The 1973 sci-fi film Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston, is set in a dystopian future where, because of overpopulation and pollution, people live on mysterious wafers created as a solution to the shortage of food in their plundered world.
Soylent is the food replacement that everyone eats, and the most popular flavour is Soylent Green, which Heston’s character discovers is actually made from human flesh.
It’s perhaps no surprise that an American software engineer might come up with a formula for a total food replacement as the ultimate life hack, but somewhat ironic that he would choose to call it Soylent.
Back in 2013, Rob Rhinehart, head down in front of a computer screen for interminable amounts of time, living off a diet of frozen corn dogs and ramen, says that he grew frustrated with the effort and cost associated with purchasing, preparing, and consuming food that was neither healthy nor enjoyable. He decided to see if he could create a powder formula that would work as a total meal replacement.
After his extensive readings of biochemistry manuals and US government websites, Rhinehart compiled a list of 35 nutrients required for survival, and ordered them off the Internet - mostly in powder or pill form. He then poured everything into a blender with some water. The result, a slurry of chemicals (that I’m told, looks like grey sludgy lemonade) he decided to call Soylent.
Perhaps, like me, you may have some qualms about ingesting a product developed by someone who felt that the prep work for ramen was too much for him. Time and effort?
I haven’t tasted the grey gloop, or any other meal replacement formulas, and I have zero interest in doing so. Imagine life without chewing and tasting and savouring. For those people unable to eat for medical reasons, I have nothing but the greatest sympathy. To actually choose not eating, is an idea I simply cannot fathom.
Food is one of life’s greatest joys. It doesn’t need to be complicated or extravagant, to be good. Some cultures, however hard the times, or great the need for frugality, have always refused to equate deliciousness with privilege.
Here the premise of flavour rules foremost, and there is trust that creativity, resourcefulness and a spirit of generosity are the mainstays to feeding and nourishing both a family and oneself.
There may be pasta with a simple sauce of sauteed or canned tomatoes, garlic, and basil; or seasonal greens, olive oil, garlic, chilli flakes and crispy breadcrumbs.
Perhaps pots of beans cooked with thyme and garlic, or smoked chillies and oregano, served hot the first day, and the leftovers on the second tossed with a can of tuna, some sliced celery and red onion, or perhaps pureed up into a dip to serve on toasted bread with cooked greens or fresh tomatoes. Simple, affordable, and most importantly, delicious.
Chicken and apricot salad with Moroccan orange dressing
If you’re pressed for time, buy a rotisserie chicken for a speedy meal. When apricots aren’t in season use grapes, pears or oranges.
Ready in 15 minutes
Serves four to six
1 roasted free-range chicken
2 medium cos lettuces, torn into chunks
6 fresh apricots, stones removed and cut into small wedges
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1⁄2 cup chopped pistachios or roasted almond slivers
1⁄4 cup finely chopped coriander or mint leaves
Spiced orange dressing
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp honey
4 tbsp fresh orange juice
finely grated zest and juice of 2 juicy lemons
4 tbsp olive oil salt and ground black pepper
To make the orange dressing, shake together in a small jar the cumin, ginger, honey, orange juice, lemon zest and juice, oil and salt and pepper to taste.
To prepare the salad, strip the chicken from the bones, discarding skin and fat and reserving bones to make stock if desired. Roughly shred the flesh into bite-sized pieces. Place in a bowl and toss with half the Orange Dressing.
Place the cos lettuce in a serving bowl with apricot wedges, spring onions, pistachios and coriander or mint leaves.
When ready to serve, add the chicken and its dressing to the salad and toss gently with the remaining dressing.
Pasta with broccoli pesto
I can’t keep up with the broccoli in my garden right now, but this powerhouse pesto puts it to delicious use. This tasty pesto is also great served as a dip with vegetable bites, or as a spread on crispbreads, crostini or fresh bread.
Ready in 20 minutes
Serves four
1 large or 2 small heads broccoli, cut into florets
400-500g dried fettuccini or spaghetti
¼ cup olive oil
2 fat cloves garlic, thinly sliced
finely zested rind of 1 lemon
pinch chilli flakes
¼ cup toasted almonds or pine nuts
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Optional, handful of toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds, and extra parmesan to garnish
Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil. Add broccoli and cook for two minutes. Lift out with a slotted spoon into a colander and run under cold water to thoroughly cool and prevent over cooking. Drain well.
