Let’s think January, and rethink our ingredients for Veganuary

With Christmas menus now full pelt, there are perhaps few chefs who have the time to stop and pause and think about January menus right now.

But just as it seems it was only yesterday when cool salads were at the pass from our scorcher of a summer, January will be with us in a heartbeat.

January is now increasingly Veganuary in the hospitality trade, with tens of thousands of people eating less meat, or giving it up entirely. Whether that is good or bad is not for here, rather my plea for the hospitality trade is to make sure our non-meat offerings are sustainable too.

That may sound odd, when we hear that vegan options are so much better for the environment, compared to say eating beef, but as ever things are more complicated than a soundbite. Beef from a feedlot on concrete, eating corn (USDA beef anyone?) is very different to a pastured animal eating grass in a low input system.

But it’s more the ingredients of non-meat options that we need to focus on: much of the soya that is used comes from Brazil, where the rainforest is being cleared to grow it. Palm oil used in many ready-made products is destroying rainforests (again) in Asia and putting the Orangutan at the threat of extinction. Producing Almonds is making a bone-dry California (where the majority of the global crop comes from) even drier, and the demand for Almond Milk continues to soar.

So what does this mean for a busy Chef? It means thinking local, of winter beets and squashes, of kales and roots, using nut oils for flavour and ensuring those choosing to eat less meat for sustainability concerns, don’t harm it further.