We’re back! It’s towards the end of week 4 of quarantine for me – how is everyone? As part of my commitment to educating myself on environmental stuff, I did a post about beef production, and this is the second part of that. Having spoken about why reducing your beef intake is good, I want to talk about how to reduce it.
I’m vegetarian, and for me that means that I don’t eat any meat or fish, so I’m pretty used to not eating beef. However, my parents are both meat eaters, as is my boyfriend, so I’m also used to adapting meals so that I can eat a vegetarian version of whatever they’re having. So, I have a few ideas about eating plant based versions of beef based meals. However, as I said in my last post, reducing your beef intake doesn’t mean cutting it out, it can just mean swapping in different foods, or having one less beef based meal a week, so I want to talk about that too.
Firstly, I want to mention my favourite meat replacement – plants. Ok, probably not the plants that you’re picturing – I’m talking about things like beans, peppers, aubergine, courgette, that kind of thing. A great example of this in practice is chilli, which I make very often (for the full recipe, scroll to the bottom of this page). I basically chuck in whatever veg I have, and add lots of smokey flavour and it’s just as nice (in my opinion) as a meat chilli. I’ll warn you, it’s not the same, especially in terms of texture, but as long as you add the same flavours as you normally would, it’s just a slightly different version of the food you already love. Here’s some advice for using veg instead of mince:
- Try to mix up what veg you use, especially in terms of texture. Add some veg that has crunch, like carrots and some that have a meatier texture like mushrooms or aubergine, because the worst thing is a mush of veg covered in sauce.
- ADD SOME SEASONING. Meat has flavour without really doing anything, which is not true of a lot of veg. Veg is delicious, but it really helps if you add some smokey seasoning, some spice, some salt etc.
- Cook it for longer, on a low heat. Veg often tastes better when it’s cooked low and slow in an oven or on the hob – it just helps to release all the flavours.
Secondly, there are some great fake mince options out there for when you want a more meat-like experience. My favourite is literally anything by the Meatless Farm Company, because it cooks very similarly to mince and looks a lot like mince and tastes amazing. I also sometimes use Quorn mince, which is really great because you keep it frozen and then just bung it into anything you want. The supermarkets are all trying to do more vegan and vegetarian options, so there are loads of different choices, it’s just about trying them.
Finally, something that my mum has always done when she makes things like bolognese or lasagne is adding lentils in to the mince so that it goes further. So, if you were going to use 500 grams of mince, she would get 250 of mince and add 250 of lentils instead. This is so simple and easy, and to be honest you can’t really taste the difference!
So, those are a few things you can do to reduce your beef intake, or cut it out altogether if that’s what you want to do. Next time, I’ll be talking about composting, because that is something that I’ve been trying during the past couple of weeks. Until then, hope everyone stays safe and healthy, and thank you for reading!
Chilli recipe: https://wastemakeswaste.design.blog/2020/01/27/vegan-chilli-recipe/
Meatless Farm Company: https://meatlessfarm.com/
Quorn: https://www.quorn.co.uk/
Waste Makes Waste 