Use the same broccoli cooking water to cook the pasta, following packet instructions for timing. While the pasta cooks, heat oil and sizzle garlic, lemon zest and chilli for a few seconds. Place cooled drained broccoli in the bowl of a food processor and pour over the garlic lemon chilli oil. Whiz to a puree, add seasoning, parmesan and nuts and blitz again to evenly combine. Check seasoning and adjust to taste.
Scoop out and reserve half a cup of the pasta cooking water before draining cooked pasta. Tip cooked pasta into a serving bowl with the broccoli pesto adding as much of the reserved pasta cooking water as needed to loosen the pesto to a loose coating consistency. Garnish if desired with nuts and or parmesan.
Summer tabouleh
This is such a useful salad to throw into a wrap, or serve with grilled or barbecue meats. If using coarse kibbled or bulghur wheat, double the amount of water and cook for 10 minutes.
Ready in 15 minutes
Serves four
½ cup fine bulghur wheat or couscous
½ cup boiling water
6 pitted dates, finely chopped
1 spring onion, very thinly sliced
½ clove garlic, crushed to a paste with ½ tsp salt
1 packed cup very finely chopped parsley leaves
½ packed cup finely chopped mint leaves
2 tbsp boutique extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
ground black pepper, to taste
1 tomato or 6 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped (optional)
Place bulghur wheat or couscous in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to stand for 10 minutes until water is fully absorbed and bulghur wheat or couscous is softened.
Add all other ingredients except tomato and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. If not serving at once, cover and store in the fridge for up to two days. To serve, add tomato, if using, and toss gently to combine.
Beet and carrot bulghur salad
Leave out the tomato and add one beetroot and one carrot, peeled and coarsely grated.
Tomato and cucumber bulghur salad
Add two finely chopped tomatoes and one finely chopped Lebanese cucumber or a quarter of finely chopped telegraph cucumber. If desired, top with 100g of crumbled feta.
Gluten-free tabouleh
Use two and a half cups cooked quinoa instead of the soaked bulghur wheat.
Match these with
by Yvonne Lorkin
Chicken and Apricot Salad with Moroccan Orange dressing
Elephant Hill Hawke’s Bay Sea Viognier 2020 $34
Viognier (vee-yon-yay) is a typically rich, spice-centric white wine with a deliciously defined signature scent of apricot stone and orange oil. No question I was roaring out the door to buy a bottle of this as soon as Annabel sent me this recipe. Crafted from fruit grown a matter of metres from the sea on the Te Awanga coast that had a 40 per cent chunk fermented and aged for six months in older French oak barrels, this rich, creamy, floral-edged wine has a refreshing core of citrus, a peachy punch and a lick of minerality to finish. elephanthill.co.nz
Pasta with Broccoli Pesto
Tiki Single Vineyard North Canterbury Sauvignon Blanc 2023 $23
I can’t go past a leafy green or a bonny bit of brassica without developing a hankering for some snappy sauvignon blanc. The McKean family have been the force behind Tiki since planting an old Waipara sheep farm in vines back in the early 2000s and sauvignon blanc absolutely thrives under the baking North Canterbury summer sun. Their vigour is kept in check by those skin-mummifying, brain-meltingly dry norwester winds, meaning the remaining tiny berries produce wine that roars with jalapeno, bruised basil, deep lemony layers and delivers huge palate presence. Particularly when sipped with broccoli pesto. tikiwine.com
Summer Tabouleh
Terrace Edge Liquid Geography Organic North Canterbury Riesling 2022 $24
Dates, mint, parsley, tomatoes and all that chewy, moreish bulghur wheat texture in this tabouleh is total terrificness when consumed with a large sip or seven of this Cantabrian icon. Showing signature apple and yellow plum sweetness alongside cleansing, refreshing textures and a long, lemonade-like finish, it’s a southern superstar. I was introduced to it years ago at the Riccarton Farmers’ Market, where Jill Chapman had a Terrace Edge stall from which I grabbed sneaky sample after sneaky sample. terraceedge.co.nz