I read about Bea Johnson’s Zero Waste Home a while back in the New York Times and I am ashamed to admit that while I was super inspired by her waste free living, I did not follow through with it for more than a week or two perhaps.  It is hard when our lives and schedules are dictated by packaged conveniences in every walk.  This week, the Sunnyvale City invited Bea over for a talk and seeing her in person inspired me once again to try to follow her principles of waste-free living.  Bea brought the entirely of her family’s trash in a small flip-top bottle and I was blown away!

V and I are pretty good about not wasting food.  But then if that food comes in any kind of packaging it is still pretty wasteful.  We buy our staples like rice and lentils in plastic packaging, as well as other stuff like crackers, snacks, nuts and so on.  We buy some drinks like club soda in plastic bottles.  Sometimes we buy washed salad greens in clamshell plastic boxes or plastic bags.  It is really amazing to just note how much plastic we throw away each week apart from what we obsessively recycle.  We definitely will make a conscious effort to reduce our footprint and buy stuff in bulk.   And for those interested in tips and ways to live a zero waste living, do follow Bea on zerowastehome.com.

Speaking of using packaged stuff, we had a 2.2lb bag of asparagus that we got from Costco a week or so back.  Well, no point throwing it away just because we got it in plastic packaging.  Usually my go-to recipe for asparagus is to simply roast it in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.  But the last couple of days in the Bay Area were a true anomaly with temps reaching in the high 100s.   And it did not cool off even in the evening as it typically does.  Uff!!  With climate change, I wonder if this is the new normal we need to get adjusted to.   I was loathe to turn on the oven, so I quickly prepared a cold soup early in the day and put it in the refrigerator.

 

 

Recipe for Cold Asparagus Soup with Pan-fried Asparagus Tips

[Printable Recipe]

Serves 6 for dinner with a side

Ingredients:

• Approx. 1 kg / 2.2 lbs of asparagus spears
• 2-3 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4-5 basil leaves
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• salt and pepper as needed
• 4 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• water as needed

Method:

• Wash the asparagus.  Trim the tough ends of the asparagus and discard.  Save the heads from about half the asparagus and cut the rest in to bite-sized pieces
• Wash and cube the potatoes
• Bring water to a boil in a large pot (enough the submerge the potatoes and asparagus).  Add some salt.
• Put the potatoes in first for about 8 mins until the potatoes can be pierced with a knife
• Then throw in the asparagus pieces except the saved heads for about 8 mins until asparagus is soft.  Switch off the heat.  Drain the asparagus and potatoes and cool
• While the potatoes and asparagus are cooking, peel and chop the onion roughly.  Smash the garlic, peel and chop.
• Add about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and when it is hot, add the saved asparagus heads and fry until slightly browned.  Remove with a slotted spoon and save
• Add the onion to the same pan and saute until golden brown.  Let it cool.
• In a powerful blender, blend together the cooked potatoes and asparagus, sauted onions, raw garlic and basil leaves with milk.  Add water if needed and add salt and pepper to taste
• Pour the soup in to serving bowl and mix in the shredded Parmesan cheese and refrigerate
• After it has cooled, serve in bowls topped with a few of the reserved asparagus heads

 

 

On a warm day, this cold soup can be served with a side of oven-toasted crusty bread or a nice bruschetta.  Yesterday, as the mercury refused to budge even in the evening, I just prepared a simple raw radish salad with pesto dressing to supplement the soup.  As we sat outside in the backyard trying to cool off on this unusually warm Bay Area evening, climate change and resource waste definitely came up in the dinner table conversation topics.  Perhaps if we all lived a zero-waste life, we would not be feeling climate change to this extent in our life time.