Plant and Planet: Sustainable and Delicious Vegetarian Cooking for Real People

by Goodful

Overview

Simple steps can make an impact on our planet. From BuzzFeed’s Goodful, these 75 plant-based recipes plus plenty of low-waste strategies will guide you to a sustainable life you can feel good about.

Goodful offers approachable recipes, tips, and guides for everyday life. In Plant and Planet, discover seventy-five plant-based recipes for meal prep, everyday celebrations, and cooking with the seasons, from Zucchini Lasagna Boats and Black Bean & Walnut Quesadillas to Caramelized Banana & Orange Parfaits, along with tons of ways to stock your kitchen, grow your own ingredients, turn your scraps into amazing treats, and more.

Beautifully photographed, this cookbook is super practical and impactful, with surprising and easy ways to reduce environmental impact, shopping guides and meal plans, information about repurposing food waste, plus a guide to growing your own ingredients. You will learn how to:

• Approach cooking from a seasonal perspective
• Minimize packaging while maximizing flavor
• Clear out your fridge and freezer to make comforting soups, salads, and other dishes

Featuring contributions from experts DeVonn Francis, Lorena Ramirez, Lauren Singer, Nadiya Hussain, Kelis Rogers, David Zilber, and Ben Flanner, Plant and Planet is filled with tips and quick hits of information about the environmental impact of these recipes—all to deliver a low-stress, high-impact path to a low-waste kitchen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593135518
Publisher:	Harmony/Rodale
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Edition description:	Illustrated
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Goodful is one of BuzzFeed's most popular verticals, known for their approachable take on wellness trends.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

When we talk about food—like, really talk about it—there are so many thorny issues. Environmental impact, food justice, fair trade, sustainability, humane practices. It can feel overwhelming, to the point where cracking an egg for breakfast becomes a political act. How can you even begin to unravel all the interconnected systems of food production and distribution? What can you, as one person, really do to make a lasting impact?

This might come as a shock, but the answer is incredibly simple. All it takes are small, intentional steps to make a big impact. There’s no need to take on the weight of the world; just pick one, four, ten little adjustments and—here’s the important part!—stick to them. A repeated action over time yields amazing results. And as one thing becomes a new habit, then you’re ready for a new adjustment, and another, and another, until you’re comfortably living more sustainably.

One simple step that we can all start taking today is incorporating more plants into our diet. A strictly vegetarian or vegan diet is a journey and a choice, and we’re in no way judging meat eaters. But for everyone looking to cut back, explore new options, expand your palate, boost your health, get out of a rut, or choose any of the millions of reasons to incorporate more plant-based food in your routine, great news! You hit the jackpot with these 75 easy, incredible, and approachable recipes, from delicious drinks (page 191) to ideas that clear out the pantry (page 143); recipes with 5 ingredients or fewer (page 75) to meals ready in less than 10 minutes (page 95); ways to pickle, preserve, and pulverize your produce (page 211) to smart meal preps for a week of delicious options (page 45); bread to break and butter to pass (page 227) to zero-waste recipes that are kind of amazing (page 119); and, of course, a chapter of plant-based junk(ish) food (page 165) because eating should always be fun.

Throughout the book we also share simple, practical, real-life advice for a better planet. You’ll find guidance on looking at produce through a seasonal lens (page 13), adding sustainable practices to your grocery shopping (page 17), taking easy steps to reduce packaging (page 25), saving money by cutting back on food waste (page 29), dipping a (green) thumb into gardening (page 35), and making your food last (page 39). And we asked some of our favorite food people—DeVonn Francis, Lorena Ramirez, Lauren Singer, Nadiya Hussain, Kelis Rogers, Ben Flanner, and David Zilber—to weigh in with their experience, helpful advice, and unique perspective on living more sustainably.

From these two pillars—plant and planet—we can all slowly shift our focus to a more natural, impactful, and integrated way of thinking about our habits. By connecting with our food, we connect with our planet. And by connecting with our planet, we connect with our food. The link between plant and planet is a constant, interconnected loop. A small, intentional step of visiting a local farmers’ market just once a month opens up the possibility for conversation, education, and—best of all!—discovering produce you’ve never tried before. Digging all those unused canvas totes out of your closet makes an enormous impact on the environment. Eating a plant-based meal once a day or three times a week or twenty days a month sends you down a new path of awareness. Starting a small pot of herbs, or filling some jars with pickles, or planning your grocery trips for maximum effectiveness are all tiny steps to reducing food waste, increasing environmental impact, and living a more sustainable life. And that’s a life we can feel good about.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

How To Use This Book 9

Shopping Seasonally 13

Shopping Sustainably 17

Shopping Package-Free 25

A Sustainable Budget 29

Grow Your Own 35

Make It Stretch 39

Work Smarter, Not Harder 45

Expert Opinion From Devonn Francis 71

A Lot with a Little 75

Expert Opinion From Lorena Ramirez 91

10 Under 10 95

Expert Opinion From Lauren Singer 115

Waste Not, Want Not 119

Expert Opinion From Nadiya Hussain 139

Clear Out 143

Expert Opinion From Kelis Rogers 160

Live a Little 165

Expert Opinion From Ben Flanner 187

Let's Raise a Glass 191

Expert Opinion From David Zilber 207

The Preservation Society 211

Bread & Butter 227

Notes 248

Acknowledgments 251

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

Delicious vegetarian recipes are paired with ‘practical, real life advice for a better planet’ in this excellent collection. To save money and time, home cooks are offered a tantalizing selection of five-ingredients-or-fewer meals—including charred whole broccoli salad—and ten meals that can be made in less than ten minutes—such as mushroom scallops with quick pea mash, and caramelized banana and orange parfaits. Zero-waste dishes, including a glorious grainless pie crust with whole-citrus filling, zero-waste pesto, and vegetable scrap stock, are easy on the wallet as well as the planet. Home cooks looking to eat more consciously will find this immensely inspiring and deeply satisfying.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] practical guide to vegetarian cooking that takes the guesswork out of developing basic cooking skills, building a pantry, and meal planning. The first thing that makes this cookbook stand out from the pack is its focus on sustainability, including hints, tips, and expert opinions on how and why to make your kitchen environmentally friendly. The second noteworthy feature of this book is the practicality. . . . Recipes are easy and flavorful. . . . This cookbook provides a great entry point to new vegetarians that are motivated by ecology and plenty for those of us who want to audit their kitchen’s sustainability.”—Booklist
 
 

From the Publisher