The first few weeks of the year are about to finally pass Lent as the climax of abdication. A meal plan after the festive season should be low in calories and modest. For several years now, January has also had to be as alcohol-free as possible (“dry” or “saber January”) and more recently also without meat, the “Vegan” campaign, which an NGO devised four years ago to encourage people to be more sustainable. Climate and animal-friendly feeding is becoming more and more popular all over the world.
More restaurants and businesses are now participating than ever before. Unfortunately, most find that promoting a few chorizo flavored seitan sticks is sufficient. But marketing, ideological drumming, and off-the-shelf products never lead to a better kitchen. On the other hand, it always hides that sustainable management is also associated with effort. Cooking yourself is fine, but completely rethinking the kitchen is even better.
Two-star Franconian chef Felix Schneider, known for his sustainable way of working, shows what that can look like. Perhaps he had a more complex system of using leftovers for a long time, but in the early years he always had a huge pot on the stove, where he boiled gently and in it (almost) all the rest of the cleaning vegetables, for example, automatically got into it. This creates a wonderful and useful chest.
One particularly useful recipe comes from British chef Nadia Hussein
The example shows that the term kitchen waste already belongs to the index. Years ago, Copenhagen’s best restaurant Noma hired a biochemist from Berkeley University to ferment vegetable scraps into juices. And Swiss culinary journalist Esther Kern, with her holistic “Leaf to root” (leaf to root) approach, has created a veritable movement for amateur chefs who only use the whole fruit. The number of projects that prove that something can still be made from just about anything has long since been baffling. Unfortunately, this does not mean that all great options for using leftovers are implemented in everyday life. They often fail due to planning and time budgets. Who maintains an eternal flame at home with a pot of bubbling soup in which some carrot peels or a broccoli stalk can reasonably be thrown away at any time?
But there are now recipes that make excuses for even the laziest of us. An especially practical and clever recipe comes from British chef Nadia Hussain, who works with frozen vegetable scraps and peels for her “leftover soup” (“Time to Eat. Simple, Quick Recipes for a Comfortable Life,” Ars Vivendi). These build up gradually when you clean vegetables, with the little extra effort of washing potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celery, leeks, or even beets more carefully than usual and removing any unsightly spots. The rinds, leeks, or stems are roughly chopped and frozen tightly closed.
If you’ve gathered enough, there’s a vegetable soup that fits January perfectly like no other. For all the reminders and marketing enthusiasts: This recipe is not only low-calorie, alcohol-free, sweetened, vegan, and climate-friendly, but it’s also comprehensive, versatile, and feminist. Nadia Hussain’s mainly sympathetic family comes from Bangladesh. But the fact that the daughter of Muslim immigrants competes on the BBC’s Baking Show and wins, gets inundated with TV shows and book contracts and is allowed to bake the much-adored cake for the Queen’s 90th birthday – unfortunately, these are stories like that so far that have only been unique to TV. Cooking in Britain. These are stories – speaking of rethinking – that should be more common in the future.
Boil the bread to make it creamy
For simplicity, Nadia Hussain uses 3 tablespoons of onion and 2 tablespoons of garlic granules in the soup, that is, freeze-dried goods, which she combines with 700g of frozen vegetable scraps, about 2 teaspoons of salt (dose to taste, extra salt Always possible), put 2 pieces of organic lemon and their juice, 1 tablespoon of chili flakes and 7 g of dried cilantro in a large saucepan and pour 2 liters of vegetable broth on it (vegetable broth from a glass is more expensive and better, but a granulated stock works as well, then carefully salt Larger). Finally, a torn slice of bread is added, cooked with it and at the end gives the soup a certain creaminess. Let everything simmer for 90 to 120 minutes, then mash until smooth using a hand blender, season to taste and serve with a little yoghurt or sour cream (oat yogurt would be vegan) and some chives (parsley, cilantro or roasted seeds work too , naturally). Admittedly, this soup is more of a country palate. But it tastes good – depending on the vegetable it is slightly different each time. She is useful. And it freezes well.
Refinement is of course always possible. For example, by using more vegetables or by starting to sort and coordinate leftovers by type. Or because you have trouble substituting the granules with 2 pieces of finely chopped onion and 4 cloves of garlic, which are fried in a little olive oil and sweetened briefly with a piece of vinegar or vermouth. There is hardly an easier start to the year.
