No Impact Project Day 4 - Food

Since Day 4 of this project is all about eating food with the lowest impact on the earth, this is the recipe I’ll make for my family tonight. It uses Quebec grown vegetables available in January (!) and is vegetarian, so has less impact on the earth. The only non local items are the kidney beans (although perhaps one could find some grown in Quebec) and I had to use canned tomatoes (checked that they were at least from Canada) as I didn’t have any frozen from last summer’s local crop. Also could not find local salt, pepper, vinegar or caraway seeds!
This makes a lovely red, burgundy and orange stew that cheers and warms you on a cold winter night.

(Local!)Ukrainian Beet and Bean Stew
1 tsp vegetable oil (try locally grown sunflower oil)
2 cups sliced Quebec onions
3 cups water
3 cups Quebec cabbage
1 cup Quebec carrots
3 cups chopped Quebec potatoes
4 cups peeled cubed Quebec raw beets
3 cups undrained whole tomatoes, chopped (frozen from this summer or canned if need be)
2 tsp caraway seeds
2tbs white or cider vinegar
1/2tsp salt
2 cups cooked kidney beans (okay, hard to find grown in Quebec but try soaking and cooking a big batch and freezing in reusable containers to avoid cans and transport)
1 taps dried dill (1/4 cup fresh) (also could be dried from crop this summer, though I didn’t!)
Ground black pepper to taste
Yogurt (Quebec company like Liberte)

In a pot, heat oil, add onions and saute 4 or 5 minutes until browned. Add 1 cup of the water, cover and simmer on low for 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and carrots and simmer covered for 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups of water, the potatoes, beets, tomatoes, caraway seeds, vineggar and salt; bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 35 minutes, until the beets are tneder. Add the beans and dill. When the stew is hot, add pepper to taste. Serve topped with a dollop of yogurt. Taken from: The Moosewood Restaurant Favorites.
Debbie