FAQs
What ingredients do you use? - we stick to plant-based & ingredients that are available on every high street/supermarket. Good for you, your wallet and the planet.
Why plants? - the modern Western diet contains a lot of sugar and carbohydrates and we don’t eat anywhere near enough plant fibre. Aiming to eat around 30 different plants a week (including fruit, vegetables, beans, grains, herbs, spices, nuts and fungi (technically not a plant)) has been proven to improve all measures of health.
Buying fresh food is expensive isn’t it? - it’s true, fresh ingredients can seem expensive compared to ready-meals and high-street take outs, but the hidden costs to health of these Ultra Processed Foods is enormous in the long term, both individually and as a burden on the NHS. We purposely focus on readily available whole-foods and discuss batch-cooking that makes healthy eating accessible for all.
We don’t have a teaching kitchen, how can we do your workshops? - you don’t need one! With a table, a multi-cooker or plug-in hob, access to water and a power supply, and we can set up a work station and get cooking! Health & safety needs to be considered, but so far we’ve cooked in a community garden, GP meeting rooms and a garden shed!
How do you finance the workshops? - we have developed different financing models working in collaboration with several organisations; a council grant application financed all equipment, training costs and expenses for 3 courses over a financial year at W.Hampstead Community Centre ; SufraNW food charity acquired funding from Hello Fresh to run a course; Violet Melchett GP practice allocated funding for specific groups (refugees, menopause, loneliness etc), and we also work pro-bono too, for example Dr Jane Myat runs the workshops in collaboration with Cook For Good focussed on people in the community managing diabetes.
Why don’t you use recipes? - because we know that confident cooks start with ingredients, magicking up delicious food with whatever is to hand. We teach people who are sometimes fearful of fresh ingredients to have fun, and not rely on following specific instructions. With this informal and experiential approach everyone discovers they can cook, and that despite starting with the same ingredients all the dishes turn out differently meaning there is no right or wrong end result.
How much do you need to know about nutrition? - the information we share about food and health, while straightforward and mumbo-jumbo free is based on solid scientific research. We’ve pared this down as much as possible because, well, it’s not rocket science. Thinking that healthy food is ‘special’ has contributed to the health divide. Participants learn experientially why preparing & sharing nutritious food makes you feel great. We believe having a passion for food and an interest in health is more important than formal qualifications, and have found that learning from each other is more powerful than top-down teaching. With our support we hope anyone can facilitate a Circle of Soup workshop.
Why don’t you want people to cook alone? - Everyone is expected to work collaboratively in pairs or threes, and swap around over the course of five workshops getting to know each other and sharing tastes and preferences. Sitting down to eat together further reinforces shared achievement, fun and enjoyment and is a salve for the modern epidemic of loneliness. We believe that we are always stronger together, and diversity and inclusion are baked into our approach to everything we do at Circle of Soup.