I recently took part in Carbon Literacy Training by Bristol Medical School (totally recommend, if anyone gets the opportunity!), and as part of this training we had to identify workplace-based actions we will take forward to try and reduce the school’s carbon emissions. My action was to try and encourage the consumption of plant-based foods, which have a much lower impact on the environment than meat and dairy, by sharing some of my favourite recipes. I thought I’d post them on this site as well, in case they’re of interest to anyone!
The first is gnocchi with tomato sauce - Enjoy! (The recipe is below, after a short preamble on the environmental benefits of plant-based diets)
Background to Sustainable Diets
Agriculture accounts for approximately one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing our food-based carbon footprint is therefore a relatively simple and impactful behaviour we can all do to try and minimise our impact on the climate.
And the best way to reducing our food-based carbon footprint? Reducing – or eliminating completely – meat and dairy. This is because over half of the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are caused by the meat and dairy industries, especially methane emissions from ruminant animals such as cows and sheep. In the UK, the food-based carbon footprint of vegans is approximately 60% lower than that of ‘high’ meat-eaters (100g or more meat per day), and even small reductions in meat consumption can have large environmental benefits.
Reducing meat and dairy consumption may be an obvious action to reduce our carbon footprint, but can often be difficult to put into practice. One reason is a perception that vegan/plant-based food does not taste very good (sometimes definitely true!), while another is that people may not know how to make appetising plant-based meals.
I have been vegan for over 5 years now and like to think of myself as a fairly-decent amateur cook. So for the next few months as part of my Carbon Literacy pledge I’ll be sharing a few of my favourite plant-based recipes to (hopefully!) show that vegan food can be delicious and try to encourage more climate-friendly diets.
We’ll start with a simple Italian classic: gnocchi with tomato sauce.
Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce (Serves 2)
Ingredients
For the gnocchi
3 to 4 medium (approx. fist-size) potatoes – ideally a floury variety, such as Maris Piper
100g of plain flour
Salt and pepper, to taste
For the tomato sauce
Vegetable oil (or other odourless oil) for frying
1 medium onion (either red or white is fine)
2 cloves of garlic
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
A bunch of basil
½ a lemon
1 teaspoon sugar
Extra virgin olive oil (for drizzling)
Vegan cheese (vegan cheese – rightly! – has a bad name. It used to uniformly be terrible in both taste and texture, but there are some better options available now. The Cathedral City vegan cheese is probably my favourite at the moment. Feel free to just omit, if you’d rather)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Recipe
- Peel the potatoes and cut into approx. 1.5 to 2 cm cubes. Add to a saucepan with boiling water, and boil for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft (but not mushy/falling apart). When the potatoes are soft, drain the water thoroughly, add some salt and pepper, and mash until the potatoes are soft and there are no lumps. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
- While the potatoes are boiling, dice the onion or cut into thin strips (either is fine). Add to a frying pan with a glug of vegetable oil and fry on a low-to-medium heat for about 10 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally. When the onions are soft, crush the garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife and then dice1. Add the garlic to the frying pan for a few minutes.
- Pour the tin of tomatoes into the frying pan. Take half of the bunch of basil, remove the tough stalks, and roughly chop the leaves. Add the chopped basil leaves, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper to the frying pan and stir together. Keep the sauce on a low heat, gently simmering, for at least 15 minutes or so until the sauce reduces and thickens (the longer you leave it the richer and tastier it will be!). Stir occasionally.
- Bring another pan of water to the boil (this will be used to cook the gnocchi).
- Add the flour to the mashed potato, a heaped tablespoonful at a time, and stir thoroughly until the mixture comes together and is no longer sticky when handled (this may require more or less than the 100g of flour).
- Dust a counter or chopping board with flour. Take a heaped spoonful of the gnocchi mixture and roll into a long sausage shape, approx. 2cm in diameter. Chop the sausage into 2cm chunks.
- Add the gnocchi to the boiling water until it floats (this will take a minute or so). Use a slotted spoon to remove the gnocchi and place on a plate. While these are cooking, take another spoonful of gnocchi mixture and repeat step 6.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 until there is no gnocchi mixture remaining.
- Check the tomato sauce, and add more salt/pepper/sugar/lemon if needed.
- Serve the tomato sauce on top of the gnocchi pieces, and scatter the remaining half of the basil leaves on top. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and some grated cheese.
Crush the garlic with the flat size of a knife and then dice the garlic using the knife, that is; don’t crush the garlic with the flat size of a knife and then try to crush again with some dice!↩︎