If you’re planning to enjoy the sunshine this weekend with a barbecue, see Eleanor O’Leary’s swaps for serving up a BBQ feast with a conscience.
It’s the last Bank Holiday in the UK before Christmas (sad times) but it’s set to be a scorcher (good times), so wheel out the BBQ, get the playlist ready, and invite your nearest and dearest over for an afternoon of feasting and fun.
Here are our tips for making your last-minute bank holiday BBQ as delicious and sustainable as possible:
Swap Regular Ketchup for Ketchup Made From Food Waste
No BBQ is complete without the ultimate ketchup, and conscious condiments creator Rubies In The Rubble believes it has cracked the perfect sustainable sauce. Made using tomatoes and rescued pears for sweetness, its ketchup is 100% natural and has 50% less refined sugar than the leading ketchup brands. Furthermore, for every 100kg of product sold, Rubies saves 45.kg of pears – the equivalent of 17.5kg of CO2E.
Swap Supermarket Veggies for Wonky Veg
There’s nothing better than using locally-sourced local, seasonal veg for the ultimate BBQ skewers, and August gives us an abundance of tasty treats as we wind down the summer days. If you can’t get down to your local farmers’ market, wonky-veg warrior OddBox works directly with farmers and growers to take their seasonal surplus produce and deliver them straight to your door. By working directly with local suppliers, Oddbox are helping fight food waste, supporting local growers, and with up to 10% of their produce donated to local charities, they’re doing their bit to combat food poverty too.
Swap Shop-Bought Dips for Make Your Own
Crisps and dips are always a crowd pleaser and a good way to keep mildly hangry guests at bay while the BBQ heats up. Go beyond the average Cream Cheese’n’Chive by mixing some Rubies In The Rubble Plant Based Mayo (made from waste chickpea liquid) with avocado and spinach for a super green guacamole; sweetcorn, chilli and coriander for full on flavour; or blend with seasonal beetroot for a deeply delicious dip.
Swap Pork Sausages for Meat-Free Bangers
The Meatless Farm Co recently launched The UK Meatless Consumption Target – a campaign aimed at encouraging UK households to swap one more meat meal to plant-based a week by 2021. Working closely with leading environmental scientist, Dr Joseph Poore, they found that this one simple swap would result in a reduction of up to 8.4% in the UK’s total greenhouse gasses, the equivalent of taking 16 million cars off the road. The Meatless Farm Co’s gluten free and vegan-friendly sausages are made with plant-based ingredients; from pea, soya and rice proteins to chicory root and caramelised carrot, seasoned with herbs and spices – making them perfect for a Meat Free (Bank Holiday) Monday.
Swap Your Regular Tipple for British-Made
You might have had Gin-In-A-Tin but have you tried wine in a, erm, can? We love what the guys at The Uncommon are doing with their British grown, eco-friendly, sustainable wine, which just so happens to come in handy wine cans. For the beer fans amongst us, food waste warriors Toast Ale are a great option with their beer brewed from surplus bread.
Plastic bags, cutlery & plates are not invited to this al fresco affair. See our tips for enjoying BBQ season, sustainably.
See Alexandra Dudley‘s plant-based BBQ recipes: Charred Herby Gem Lettuce With Lemon And Macadamia and coffee, banana and almond popsicles for dessert!
Discover 8 Refreshing Summer Drinks Recipes, perfect for accompanying your BBQ.