Jonathan's slightly less boring-but-useful site

Living without supermarkets is the  kind of challenge that’s  easier when you’re leading a fairly predictable life at home, less so when you’re on the road.  That’s not entirely true: what’s difficult is to get out of the habit of being unprepared because you know some supermarket or coffee shop chain will be just waiting to help you out at stations, service stations and garages. I was determined not to drop the good habits on a couple of long away-day trips to Birmingham, in a studio where there’s no food unless you bring it with you.

I’m glad I didn’t, because along the way I discovered a kind of instant coronation chicken sandwich filling that’s a keeper, and is a great use for the green tomato chutney I made last year, and the last of the tandoori chicken I made. Chop up the  chicken at a spoonful of  low-fat mayonnaise and a spoonful of chutney. Mix it up, put in a large wholemeal pitta bread and take to work. I also added a box of crudités made from carrots, kohlrabi & red pepper.

Not only has this saved me a lot of money that I would have spent in M&S, it’s also stretched out the food that I’ve bought in my local Tooting shops virtually to the end of the week. It’s also a lot more filling than an M&S sandwich.

I can’t quite remember when, but at my local shop, Daily Fresh, I bought four large chicken legs for £2.65, and a kilo of lamb mince for under a fiver, without much idea of what I’d do with them. We’ve had 3 days worth of kheema matar and tandoori chicken (thanks to my favourite Indian recipe book, left). I couldn’t be bothered to spend much time with the remainder of the mince, so I made wonderful meatballs that had yoghurt & mint in, from the same book. Sainsbury’s tends to drive you into thinking a meal at a time, rather than having a continuous supply of things that you might eat together, separately, for lunch, dinner, or hell why not, breakfast.

And while I seem to be talking about nothing except food, I’ve in fact lost 51lb in the last two weeks, as a result, I think, of eating less of more interesting food. It’s a strange equation, and I don’t pretend to understand how it works.

Banana muffins

This isn’t a direct result of not shopping at a supermarket, but it’s the kind of thing that happens more when you’re not living in a Tesco-induced stupour.

I rescued three bananas on their last legs on Sunday night, and while my coffee was brewing on Monday morning, turned them into banana muffins, thus using up not only the bananas, but a few other things that might have languished in the cupboard or fridge. Now I can’t use 12 muffins, so I kept two, and took the rest to work to hand out.  Why not.

I can’t really explain why shopping locally should have made me much more aware of waste, but it has. I think it has a lot to do with being able to buy what you need, and not allowing yourself the luxury of nipping out at any time of night to the supermarket. It’s not a luxury. You pay for laziness in a kitchen.

Kohlrabi: great for cutting into crudités

Although there’s nothing particularly exotic about the kohlrabi – my friend Andrew Williams’ parents used to grow them in the back garden in Bournemouth – I actually have never eaten one until prompted by my 30-day challenge.

I discovered through a Delia Smith recipe that the stalks of broccoli are much more interesting to eat, sliced like matchsticks,  than the florets. Kohlrabi as a brassica is like an enormous round broccoli stalk, but slightly less peppery.

I was starving when I was chopping it up, so I ate a quarter of it raw like crudités. I like it. I put the rest into a vegetable curry, and it was great. It adds body, depth and crunch.  What I’m looking forward to next time is making a kohlrabi-apple-mint coleslaw from this page, though I’ll probably replace the 1/4 cup of cream with something less rich.

After only 11 days, I’m already looking back on my pre-challenge shopping habits, and thinking how dull it all was. I have spent less, shopped less, eaten less, and enjoyed food much more since I started this. It feels like I have some control and imagination back.

I’ve given up listing everything that’s cheaper. Chicken legs, lamb mince, tomatoes, chilli powder, lemons. Oh and what a relief to be able to tell the butcher how much you want, rather than having to decide between packs that are too big or too small.

Parval

One of the first things that occurred to me when I started this challenge was that it would finally prompt me to take advantage of everything the local shops have to offer, including the vegetables that I have no idea what to do with.

Today it was time to try parval, a very small gourd-type vegetable about 2-3 inches long. I found a recipe for parval curry online. I have a feeling that the parval with potato curry  might be more interesting, but I didn’t have any potatoes.

You have to peel and quarter them, so it’s not quick. I added some creamed coconut because it was a bit bland, but they have a great texture, a cross between marrow and watermelon – crunchy, even when they’re cooked.  And definitely more interesting than those bags of pre-chopped carrot, cauliflower & broccoli that you pay pounds for in supermarkets.

Me, an activist? 

10 days in, and the challenge is beginning to have another unexpected effect on me. It’s been so enjoyable to make a small difference by giving my  money to local shops rather than Sainsburys and to stop being a mindless consumer that when I came across a book called The Everyday Activist I  was hooked.  Step one: donate to the East Africa drought appeal. Step two? Watch this space.