Curried Lentils and Sorghum for Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day to all! If you’re here to make lentils, it’s at the bottom of the page. First I’m going to pull out my soap box and talk to you about something a little more serious. In a world where snow is falling in late April, my city of Boston is facing ever-more frequent flooding and storms, and the current U.S. presidential administration has made “climate change” a dirty word, it is essential that we all take responsibility for our planet’s health and do what we can to reduce human’s effect on the changing climate. Even little changes can add up, and any effort is better than complacency. This Earth day, I wanted to talk with you all about how veganism can help the planet, and share with you a super climate-friendly, healthy, everyday recipe- curried lentils and sorghum.
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How Diet Relates to Climate Change
Most of the time when we think about being eco-friendly, we think about electric cars, solar panels or turning off lights when you leave the room. But food choices is a huge area where you can make an impact. One of the reasons I’m most motivated to continue a vegan diet is because of the positive effects it has for our planet. Sustaining the world on a vegan diet requires far fewer resources (water, energy, land), and contributes less to deforestation. In fact, the UN modelled the feasibility for various diets to feed the growing population in 2050 without increasing deforestation. They found that if the entire world was vegan, feeding everyone without chopping down the rain forest was achievable 100% of the time. Vegetarian diets were also fairly successful, coming in at a 94% success rate. But if we all ate like the average American? There’s an 85% chance of forests being devastated, species habitats being destroyed and people starving.
Vegan Food Life-Cycle Analysis
That brings me to greenhouse gas emissions, and the image above. That graph was created by the Environmental Working Group, and is the result of a life-cycle analysis (LCA) performed on several common foods. They measured the emissions from every stage of that foods existence- from the minute a seed was planted, while a calf grew up, as the food was transported, how you cooked it, to the disposal of food that was wasted. And this is what they found- animal proteins had significantly higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions than the vegetarian proteins. For me, that alone is enough to keep me away from meat. But if you absolutely refuse to give it up, there are still a few things you can do.
Looking at the graph, you can see that the greenhouse gas emissions from lamb and beef are much higher than the other meats. This is because sheep and cows are what’s known as ruminant animals, and through their digestion they produce methane which is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Eliminating or reducing beef and lamb from your diet is something that you can do to lower your impact on human-induced climate change. You’ll also notice that farmed salmon is also fairly high in emissions. Consuming wild fish will help reduce those numbers. While I certainly advocate for a healthy, well balance, 100% vegan diet, any place where you can switch out meat for a vegetable, cheese for cashews, take part in Meatless Monday, or even just switch from beef to turkey is a chance for you to lower your carbon footprint.
LCA of Curried Lentils and Sorghum
This recipe for curried lentils and sorghum is a perfect chance to get started. This is the type of earth-friendly, human-healthy weeknight dinner I try to consume fairly often. It is minimal effort- a lot of sticking things in a pot and walking away. The three main ingredients are lentils, sorghum and tomatoes. If you go check the chart above, I’m sure you’ll see that lentils and tomatoes are waaaay on the right edge, coming in at around 1/40th the emissions of lamb. What about sorghum? The data is a little less clear, but one study did a partial LCA, including just the production aspects of sorghum and found that just 0.25 kg CO2e per kg of sorghum was produced. They didn’t continue their LCA, probably because sorghum is commonly used as feed for cattle. Imagine how much higher that number would have to be if it included the further emissions from feeding cattle.
I give you fair warning, this will create a large amount of food. It is the perfect dish to feed a large family, or to keep as leftovers. Just remember to eat those leftover lentils before they go bad, because decreasing food waste is another fantastic way to lower your carbon footprint.
Curried Lentils and Sorghum
Ingredients
- 1 cup sorghum
- 1 cup green lentils
- 1 tbsp. oil (for cooking)
- 3-5 cloves of garlic (to your taste)
- 1 small onion
- 2 lbs. tomatoes (around 4 tomatoes)
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- ½ tsp. curry powder
- ¼ tsp. rubbed sage
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Place the sorghum in a pot along with 7 cups of water and bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and once it goes off add the lentils. Allow the lentils and sorghum to cook for a further 40-45 minutes, and drain any excess water once they are cooked.
- While the sorghum and lentils cook, start on the sauce. Mince the garlic, and dice the onion and tomatoes. Heat the oil in a large skillet before tossing in the onions and garlic, cooking for around 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cover, cooking on medium heat for around 20 minutes while the tomatoes break down.
- Uncover, and mix in the spices. Allow the sauce to reduce, cooking for another 20 or so minutes until most of the water has steamed off. Once the lentils and sorghum are cooked, drain off any extra liquid before adding them to the tomatoes, stirring well, and serving.
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