30 plants a week

July newsletter no. 1

The UK government has, for a quite a while, put out the ‘5 a day’ mantra. It’s all over food marketing – the cucumber I picked up the other day, wrapped in plastic (why, oh why, do we do that? I hate it so much!), had ‘One of your 5 a day’ on the label… But what does that mean? The whole cucumber? A few slice? Could I eat 5 cucumbers and that would count?

To be honest, I feel it’s pretty rare that I wouldn’t get in 5 a day. Especially as tinned and frozen fruit and veg count, as does fruit juice. I have always been someone who includes a considerable number of vegetables in their meals, though generally they would be the same ones over and over and over, and just used in different sauces or dressings. And I have always leaned a lot towards Mediterranean produce (if you read my other newsletter you’ll know that I love travelling to France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, and would really like to live in one of those countries in a few years).

More recently, though, I have started hearing the phrase ‘30 plants a week’. This isn’t government advice (at least, not currently). It has come from research into gut health. It seems to have originated from the American Gut Project, but it’s being put forward by a number of health and nutrition professionals, including Zoe’s Tim Spector and dietician Dr Megan Rossi. The idea behind this it to ensure a variety of different nutrients and to boost the diversity and health of your gut biome.

For me, it feeds into my existing inclination to eat a lot of plant food and less overly processed food. A few decades ago, ready meals were a frequent part of my diet – they made it easier for us, given one of us was vegetarian and the other not, for example. I also frequently would cook a kind of ‘meat and 3 veg’ meal (yes, even then, I went for an extra veg) and I would have a Quorn escalope or bean burger and Chris would have a turkey escalope or beef burger (basically, something I could just put in the oven and not have to engage with the fact that it was composed of dead flesh) and we would have that with steamed potatoes, carrots and broccoli (or carrots and peas or carrots and green beans). I would save ‘proper’ cooking for weekends, when we had more time, when I would tend to do my go-tos of veggie lasagne or quiche.

Over the years, as we added more cooked-from-scratch meals into our repertoire (and especially once we had kids, because it was really quite a while before we let the default chicken or Quorn nuggets, chips and beans ☹ thing happen), ready meals tasted worse and worse. As did jars of pasta sauce, which was also a staple in our twenties. There are now very few pasta sauces that I will have in the house and, even then, I will almost always throw in some extra vegetables, rather than rely on what’s in the jar.

So… the 30 a week advice is something that was definitely calling to me, something that aligned with where I was already going and wanting to go. It also aligned with my desire to significantly reduce dairy consumption – for ethical and environmental (hold on, though, isn’t environmental also ethical?) reasons, but also because I was noticing that heavy cream or cheese-based meals would often trigger a diverticular flare-up or just make m e feel rotten in other ways.

I have tried to go vegan many times through my life. As a third-generation vegetarian, I always felt like I was cheating, because it was no effort at all for me to be vegetarian; I just didn’t know any different. So I would feel like I should take the extra steps to feel truly righteous (yes, genuinely, righteous is what I wanted – I do think it was something I came at with an almost religious fervour). But I always failed. I would last a few months and then cheese or cream would get me. Or a trip abroad where it was harder to deal with and I wanted to just rock up and eat crepes or salty butter (oh, yeah, that one will get me every time in France!).

So, instead of full-on switching to vegan, I am aiming for 30 plants a week, at least seven a day and that the majority of the meals I cook will be plant based and cooked from scratch. So tofu is absolutely fine, as are some plant-based milks and creams, but I’m not looking to include any plant-based meats or cheeses unless I’m making them myself – e.g. a quinoa and bean burger made from scratch or a cashew-based ‘cheesy’ sauce – again, made from scratch. Also nooch (nutritional yeast, if you don’t know) and Marmite are good too. Soy sauce… miso paste… also good… olive oil, very good (though hideously expensive right now – ouch!).

As I write this, I completed my first week and logged 32 plants. Yay! And honestly they were still predominantly Mediterranean.

Currently, to help me with planning and variety, I am using the Deliciously Ella app and I am picking 3-4 meals from that each week and adding the ingredients to the (weekly) Ocado shop. Other meals are to be leftovers, other people cooking for everyone (because I don’t do all the cooking, usually) or just sorting themselves out with a sandwich or wrap. I am making sure there is hummus and salad ingredients in the fridge all the time so that people can easily grab a reasonably healthy sandwich.

It’s working really well. We haven’t loved every single meal, but have loved some of them, and are adding some new meals to our regular rotations. The rest of the family have been great in trying it all, even when it’s not something that necessarily appeals to them (with the knowledge that they can grab a sarnie, if they really can’t stomach any of it – they’re not going to starve). Everyone has been getting more fruit and veg into them, which can’t be a bad thing, and I’ve been enjoying experimenting with things I wouldn’t normally consider (mango salsa? sweet potato tacos?).

Meals we’ve eaten recently

• Vegan pesto, sundried tomato and artichoke puff pastry pie with roasted potatoes and salad

• Sweet potato and chimichurri tacos with courgette ribbon salad and mango salsa

• Roasted cauliflower on bean mash with roasted sweet potatoes and teriyaki broccoli and carrot

• Miso broccoli and sweet potato salad

• Greek style orzo salad

• Lunches have been mostly bowls of salads or warps with hummus and salad

My hummus recipe

• 2 tins chickpeas

• 1 lemon, juiced

• 3 cloves garlic

• extra virgin olive oil and sea salt to taste

Put the first three ingredients in a blender (we recently got a new Ninja blender which I love – makes great smoothies and really good hummus and guacamole) and whizz it up, adding olive oil and salt bit by bit until you have the consistency and taste you prefer (we like ours quite smooth but not too runny and with probably way too much salt). I don’t add tahini, like a lot of people do, because I sometimes have issues with sesame and, honestly, can’t stand the taste of tahini! But obviously add what you want. This is such an easy recipe and always having a tub of hummus in fridge is great for everyone – have it on toast, with a handful of rocket on top, or spread it on a wrap and top with your favourite salad ingredients, cut up some carrot and cucumber sticks and have a little healthy snack, or even add a dollop on top of a pasta sauce instead of cheese!

Thanks so much for joining me on my healthy and plant-based eating journey. I’m excited to have got a few new subscribers, only on the first week of this new newsletter. The whole of July will be free, after which you’ll get 2-3 full newsletters a month for free and 2 paywalled ones that will include lovely illustrated printables. See the introduction post for more information. Next week will be the first printable illustrated recipe. If you don’t want to miss it, consider subscribing!

Join the conversation

Tell us in the comments about whether you’ve been aiming to embrace 30 plants a week or whether you already nail that regularly. Do you like throwing everything in one big dish, or making a few salads and sides? Do you have a favourite place to go for new recipes or do you tend to rely on old favourites? Is there anything, like my hummus, that you always make sure to have in the fridge for easy lunches and snacks?

And feel free to share if you have friends who might like this newsletter!