Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch was telling porkies! This Friday (18th November) 5000 lucky people will enjoy a slap-up meal in London's Trafalgar Square without a single penny changing hands. There's no catch - but there is a twist. All meals will be made from ingredients that would have otherwise been thrown away. Think wonky carrots, misshapen potatoes and other surplus produce.
'Feeding the 5000' is sponsored by various charities and seeks to highlight how easy it is to reduce levels of food waste in the UK. Earlier this week the Guardian reported that food waste has fallen by 13% over the last three years, which sounds positive, but when you take inflation into account it's actually still costing us Brits the same amount - putting edible household food waste at a value of around £12bn.
"After seeing bags and bags of good food going straight into the bin at the end of each day at the local supermarket, I am in full support of their campaign," says School of Wok head chef Jez. "I can't wait to see what the chefs are going to cook up. Feeding the 5000 is a brilliant idea and the free food is a very clever way of highlighting an important cause."
Earlier in the year, we blogged about 'binning', the adventurous food trend that saw people 'dumpster diving' to scavenge food thrown out by supermarkets that is still perfectly edible. But we have to admit that toddling down to Trafalgar Square for some free grub sounds like a much easier way of supporting the campaign!
If you can't get to London and don't fancy whirling through a wheely bin for your dinner, you can still show your support for the campaign by making an effort to reduce your waste at home. Do you overbuy, or throw away food that's overripe? We've probably all been a bit guilty of this at some stage, but some recipes actually work best with food that's headed into the realms of the overripe.
We're going to post up a couple of recipes using overripe ingredients over the next few days to inspire you. First up - a super easy apple sauce recipe, the perfect way to use up any surplus apples!
SUPER EASY APPLE SAUCE
Ingredients:
4 apples on the verge (not mouldy though, please!)
3/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of dried cinnamon
Directions:
Peel, core and chop your apples up. Chuck in a pot with the water, sugar and cinnamon and cook on a medium heat for about 20 mins, before leaving to cool and mashing to a pulp.
TOP TIP
We love this with pancakes and a dusting of icing sugar. Or skip the cinnamon and use as a delicious accompaniment for pork dishes.
