Go veggie part-time

Much has been written about the environmental benefits of excluding meat or even all animal products from at least some of your meals each week.

Evidence can be found in many places, from papers in leading journals such as Nature that find clear environmental advantages for vegetarian and vegan diets over omnivorous diets, through articles in newspapers such as The Economist which states that going vegan for two thirds of meals would cut food-related carbon emissions by 60% to articles by BBC Online reporting that cutting meat and dairy would cut food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%. And of course famous documentaries such as The Game Changes on Netflix, highlighting the benefits of a vegan diet.

The main argument centres around the fact that eating meat (and animal products more generally) is not an efficient use of resources. With an omnivorous diet, plant-based food, and the land and water needed to grow that food, is used to feed animals, which then in turn feed humans. The inefficiency here is that the plant-based food could be used to feed humans directly. Of course, ocean-going fish don’t require feeding or land, but the argument against simply eating fish over mammals and poultry is that this would be removing fish from the oceans at a faster-than-sustainable rate.

Now, there are of course many detractors from the vegan diet and lifestyle, and even the vegetarian diet. This includes aspects such as not being able to get enough nutrients from not eating meat or animal products, and this may well be true in individual cases. However, given current levels of UK meat consumption (226g per person per day, apparently), it seems pretty clear that the average person could easily cut back on meat consumption a fair way without any negative impact on their health.

While this article is not intended to go any further in convincing you of the environmental merits of going veggie, it is intended to provide ideas for what to cook! Below are set out different cuisines that work well with vegetarian restrictions, as well as resources to go to for additional menu ideas.

Curry
Perhaps the best type of food for vegetarians is curry, with varied options in flavour profiles from many different countries across Asia to choose from such as India, Sri Lanka, Thailand or Vietnam. Without meat, dishes are bulked out with ingredients such as cashew nuts, paneer cheese, lentils, potatoes and vegetables, and can be served alongside pappadums, spring and summer rolls, onion bhajis and other side dishes, starters and finger food. Examples of some of my favourite vegetarian curries are below, with links to (unaffiliated) examples of recipes:

Dahl: The mainstay of any South Asian vegetarian curry feast is classic lentil dahl. Can be served stodgy with rice, or watered down some and served as more of a soup.

Sri Lankan cashew nut curry: Perfect served either alongside another curry or on its own with rice and pappadums.

Onion bhajis: A bit of messy work for a starter / side dish, with the need to be deep fat fried, but so worth it.

Massaman curry: This peanut-flavoured dish from Thailand is a favourite that is delicious whether cooked spicey or mild.

Pad thai: Not curry, but another favourite dish from Thailand is the Pad Thai. Tricky to make perfect if you’re being purest with the recipe, but luckily you don’t have to be and can add whatever you like to make it more to your taste.