9 May 2012

GUEST BLOG: Cracking Good Love Food

By guest blogger SIOBHAN KELLY

 
Cracking Good Food took part in the Love Food Festival, which took place at Manchester Museum on Saturday 28 April and was organised by the Sustainable Consumption Institute at Manchester University.

The Love Food Festival says it "aims to encourage people in Manchester to eat more sustainable and fresher food by supporting local growers, learning how to grow your own food and how to cook delicious healthy recipes that won’t break the bank".

We had fun cooking outside, with changing skies and a healthy breeze, and were very lucky as the rain held off all day.


Our cooking session was aimed at 16-19 year olds. Three groups of eight people had the chance to chop and prepare vegetables for a healthy stir-fry meal using mushrooms, spring onions, onions, garlic, fresh ginger, yellow peppers, courgettes, carrots, broccoli, mangetout, beansprouts, fresh lime, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. It was a delicious, fresh, quick, cheap and healthy meal which each group enjoyed eating together after the preparation and cooking.

We had been given four boxes of vegetables: celery, cucumbers, yellow peppers and broccoli from FareShare, which is an organisation that redistributes short-dated food to community groups and saves it from going to landfill. We used some of the broccoli and peppers in the stir-frys. The rest of the vegetables were given away to passers-by and we encouraged as many people as we could to take what they wanted, resulting in many delighted people. Everyone got a recipe sheet too so they could try/repeat the stir-fry at home.

I was thrilled that all the vegetables were taken away and not put into landfill - how wonderful to see four empty boxes at the end of the session. Maybe there’s a new career for me out there on a market stall somewhere!

See the Cracking Good Food Facebook page for more photographs from the Love Food Festival.

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