg and some cashew nuts or seeds are also a good frugal option. Noodles can be made with just a kettle if need be:

I work a 3 day week, around 45 weeks of the year, which is 135-270 meals eaten at work depending on my shift pattern. In my case, packing a lunch is around half to two thirds cheaper than buying it at work which means I save hundreds of pounds over the course of a year. I'd much prefer those hundreds or meals to be delicious, healthy and cheap; packaged in reused glass jars or simple baking parchment; rather than over packaged, over processed and over priced.