Early last month I gave a short talk at Aberdeen Climate Action’s Climate Café where I shared my top tips on how to easily and cheaply reduce your carbon emissions.
Taking action on climate change can sometimes feel overwhelming or even impossible. Many solutions are just not practical for the individual like putting solar panels on the roof when you live in a block of flats and don’t actually own the roof. My tips are realistic, practical, and most importantly, will save you money and who isn’t looking for ways to reduce expenses right now?
My first tip is to eat lentils. This bag of red lentils was 5kg and I paid £9 for it at Sainsburys. I use about 200 grams to feed a family of four which works out as 25 meals or, put another way, this bag contains enough food to feed 100 people which is only 9 pence per person. There’s really nothing else that can give you this same economy with the equivalent nutritional value you get from red lentils.
Red lentils are super easy to cook too and don’t require soaking. They’re extremely versatile and can be used to make all sorts of things from soups to loaves to curries to pasta dishes. They have a really long use-by date (this bag says use by May 2025) and they don’t require refrigeration. It could quite possibly be the most perfect food.
If you want to watch the full talk it’s below.
The other speakers on the night were really good, better and more qualified than me to talk about these topics so if you want to check them out and other speakers from the Climate Café visit the Aberdeen Climate Action YouTube channel.
rachel.blog 
That was a well paced talk. It made everything seem manageable yet pointed out how much difference people can make with their choices. It was particularly good to end talking about the cycle paths. I hope people are persuaded – it makes so much sense, even if you are not a cyclist.
Thanks, Denise. I hope some people were persuaded on cycle paths but I’ll never know.
It was such a good talk and you come across so well on camera. I hope people are inspired.
May I add pearl barley to the list of ‘easy’ lentils. Pulses are great nutritious protein extenders, especially if combining with whole grains.
Yes absolutely. I love pearl barley.