Our talented catering teams are cooking up a storm with our new patient menus!
They’ve completely revamped our menus to not only give our patients the balanced nutrition they need to get back on their feet – but also to keep the planet healthy too.
By making changes to just 10 meals in our three-week patient menu rota, we will cut our carbon footprint by 58.95 tons a year. That’s the same amount of carbon you’d use driving round the equator eight-and-a-half times (214,872 miles)!
Facilities Services Manager Karl Cliff, who has led on the change, said: “We’re making some really simple changes, but it’s going to make a huge difference.
“One of the things we’re doing is cutting back on the amount of red meat we use, as this has a really high carbon footprint. Alongside this, we’ve introduced more plant-based and vegan options, which is also something our patients have been asking for.”
Among the dishes you’ll soon be seeing on the menu are
- Chicken and sweetcorn bake
- Baked chicken and vegetable pie
- Vegan Thai red curry
- Fish cakes
- Vegetarian Cottage Pie
- Creamy vegetable cheese bake
- Meat-free mushroom and chicken-style pie
- Chicken breast in tomato and basil sauce
- Coronation chicken
- Salmon crumble
Karl added: “All the new dishes have been created with input from our specialist dieticians and nutritional experts, who have ensured that the food will have everything our patients need to help them to get better.
“They’ve also passed the taste test too. We’ve tried out the new dishes on staff from across the Trust, and even those who don’t usually go for a vegetarian option were wolfing it down.”
And the feedback forms also make for good reading. One of the panel said of the Vegetarian Cottage Pie: “This was very visually appealing – especially with the cheese melting in your mouth. I forgot it wasn’t meat while I was eating it!”
Another commented that the Vegan Thai red curry was ‘aromatic’, adding, “It’s very tasty and is nice with the rice”.
