Low budget kitchen
This is how good cooking works for less than one euro per plate – and it’s also sustainable
Food blogger Hanna Olvenmark’s recipes are not only dirt cheap, they are also good for the environment.
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Healthy cooking doesn’t have to be expensive. Swedish food blogger Hanna Olvenmark has made it her passion to cook as cheaply as possible. For less than one euro, she fills the plate in a climate-neutral manner.
Is greed cool after all? When it comes to food, quality should come before price whenever possible. After all, food is the fuel for the body. Nevertheless, it was the Swedish superstar of sustainable cuisine, Hanna Olvenmark, who made stinginess her philosophy of life. Because, as she writes in her new cookbook, “we consume as if there were no tomorrow and draw on capital that will soon no longer exist”. So, she thinks, there should be stinginess – in terms of resources. The 33-year-old reveals how it works in her new cookbook “Sustainable cooking for less than 1 euro”.
It started with Nepal. Two years ago, Olvenmark wanted to aim high. She wanted to go to Mount Everest. But she lacked money, a lot of money. She had five months to scrape together the necessary pennies, so she made a detailed plan, doubled over every penny, and succeeded. “In many ways, this hike is a symbol of what I stand for today,” she says. Because there in the mountains, she asked herself what was really important to her and made the decision to quit her job and devote herself entirely to a project that she had previously initiated.
Save the world with low-budget recipes
The young Swede had long set out to clean up a fairy tale. The fairy tale that healthy eating is not possible without a bulging wallet, while fast food comes with the attribute “cheap”. “It really annoys me that cheap and unhealthy are used almost synonymously. The classic poor man’s food was never unhealthy,” says Olvenmark. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work. Olvenmark developed climate-neutral recipes that cost a maximum of one euro per portion and published them on their food blog “Servings Under Tian”. He made the Swede famous in her home country.
The most popular recipes as well as some new creations have now been pressed between two book covers. Since these are low-budget recipes, but sustainable meat consumption is not possible at these prices, all recipes are vegetarian, many even vegan. The collection includes dishes such as lentil stroganoff, black bean burgers and kale quiche. When guests arrive, stay-cheap tacos are served and coconut milk curry fits in the lunch box. There are also instructions for baking rolls, spreads, porridges and smoothies. A total of 50 recipes belong to the collection.
Climate-neutral kitchen for little money
In addition to the dishes, there are also helpful tips and tricks for handling food in the book. Because food waste is not only an environmental sin, but also a waste of money. Therefore, she opens the pantry and reveals which ingredients should be found in it – starting with sources of protein and carbohydrates, fats, fruit and vegetables, sauces and condiments. She also explains how to shop thrifty and provides assistance with shopping lists that make it possible to shop for less than 30 euros a week. She also reveals why it’s good for your nerves to always shop in the same supermarket, why spontaneity is the antagonist of all frugal and why everyone should set a goal. “Would you like to reduce your working hours, buy a horse, make a deposit on a condominium, take a trip through Europe, visit friends in Lisbon, save holiday money for the summer?” asks Olvenmark. “I made it – then you will make it too:”
“Sustainable cooking for less than 1 euro“, the third book by food blogger and nutritionist Hanna Olvenmark, has been published by Südwest Verlag, 160 pages, 18 euros.
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