White Bean and Seaweed Stew

After embarking more than two years ago on this effort to cut my meat consumption, for the sake of fighting climate change, I have to say it has taken nearly all this time to form the habit of mostly-vegetarianism. I am surprised it took so long, but I guess it's a challenge to teach an old (tofu) dog new tricks.

I've gotten there, though. I still enjoy occasional "meat as a treat" (burgers, bacon, Thanksgiving turkey), and I am comfortable with that. But I am finally ready to also put fish into that "meat as a treat" category.

Fish came last because 1) I was never all that wild about poultry, so that wasn't hard, and 2) pigs and especially cows are much larger drivers of climate change (though I'm hopeful about a new idea to reduce cow methane emissions!). But I have been coming to terms with the particular ways in which eating fish is bad news for Mother Nature.

For example, I thought that farmed fish sounded like a good alternative to overfishing lakes and oceans and streams, but then I was horrified to learn about about the pollution (and other evils) associated with feeding those farmed fish. It is deeply messed up. I want no part of that.

I also learned that the fish I think I'm eating may not even be the fish I think I'm eating! It is problematic if you believe you're eating fish that are sustainably caught or harvested, but you're actually eating a threatened species.

Add those issues to the well-covered problems of overfishing and bycatch, and human rights abuses in the shrimping industry.

Ignorance was bliss, right? Now I can no longer, in good conscience, throw some fish fillets into the oven every couple weeks and call it a main course, and neither can you.  (We also shouldn't buy those discounted half-pounds of the non-pretty bits of smoked salmon and eat them straight out of the tub, but that was probably just me anyway.)

I'm truly sorry for the sadness this brings to us both.

This isn't an outright Farewell To Fish for me, but it is a resolution to enjoy it more rarely.

If you're looking for a substitute for fish and shrimp, I recommend the "Creamy White Bean and Seaweed Stew With Parmesan" (NYT Cooking; subscription required) that I made for the first time last night. 

I had never cooked with kombu before.

I only had about half the beans I needed, but it turned out well anyway. Very oceanic.

Hot tip from a commenter on NYT Cooking:

A 14 oz. can of beans holds 9 oz of beans and the rest is water. About 4 oz. of dried beans is approximately 9 oz when cooked. 

It is so very springy here! I love this time of year.

How do you like my front yard?
Ha ha ha just kidding!
I'm trying to take the sting out of my bad news about fish with a little humor.
This is Reeves-Reed Arboretum.