Halloumi Fritters & Kale Crisps

Hello, my lovely crew! My gang. My kitchen wizards and witches.

I’m cantering into your inboxes with two juicy budget-friendly recipes this week. Part poetry and part science.

I wanted to breathe life back into those tired veggies haranguing the back of my fridge or veg box delivery. The results were fist bumping brilliant.

There are no downsides to reducing food waste. You spend less. You bring less single-use plastic into your home as a result of reducing your food items. You save more time by running less to stores. You become a better cook by igniting your creativity. You’re not squandering the precious resources (the very ones required to produce your beautiful food in the first place such as water, land, agrichemicals, carbon footprint, etc).

But any reason that resonates with you, is the best reason.

Organic veg box delivery from Green Earth Organics, west of Ireland

Food rotting in landfill causes methane to be released into the environment. We're told that methane is 25 times deadlier than carbon at accelerating climate change. Who could have thought?! Now I'm policing every last scrap in my fridge and have assigned my youngest son to be the trash ambassador for our house. He's lording the compost bins like a botanist over an endangered species.

Eating all the food we have in our home may seem like an insignificant aspect of the massive environmental challenge we face. But it remains one of the most effective steps we, as consumers, can take to reduce the damage done to our environment. The UNEP's 2021 Food Waste Index Report attests that we waste 1 billion tonnes of food each year. A staggering one-third of all food harvested or produced globally is wasted, resulting in a massive 8% of total carbon emissions on our planet. To put this in context, commercial flights make up around 2% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Yikes.

Such an easy recipe to alchemise; halloumi, grated veg, rando herbs, citrus zest and bread crumbs.

On to my zero-waste beauties! First up today, halloumi fritters.

Use whatever vegetable you have - that lonely carrot, wilting parsnip or unloved raw beet staring back at you from the fridge shelf. Halloumi cheese has a very long shelf life, so it's good to have a few packets at the back of your fridge, to help use up rando veg. And while I list the spices that rock my plate, use whatever you have soldier!

I collect stale-ing bread in a reusable freezer bag each time I know I won't be finishing the loaf staring at me in the kitchen. I repurpose this bread all the time (like in today’s fritters).

It's less about saving money here, than feeding a habit of reducing your household's waste. Bread is not expensive, but that ain't the point my friends. Collecting old or staling bread is one of the easiest habits to acquire, and one of the most rewarding. Fried breadcrumbs on top of soup are insanely delicious, or scattered across broccoli with Parmesan for example. Add some chopped rosemary while frying breadcrumbs in olive oil, and your pasta will reach a new stratosphere.

Photographed by Joanne Murphy at home

Next up, kale crisps. One leaf of this supergreen would have a field of lettuce blushing. Kale is a goldmine of goodness.

For a start, this dark green leafy is crowded with antioxidants, ready to challenge the free-radicals tumbling through our system. Think guerrilla warfare in the blood stream. I likes me some antioxidants.