It's the jaggy nettle that has to be grasped.
From now on – and not just because Lent is on the horizon – we must face the prospect of learning how to eat cheaply as well as wisely and well if we're to keep the wolf from the door.
I'm not talking about embracing the 5:2 Fasting Diet (though it has its undoubted attractions). I'm talking about ditching dodgy ready-made burgers and truly going back to basics: lentils and pork belly, hummus made with butter beans rather than chickpeas, soup of leftover vegetables and proper stock made by boiling the bones of a chicken/lamb shanks stuffed kale leaves, that sort of thing. In other words, rediscovering our inner crofter.
All the top chefs are already onto it, so you don't have to worry about missing out on that fashionable new culinary buzzphrase, cucina povera (peasant food), when you do occasionally venture out of the kitchen.
But what's really great about this is it's encouraging us all to cook from scratch and learn – or relearn – how to actually do it, while saving money into the bargain. And it's brought about many an overdue culinary renaissance to the extent that pearl barley, porridge oats and fresh beetroot are now part of everyday food shopping.
The downside of lionising cheap food as uber-fashionable is the danger some of us will infer we can eat what we like, so long as we've made it/grown it ourselves and only paid tuppence for it. All I can say is blackened chargrilled beef skirt, toasted cheese with chorizo and homemade scones with cream should be consumed in moderation.
Talking of jaggy nettles, I've heard soup made from them is just the thing to stave off gnawing hunger. Just saying.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article