Capsule x HelloFresh – This month’s book is This One Wild And Precious Life: A Hopeful Path Forward In A Fractured World by Sarah Wilson
Welcome to Capsule’s book club! We’re SO excited to bring you a new book each month to devour and savour. Whether you indulge in a few hours of luxurious alone time each Sunday with a glass of something and a delicious meal, or finish your day with a chapter or two, we invite you to relax and enjoy, and if you’re so inclined, connect with fellow Capsule readers and your own family and friends to have a yarn about the book you’ve just read. And we’ll be matching each book with a special offering from our friends at HelloFresh (they’re the ones who’ll have dinner sorted, so you can spend more time engrossed in your book).
This month, we’re going green – think an incredible e-book that’ll have you thinking the world isn’t so bad (thank GOD) and a delicious plant-based winter warmer that is good for the world.
The new Climate Superstar recipes from HelloFresh like the Thai Veggie Curry Noodles with Baby Corn, Crushed Peanuts & Herbs have the lowest carbon impact each week. Be sure to look out for the Climate Superstar tag on the HelloFresh menu in the coming weeks, to make your mealtime even more sustainable.
When it comes to learning more about living in a climate change world, there can be a hard balance in being informed without being overwhelmed. This is the beauty of journalist Sarah Wilson’s work in the climate crisis/sustainability arena: she’s not going to sugar coat it, but she is going to inspire you to make better choices. All of this comes beautifully together in her book This One Wild And Precious Life: A Hopeful Path Forward In A Fractured World, which is written to engage you, rather than scare you.
Written over three years, This One Wild And Precious Life was actually written in a pre-pandemic world (remember that?) but the arrival of Covid-19 meant that all of the messages Sarah had written about – our disconnection, the damage down to the planet, growing injustice, the sense of overwhelm and despair – all were front of mind when the book was released.
Just like her first book First, We Make The Beast Beautiful, about living with anxiety, the writing style of this book is clever, meandering, global and personal. It is a soul’s journey: Sarah takes us with her on her epic hikes around the world, in scenic places like Crete, Jordan, Japan, England, Sierra Nevada and Australia, while she talks about climate change, racial injustice, abortion, mental health and how we can start to take action in our disconnected lives. This One Wild And Precious Life is a profoundly hopeful book about how much better things can be, and how beautiful the world is.
The book does paint a stark picture of what we – humans – are up against, in terms of climate change in particular, but also in the other insidious malaises like the general hopelessness, anxiety and frustration felt by a lot of people.
“I think the truth is the only way to be hopeful,” said Sarah to Capsule about this book. “Whenever we’re talking around the elephant in the room, I find that more despairing. I also think that the salve is coming back to nature. Everything that’s happening in the world, it might take us to the kind of human being, the kind of life, that we’ve been craving. It’ll force us to become adults. The hope lies in our hopelessness – we’ve given up on anyone coming to save us. We’re going to have to save ourselves.”
Not only does This One Wild And Precious Life cover the big, philosophical questions, it’s also deeply practical: a whole chapter on how to consume less, good apps and tools on how to be more sustainable. But the power of this book is less about the how – although there’s plenty on that – and more about the why. Why we need to get involved, why we need to care, why we need to get fired up about our one wild and precious life and this one wild and precious planet. It’s a call to action that reminds us what we’ve got to lose and gives us the hope and passion to do so. This One Wild And Precious Life wants you to save the world by reminding you how much there is to love in it.
This One Wild And Precious Life is available on Kindle, on Apple Books and in hard copy in good bookstores!
Thai Veggie Curry Noodles with Baby Corn, Crushed Peanuts & Herbs
(Serves 2)
Ingredients
100g green beans
1 carrot
1 courgette
1/2 tin of baby corn (200g)
250g udon noodles
30g garlic paste
20g ginger paste
20g lemongrass paste
25g yellow curry paste
200ml coconut milk
5g vegetable stock powder
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tbs soy sauce
30g roasted, unsalted peanuts
1 bunch of coriander
Olive Oil
METHOD
• Boil the kettle. Trim green beans and cut into thirds. Thinly slice carrot and courgette into half-moons. Drain baby corn spears and cut into thirds. Half-fill a medium saucepan with boiling water. Cook udon noodles over medium-high heat until tender, 3-4 minutes. In the last minute of cook time, gently stir noodles with a fork to separate. Drain, rinse and set aside.
• In a large frying pan, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook green beans, carrot, courgette and baby corn until tender, 3-4 minutes. Add garlic paste, ginger & lemongrass paste and yellow curry paste and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
• Add the noodles, coconut milk, vegetable stock powder, the brown sugar and soy sauce to the pan. Simmer until slightly reduced, 1-2 minutes. Add a splash more water if the sauce looks too thick
• Divide Thai veggie curry noodles between bowls. Garnish with crushed peanuts. Tear over herbs to serve. Enjoy!
