Following on from our previous blog post, we have now added a range of staple foods to our stock list.
Our aim is to simply feed as many people as possible during this unprecedented time and we’ll continue working hard to accomplish this.
The staple foods we are stocking from this week are various types of rice, beans, and lentils. We’ve launched the rice products and we will be bringing more in the coming days and weeks so keep checking back for our updates. We hope to have lentils launched by tomorrow and beans by end of the week.
2.5kg Community Packs & Efficiency
We made the decision to package the new staple foods in 2.5kg packs for highest efficiency, cost-effectiveness and also to encourage community sharing at this difficult time. For example, this is the perfect size for bulk cooking at home and for sharing carefully and responsibly (following social distancing) with your neighbours or the wider community who are supporting those in need.
Shipping orders is currently within 2-4 days, and we are working incredibly hard to maintain and improve this. As mentioned in our previous post, we are prioritising order dispatch over dealing with less urgent customer service enquiries. Once again, we apologise if there is a delay in getting back to you for less urgent matters at this time.
As part of this post, we want to provide you with recipe ideas and inspiration using cupboard staples whilst making best use of your fresh produce which we appreciate might not always be easy to get hold of in types or quantities you would have liked.
Here are some food tips we hope will help:
1) Base Recipes.
At the bottom of this post you’ll find links to a range of very simple ‘base’ recipes which are vegan but include ideas for switching them up as vegetarian or meat options to cater for all.
We hope these help take some of the overwhelm out of cooking at a time where our usual variety of food is harder to come by (or simply when your fridge is looking empty and you are due a big shop!)
2) Get everyone involved.
We encourage you to get all the family involved. Make it part of your homeschooling curriculum (if you have kids) and have everyone help out with the food prep. Times might be challenging but it can be fun!
3) Batch cook.
When it comes to preparing these recipes and particularly since we are supplying our staple ingredients in larger pack sizes than you may typically buy, this is a perfect opportunity to cook a big batch and freeze in portions for quick meals later in the week.
We love the example of ‘cook once eat thrice’. Make three times the quantity of a recipe for your family. Eat it for one meal, put it in the fridge for a day or two later and freeze a portion for a couple of weeks down the line, maximum efficiency and minimal effort.
4) Same yet different.
Some recipes can be served in different ways to create a greater sense of variety. For example, you could make an easy bean chilli to serve over jacket potatoes or with wedges, with a side salad, with rice or quinoa, in a tortilla wrap or even as baked enchilada style dish. One dish = 5 ways!
5) Use it all up.
We encourage using all the parts of the vegetables to stretch all your ingredients as far as possible.
For example, many people toss out the cauliflower and broccoli stalks, but these are incredibly nutritious and can be easily added to a recipe. Cut off any tough bits then use a food processor to blitz it down to rice-sized pieces to add to the base of a bolognese, chilli or soup. You can virtually hide the stalk in recipes like these.
Similarly, the outer leaves of cauliflower and leaves of beetroot are delicious and edible but many people throw them away. You can chop and cook them just like spring greens and use as a substitute for any leafy greens such as kale and collard greens.
6) Smoothie boost.
We’re also continuing to stock our freeze dried fruits and fruit powders and these are great to make a nutritious smoothie if you can’t get hold of as many different fruits as usual, or simply don’t want to have too many fruits in the fruit bowl risking getting overripe.
You could simply stock up on a big batch of bananas, peel, chop and freeze them if they’re very ripe, and then easily whip up a banana smoothie adding a little water or milk of choice and a teaspoon or so of your favourite fruit powders to add a boost of nutrition and flavour variety.
If you enjoy green smoothies but don’t have as many fresh greens, such as spinach to hand, you can add a spoonful of greens powder in the same way to enjoy more diverse nutritional benefits. You might even like to try adding a dollop of nut butter, flax or chia seeds too.
7) Get rid of meal stereotypes.
Another great tip for times like this is to throw out the idea of preconceptions when it comes to meals. Who says you can’t have a bowl of nourishing porridge for dinner, or a chilli for brunch if that’s what’s available or simply what you fancy.
The main thing is to keep well-nourished and eat a variety of foods throughout the day as far as possible, in whatever form this might look like for you.
We hope these tips help in approaching meal prep in the most efficient way.
Easy Staple Recipe ideas…
Taking it one step further, here are some easy recipes linked below that we hope help take some of the overwhelm out of cooking at a time where our usual variety of food is harder to come by.