Easter, now that I feel a bit too old to hunt around the garden for chocolates, has become a food-orientated event. Yet large companies have made Easter festivities and eggs seem a bit hollow (get it) when I think of all of the packaging required, all of the trees cut down and all of the metal foil used to present chocolate in a different shape just for one, traditionally religious, celebratory day.
Pizza Hut have nicknamed last weekend’s holiday ‘Feaster’, with money-off offers to entice individuals to fill their weekend with a non-traditional pizza alternative. Clever name, but perhaps a marked reflection of how religious holidays are interpreted and, increasingly, twisted into marketing opportunities.
Waitrose, ironically, stocked a ‘Dark Chocolate Avocado Easter Egg’ this year, which was not dairy-free, appealing instead to those who identify with the ‘basic bitch’ image. They’ve successfully jumped onto the band-wagon of the avocado craze, and the famously high-priced food-stuff went swimmingly with the supermarket’s image.
However, the meme of the ‘Vegan Easter Egg’ – the avocado wrapped in Cadbury’s purple foil – points to the becoming-mainstream, better-for-the-planet veganism as a diet which excludes an individual from a classic chocolate Easter Egg. But the meme’s success shows just how popular the vegan diet has become!
What is a classic Easter meal? Seemingly, lamb. Celebrating spring with Easter chicks, bunnies, and new-born lambs – let’s eat one! I’ve always rather liked the taste of meat, but, increasingly, I’ve really felt conscious and bad about eating it, especially when I now know both how unnecessary meat is for a healthy lifestyle, and how bad for the planet meat-consumption is.
As a person trying to be as plant-based as possible, I’d like to try a vegan hot cross bun recipe around this time of year and I hope it’s as tasty I imagine. Similarly, I’ve found out how to make chocolate from cocoa and cocoa butter – plant-based and completely flexible. (I also want to experiment with adding orange oil or freeze-dried raspberries to it – yum.) These DIY things will take time but that’s what finding and eating great food is all about– the prep and discovery of great ingredients and recipes.
Nevertheless, my Easter lunch this year was not quite vegan – I prepared leeks, peas, salmon, and vegan hasselback garlic and rosemary potatoes. White wine and company made it a very nice occasion, and my mostly-deaf grandmother really enjoyed the food! Whatever you ate, and whatever marketing campaigns you bought into this Easter, I hope everybody had a nice weekend.
