meatless home cooking
About a month ago I embarked on an ambitious experiment to stop cooking meat at home. If you know me you know how ludicrous a proposition this seems because I’m practically carnivorous. Because of this, I decided to confine the experiment to my home cooking and permitted myself to keep ordering meat dishes while out, where I am far less able to ensure that the meatless dishes on offer are to my liking.
The main reasons I wanted to try this were health and environment-related. Probably no one is more amazed than I am that I have been relatively successful so far (I have cooked meat only a few times since end-Jan, twice to use up the fish fingers and chicken in my freezer, and once to use up a can of tuna). I have become very good friends with beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu and eggs, plus the very few vegetables that are acceptable to me (eggplants, and carrots when drowned in soup). But it has been genuinely eye-opening learning how many things you can do with non-meat ingredients. An unexpected but also welcome side effect has been that my grocery bill has gone down quite a bit because dried beans are so cheap compared to meat.
Some recipes that have worked very well for me, and may also be good for fellow veg haters:
- Blue Zones Minestrone: this has quickly become a staple. I cook a big batch during the weekend and eat it at least once a day when I’m eating at home. It’s incredibly low effort for the amount of servings it yields, and the flavour can be varied easily by changing up the herbs and spices you add. Personally I prefer a spice blend of cumin, paprika, garam masala and a little bit of chilli powder. I also use sweet potatoes instead of potatoes and cook it on high pressure in the Instant Pot for 12 minutes (natural release). Yummy!
- Simple Eggplant Parmesan
- Indian Butter Tofu
- Garlic Parmesan Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Creamy Lemon Pepper Chickpeas
- Buttery Lemon Tofu