Climate Journalist Tatiana Schlossberg's 40 go-to ingredients

+ 10 climate-friendly dinner ideas.

and

Feb 22, 2024

Welcome to Show Me Your Forevers, I'll Make You Dinner, a long name for an advice column here at 40 Ingredients Forever where a reader shares the ingredients they always have on hand (and perhaps are tired of? Don’t even want to look at?) and I’ll dream up three dinners using those ingredients. To play, head here.

Today’s cook is

Tatiana Schlossberg

, a climate journalist, author of Inconspicuous Consumption, and the writer behind the Substack
News from a Changing Planet
. In addition to revealing her 40 go-to ingredients, she’s sharing some of pointers for reducing your climate impact in the kitchen. Then together we come up with climate-friendly meals using just her 40 ingredients.

From Tatiana:

If addressing climate change and limiting the amount of warming is a puzzle, food—what we eat and how we get it—is one of the biggest, most stubborn pieces to slide into place. The agriculture industry is the primary driver of biodiversity loss around the world and is responsible for anywhere from 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (EPA) to 30 percent (Earthjustice) in the U.S., and about a quarter of the global total.

As a result, the food industry has been the focus of many advice columns—“What to Eat to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint” kind of thing—but, as a climate journalist, I never tell anyone what to do or how to eat. Partly because I’m not a perfect climate eater (I’m not sure such a thing exists) and partly because food is inherently personal and feels entirely within our control (even though it isn’t). There are trade-offs and complications to all of our choices because all food has an impact of some kind. Here’s a useful tool for measuring various impacts across the environment.

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Back to my imperfections: I eat a lot of dairy. I do mostly eat sheep’s milk yogurt because I like it better and some data shows it has fewer negative impacts; sheep produce more methane than cows by weight, but they don’t cause the same kind of biodiversity loss or water pollution.

I eat chicken a few times a month and save meat and fish for special occasions. I don’t always buy local because it’s not always possible, even though I do want to support independent local farmers (and it usually tastes better).

This is what I do and it works for me. If you want to reduce your own personal impact, try to eat less of the things that are known to cause problems. For example, one study found that you could reduce your emissions impact by a maximum of 5 percent if you buy local, but that if you shift one day’s consumption of red meat and dairy to another protein or fruits and vegetables, you could achieve the same reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Other climate-friendly swaps or changes:

Use olive oil in place of butter.
Use soft cheese (feta, halloumi) instead of hard cheese (Parmesan) because it’s less resource-intensive.
The cliché about lentils and beans being the perfect foods happens to be true.
Not perfect but instead of meat…put an egg on it!
Use salted water or vegetable broth instead of chicken broth, unless you’ve cooked a chicken and made broth with the bones.
Eat leftovers.

If you don’t want to or can’t eliminate meat or other emissions-intensive foods (like dairy) but want to make a change, pick something that’s feels doable and focus on that. Maybe it’s two fewer days of meat a week or cooking more and taking out less. Maybe it’s “Vegan before 6.” Whatever it is, making one change will likely convince you that other changes are possible too.

The biggest ways to make a difference, of course, are to vote for politicians who take climate change seriously, to get involved in local environmental organizations, and to talk about climate change with your friends, family, and coworkers.

Climate change and environmental damage are not problems that can be solved by individual behavioral changes alone. Instead of feeling individually guilty for climate change or pollution, let’s be collectively responsible for building a better world. Preferably over a meal.

Tatiana Schlossberg’s 40 Forever Ingredients

Pantry: Kosher salt, Maldon salt, olive oil, black pepper, red pepper flakes, fennel seeds, balsamic vinegar, pasta, dried chickpeas, dried white beans, black lentils, sushi rice, farro, tahini, soy sauce, canned tomatoes, mustard

Fridge: Broccoli rabe, kale, spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes (Japanese or orange), cilantro, mint, lettuce, cucumbers, avocados, yellow onions, garlic, ginger, lemons, squash/eggplant (winter/summer), tofu (firm or extra firm), Parmesan, feta, halloumi, Sheep’s milk yogurt, eggs

10 light-climate-touch dinners using Tatiana’s 40 ingredients

Baked or fried tofu with sautéed spinach or kale, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce, plus sushi rice
Black lentils with toasted garlic and spices (salt, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, fennel seed), squash or eggplant, and maybe feta or yogurt with lemon, olive oil, and salt
Frittata, usually with potatoes, onion/shallot, and kale
Rice bowls with sweet potatoes, kale, onions, and a fried egg
Pasta with broccoli rabe, garlic, red pepper flakes, and olive oil
Pasta al limone, sometimes with sauteed spinach or kale
Crispy rice (my attempt at tahdig) with a salad of chickpeas/white beans, feta, cucumbers, and avocado.
Roasted halloumi, chickpeas, and carrots (follow this method), with a tahini-lemon sauce (tahini, lemon juice, grated garlic, water, olive oil). Eat over farro or lettuces.
Vegetable fried farro: Boil farro, then add chopped broccoli rabe in the last few minutes of simmering. Drain and shake dry. In a skillet, scrambled some eggs, remove. Then stir-fry the farro and broccoli rabe with some olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes (like you would for fried rice). Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and stir in the egg.
Roasted (or steamed) winter squash topped with balsamic-marinated lentils: Cook the black lentils (add some spinach in the last minute if you’d like), then dress the lentils with a vinaigrette of balsamic vinegar, oil, grated garlic, and mustard.