Simple low-waste recipes for the holidays with the Equal Food project

Spread Christmas goodness without all the food waste this year! Our partnership with Equal Food shows you how to make healthy and delicious low-waste recipes with their seasonal Christmas basket.

At Pearl, we’re on a mission this holiday season to spread happiness the low-waste way and we’re proud to support and partner with The Equal Food, as part of a special Christmas food basket campaign. 

Together, we want to help build awareness around the impact that excess food waste and overconsumption can have on the environment while sharing tips and advice on how to overcome this through conscious decision-making and practicing a zero-waste approach to eating.

The Equal Food

Founded in 2019, Equal Food is on a mission to rethink the status quo when it comes to traditional and outdated food systems. As people face a rising cost of living and vulnerable food security, their work has become even more important and focuses on two main objectives: 

1. Guaranteeing the supply of (im)perfect and varied fruits and vegetables at affordable prices to Portuguese consumers 
2. Guaranteeing food security for all families without resources.

Their sustainable, healthy and convenient solution is a weekly basket of fresh, imperfect produce from regional farmers delivered directly to your doorstep. This not only supports regional farmers to achieve a full harvest but also provides local consumers with the chance to have a healthier diet, filled with regional and seasonal products that encourage a low-waste lifestyle.

A special Christmas basket

We teamed up with Equal Food to offer one of our best-selling reusable Swing Top jars as a low-waste extra to their Christmas baskets, to help consumers keep their foods fresher and safer while preventing food spoilage and waste.

In honor of this partnership, we also teamed up to create three zero-waste recipes using the fruits and vegetables that will be included in this festive basket.

These will include:

We hope you enjoy the three recipes we developed from this special seasonal selection!

Yoghurt with Caramelized Pineapple and Nuts

A healthy sweet treat, this dish is ready in minutes and combines the sweetness of caramelized pineapple chunks with crunchy toasted hazelnuts.

Featured low-waste Christmas Basket ingredients:

• Pineapple
• Almonds
• Hazelnuts

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• ½ large Pineapple cored and cut into half-inch chunks
• 50g coconut sugar
• 100g oats
• 80ml lime or lemon juice
• 900g Greek Yogurt (or flavor of your choice)
• 40 grams of crushed hazelnuts and almonds

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large pan on high heat. Add in the pineapple chunks, sugar, and oats. Cook slowly, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue cooking and stirring, until the sugar has caramelized and the pineapple softens, roughly another 5 minutes more. Stir in the lime juice and spread the mixture in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, breaking up any big chunks and allow to cool slightly.

2. Spread the yoghurt in a large dish and top with pineapple mixture and hazelnuts. Enjoy immediately!

2. Pumpkin and carrot soup

This pumpkin and carrot winter-warming soup is like a hug in a bowl. The perfect blend of sweet and savory flavors,  it‘s the perfect pick me up on a cold Winter evening. 

Featured low-waste Christmas Basket ingredients:

• Pumpkin
• Carrot
• Potato
• Onions

Ingredients

Cooking Method:

1. Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds Set the seeds aside to toast later!. Cut the pumpkin, potatoes, and carrots into medium size chunks. Wash and drain. Set aside.

2. Heat a large pot and add the olive oil. Next add the pumpkin, carrots, garlic, onions, and potatoes followed by the herbs, salt and pepper. Water and vinegar.

3. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until all of the vegetables are soft. Use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients to form the soup. If you do not have an immersion blender, then transfer the ingredients and the liquid to a high-quality blender and blend until smooth.

4. Add in the heavy cream and stir to combine.

3. POMEGRANATE DRIZZLED ROASTED SWEET POTATOES AND BEETS CHRISTMAS SIDE DISH

A warm roasted sweet potato and beetroot side drizzled with a tasty honey orange and a drizzle of pomegranate.

Featured low-waste Christmas Basket ingredients:

• Sweet potato
• Beetroot
• Pomegranate
• Onions

Ingredients 

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 400° degrees. Mince fresh thyme leaves and set aside. Cube beets and sweet potatoes into 1 or 1 1/2 inch chunks. Arrange cubed beets on a baking sheet lined with a non-stick baking mat. Drizzle beets with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh minced thyme.

2. On a separate baking sheet lined with a baking mat, arrange cubed sweet potatoes and drizzle with olive, salt, and pepper.

3. Place the sweet potato tray and beet tray in the oven and roast until soft/fork tender.

Bake sweet potatoes until roasted through and soft, about 24 to 30 minutes. Bake beets until lightly caramelized and easily pierced with a fork, about 40-45 minutes.

4. The sweet potatoes will most likely roast a little quicker than the beets. Do a fork test here and there and pull out veggies when they are roasted to your liking/softness.

5. While everything bakes, prepare drizzle by combining pomegranate juice, orange juice, olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisking together until emulsified and combined.

6. Remove roasted vegetables from the oven and place on a serving platter. Pour drizzle over roasted beets and sweet potatoes while they are slightly warm. Garnish by sprinkling on fresh thyme leaves, crumbled/shaved parmesan and pomegranate seeds. Serve immediately.