Butternut squash and lentil soup

This recipe (2 portions of lovely orange coloured soup) came from my workplace, and it's delicious. I had a leftover butternut squash after Hallowe'en so the recipe turned up at the right time!

• 1 tspn olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped (approx 300g prepared weight)
• 0.5 tspn ground cumin
• 50g (1.75oz) red lentils
• 600ml (1pt) good vegetable stock (pedant = a pint is actually 568ml)
• Salt and pepper

I didn't weigh anything or use salt and pepper and it all went fine. Peeling butternut squash is something I could do without though...

It's freezable, a portion is one of these 'five a day' veg things and it's 112kcal, 17g carbs (of which 3g sugars) with 2g fat per portion.

• Peel the squash and chop it into bits, put it to one side.
• Get the oil warming.
• Wrestle with the onion and the garlic, add to the oil.
• Add the squash - 3-4 mins frying (I cooked it in a massive pot and put the lid on at this point)
• Add the cumin and 'fry for one minute'.
• Make the stock.
• Add the stock and the lentils, give it a stir.
• Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer for 25 mins.

Even though I've got the world's cutest blender I didn't obey the instruction to 'blend until smooth' but instead went at it with my potato masher which worked perfectly well.

Day Five - maintaining though not improving efforts

By eating pretty much what I had yesterday I've managed to just about keep to the larger part of the challenge, though hardly a perfect score. The office had a big event today with a lot of bought in food - I convinced myself that not eating leftover cakes and crisps was wasteful.

Er... that's about it...

Day Four - beginning to realise that it's not just about this week

Unthinkingly I 'dispensed' myself a cup of tea into a plastic cup today which hasn't helped the day's tally.

Lunch was fine - local, organic and plastic-free (and delicious) but having read some of the other blogs, and being inspired and a little bit intimidated, it occurred to me that I might be more at the stage of moving in that direction rather than actually being there from the start.

I can't see me avoiding plastic entirely in future - it's too useful for one thing, being transparent and quite a good water-proof barrier, nor am I going to deny myself food from around the world.

It takes quite a lot of conscious effort and double-checking to find out if foodstuffs satisfy even one of the three criteria. Unless you're determined it's quite the uphill struggle so it's certainly not the path of least resistance to eat in this way. Not impossible of course, but a lot more effort and thinking than I usually put into what I eat...

Day Three - getting the hang of it... slightly

One of the most interesting courses I ever attended, and which made me think the most about where food comes from (country of origin, part of the plant, efforts taken to harvest and process / extract edible bits) was the two week course in Economic Botany [1] at the University of Leiden [2] which I took last year. We were lucky enough to be taught by Prof David Mabberley [3] (he has his own Wikipedia page) and provided with samples from the herbarium to study by Dr. Jaap Jan Vermeulen. We went through the major plant families and the economics behind their cultivation and use and we even sampled some of them.

It's rather encouraged me to try more foods from abroad and different varieties of things - relying on one particular crop and losing a bit of genetic diversity is not necessarily a great idea and I have been doing my bit by munching my way through a wider variety of foods than I was this time last year. Obviously this week I'm trying to achieve something similar but a bit more locally.

Today I had lunch from Fresh and Wild [4] (didn't manage to find any hoummous in glass jars that Mark suggested) and it was delicious and local (finally!) and nothing was plastic (yes!) and I'm pretty sure everything was organic (result!). Had a delicious apple - a Katy variety I think it was. Still on the trail for hoummous in glass jars I went along to Villandry [5] - still didn't find any - but picked up a fresh ciabatta and a financier [6] cake. Mmm, healthy ;-)

Might try Planet Organic tomorrow for the hoummous... I am certainly visiting the pricier shops of North London... it's only a forty minute walk to Waitrose too.

[1] Society for Economic Botany
[2] International Course in Economic Botany at University of Leiden
[3] Prof David Mabberley's wikipedia page
[4] Fresh and Wild
[5] Villandry
[6] Financier cake recipe - one of many on the web

Day Two - more ways in which to fail to avoid plastic

For breakfast I had a pleasant roll and butter which came in a paper bag (I've kept it for re-use!) along with a banana which had its own packaging. Unfortunately I realised, on the bus to work, that the tea which I'd bought to wash it down and which came in a carboard cup, had a plastic lid.

Again at lunch my meatball wrap (Pret) satisfied one of the criteria (plasticless) although I've no idea of the meatballs' provenance... but even though the little mini cheesecake comes in a recyclable paper container ("jewellery box") it still contains a plastic window which I noticed once I'd started enjoying it.

I am not really setting the world alight here on this challenge I have to say. I might try Fresh and Wild [1] tomorrow for lunch although I hear the Bristol branch closed [2] yesterday.

This evening I went to hear Ben Goldacre [3] (I rate him very highly, he gave an excellent talk) talking about what makes bad science bad and I threw caution to the wind with two Belgian beers (on the plus side, no plastic... on the minus side - a bit foreign and probably not organic). I decided to admit defeat on buying any more food for the day as it's not been a resounding success, so I'm a bit peckish at the moment - doing penance for my day of gormlessness.

[1] Fresh and Wild
[2] Fresh and Wild closes store as consumers reject organic for cheaper deals
[2] Ben Goldacre's badscience website

Day Zero - preparation

Today I visited my local Farmers' Market [1] to pick up a few provisions, all of which I managed to get in paper bags or unbagged - getting goat's cheese in a paper bag was interesting, the stall holder didn't think it was a very good idea and I'm inclined to agree.

Then I ruined things a bit by going to the supermarket and getting some hoummous and fish in plastic. I think I'd draw the line at prepared fish in anything other than vacuum packed plastic packaging but I'm still of the opinion that I will find hoummous somewhere in a glass pot. I suppose enthusiasts make it themselves [2a / 2b], I might investigate that.

None of the cheddar-type cheese that I had my eyes on in the supermarket is packaged in recyclable plastic, which surprised me, but cauliflower cheese without the cheese would be a disappointing meal. Next time a bit of advanced preparation might be a good idea as cheese does exist in London without plastic - I'm sure Neal's Yard Dairy [3] would have helped me here.

I'm already getting milk in bottles now, thanks to a post on the EatTheChange [4] website and I've had a veg box from Riverford Organic [5] for a while now.

Things I'm going to investigate this week:

• Unpackaged - a shop where you bring your own packaging [6]
• Grocers' style brown paper bags [7]

[1] London Farmers' Market - http://www.lfm.org.uk/
[2a] Hoummous recipe - http://greekfood.about.com/
[2b] Hoummous recipe - http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye
[3] Neal's Yard Dairy - http://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/
[4] Eat the Change - http://eatthechange.org/
[5] Riverford Organic vegetables - http://www.riverford.co.uk/
[6] Unpackaged - http://www.beunpackaged.com/
[7] Brown bags - http://www.carrierbagshop.co.uk