Pad Thai can save the world

Last summer I read a book which I of course can not remember the title to. The book was about 7 things that we can do to save the planet (or change the world? Something like that.) If you know what book I'm talking about, please send me a comment so I can stop rambling.

Anyway! One of the things was Pad Thai. Huh. How can Pad Thai save the planet? Well, the idea is that we should eat vegetarian meals. According to the Vegetarian Guide, going meatless is the "single most powerful action you can take to save energy and reduce pollution." Wow. I have had my students read an article about this, and most of them think it's hooey. Maybe because it's Texas. I'm not sure. But I have seen this message more and more and the numbers (again, from the above source) seem believable.

• It takes 54 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of energy in beef. That's insane. (Numbers on this vary, but they're all really high. Some sites even say that if you get all your energy from beef, you pollute more by walking than by using the car. The message here is not that we should drive, but that we should not eat so much meat.)
• Water pollution -- it takes 5214 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. This is something that I had not really thought of before. You use 5200 gallons in a whole year of showering, so you could save that by giving up one pound of meat.
  
• Land -- meat requires more land than plants. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. That's just not efficient.

Never mind animal welfare, smell, worries about contamination, price, etc. It is better for the planet to eat vegetarian as much as possible. It's also less expensive (especially if you only buy happy meat, which has REALLY decreased my meat consumption).

Today I used my beautiful mung bean sprouts to make Pad Thai. (Last week I started the sprouts). They expanded, filling a large yogurt container -- next time I won't use so many beans. So, for 15 cents, I got a ton of organic sprouts and a botany lesson.

I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the pad thai, but it was ridiculously complicated and dirtied a bowl and 4 pots and pans. Crazy. So, I simplified it a little. It was delish! My friend said it was like eating in a restaurant :)

Pad Thai to Save the World

8 oz. rice noodles (maybe use more, b/c we needed more noodles)
1/4 c. sugar
3 T white vinegar
3 T fish sauce
2 T + 1 teas. molasses (it calls for 1 T tamarind paste, but I don't have this lying around. This is a substitution. The 1 teas. is to make the white sugar into brown sugar b/c I ran out of brown)
1/4 teas. ground red pepper
1/2 lb. string beans
1/2 lb. sugar snap peas
2 T canola oil
2 minced shallots
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 c. fresh mung bean sprouts (use more -- they're so good)
3 scallions, dice green part
chopped roasted peanuts for garnish

Soak noodles in warm water for 20 minutes.
In large skillet or wok, heat oil. Add shallots and garlic & stirfry. Add string beans and snow peas. Stir fry (don't burn garlic!) Add sugar, vinegar, molasses, fish sauce and red pepper. Add noodles and 1/2 c. bean sprouts. Warm everything.

Serve with bean sprout, peanut and scallion garnish.

Serves 4

I was really happy with this recipe. The ingredients cost a total of 6 dollars to feed my whole family, and that's including the fish sauce, which was 2.99 (there's a ton left over). It might cost you less because I bought all the ingredients at WF (but I did use all my own bags, gleaning a 50 cent bag credit.)

Richard Barrow give a similar recipe here.

Whole Foods has started Composting!
I have been jealous of other people who can compost their food waste, and so far my worms are being a little slow in the eating department, but on my visit today I saw that WF in Austin is now composting paper and food waste. Wow.

Where does the compost go? If you know, post a comment.

Image from myrecipes.com