The purpose of food has become hazy. As I see it, this ‘purpose’ (too grand a word perhaps) is twofold: providing our bodies with the best possible fuel available; and, with its taste, smell, and appearance, providing us with a great sensual pleasure. For this haziness, our busy lives are partly at fault, as they leave us no time to prepare or even think about food. But the language of food marketing, full of false promises and hyperbole, should take some of the blame – and is, indeed, my main concern here.

Food marketers specialise in euphemism and obfuscation. Supermarket adverts, menus in upmarket and downmarket restaurants, fast-food chain billboards, and celebrity chef recipe books present us with visions and descriptions of food far removed from reality. What could be a more telling example of insincerity than the text on the side of a ready meal, value brand or not. I quote: “Individual beef Wellingtons – meltingly tender beef fillet, rich mushroom and chicken liver pate duxelle, wrapped in buttery puff pastry.” If the beef is meltingly tender and the pastry buttery as buttery pastry should be, I shall eat my meltingly tender, buttery hat. The laws governing what food sellers can claim about food do little to help.

Reading George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” as new party placards for the European elections go up on every lamp post fuelled my feeling of unease. Orwell writes that politicians and their campaigners use empty stock phrases to avoid telling us what they think we will either not understand or not want to hear. This attitude belies a lack of respect for the intelligence of audience. The language of the European election campaigns serve to confirm his suspicions – no poster I have seen contains tangible information about the proposed European policies of the party it represents. I am not looking for details, just more than a big, bold meaningless promise. It occurs to me that food marketers delude us because, in most instances, if we were to read the real contents of the food on offer we would not want to eat it. Remember the horse meat scandal (though mostly a matter of custom rather than nutrition)? With each layer of chemical complexity, the more deceitful the language required to sell the product.

It is tempting to think of ourselves as meek victims, dimly believing the packaging and incapable of choosing better. But we are not. Each of us possesses critical faculties; nothing other than ignorance and idleness stops us from applying these when choosing what to eat. To prevail against ignorance is easy: wise up to idiotic descriptions on packages and read the small print. The more chemicals or just ‘stuff’ in a product, the less tempted you should be to buy it. Idleness is harder to defeat. Standing in the supermarket peering at food labels, as a child might at an ant through a magnifying glass, requires more time and effort than slinging Tesco lasagnes, or even M&S bean salads, into your basket. Concocting meals each evening from fresh ingredients is not as immediately relaxing as slumping in front of the TV or Facebook. But these are choices we should be willing to make, for our health, happiness, and sensual enjoyment.

As Orwell writes, “This invasion of one’s mind by ready-made phrases (lay the foundations, achieve a radical transformation) can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anaesthetizes a portion of one’s brain.” Letting expensive adverts and polished TV presenters numb our understanding of which available foods our body would most enjoy (and benefit from) is a fool’s game. Here’s a new recipe to help …

Poached wild salmon and asparagus salad

(serves two and takes little more than 15 minutes to prepare)

Ingredients

• Lamb’s lettuce
• 1/3 cucumber
• 1 ripe avocado
• Small bunch of green asparagus
• 12 pitted black olives
• A handful of roasted hazelnuts
• Butter
• Olive oil
• 1 lemon
• Dash of red wine vinegar
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 fillets of wild salmon (frozen)

Method

Start by boiling a pan of water for the salmon. While waiting for the water to boil, rinse the frozen fillets under a cold tap. When the water boils, add the two fillets to the pan, bring back to a gentle simmer and leave to poach for around 10 minutes (a little longer if your fillets are especially big).

In another pan, bring two to three inches of water to the boil. If you have a steaming basket, place the washed and trimmed asparagus spears in it on top of the boiling water with the lid on. If you don’t, then simply place the asparagus directly into the water and cover with the lid. It does not matter if some of the asparagus sticks out of the water, or, indeed, is not in it at all. It will steam perfectly well like this if the pan is covered. Steam or boil the asparagus for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness, or until tender.

In the meantime, rinse your lamb’s lettuce in a colander. While it drip dries, finely chop your cucumber, cube the avocado, and cut the olives into thirds.  When done, throw all four ingredients into a big salad bowl. If you have time, halve the hazelnuts.

When tender, drain the asparagus, dot it with a little butter, and leave in the colander to cool slightly. Following that, remove the salmon fillets from the pan, and leave to sit for a moment or two on a clean plate.

Then dress your salad. This can be done directly in your big salad bowl. Using a handheld grater, grate the garlic over the top of your mixture. Squeeze in the lemon juice (saving a little to drizzle on your salmon at the very end). Finish with a generous drizzle of olive oil, a dash of red wine vinegar and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Toss gently – if the salad seems underdressed, add a little more vinegar or oil to taste.

Divide your dressed salad between two shallow pasta bowls. Cut the asparagus spears in half and arrange prettily on top before placing the salmon fillets in the middle. Last of all scatter a few roasted hazelnuts over both (either halved, but if you didn’t have the time, perfectly fine whole). Before serving, drizzle that last squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil over the salmon (you want it too to taste delicately lemony). A final twist of pepper  and serve.