Meat Free Monday’s made easy

Everyone’s heard of Meat Free Monday right? But how did this alliterative phenomena breach our Australian shores anyhow? The campaign was in fact introduced by a trio of passionate foodies: a nutritionist, a chef and an environmentalist in 2013. With the sponsorship of the Do Something! and Fry’s Family Foundations, the group set a target to educate Australians about the health and environmental benefits of reducing your weekly meat intake.

But can abstaining from meat once a week really make a difference?

A study revealed that when you take into account farm inputs, transportation, fuel and energy use, one pound of beef creates a carbon footprint of 14.8 pounds. However, using the same calculations, one pound of tofu creates a carbon footprint of .814pounds! Therefore by reducing your meat intake, you are effectively minimising the strain on resources and lessening your CO2 footprint. In addition to this, reducing your red-meat intake can also lower your risk of obesity, heart disease and certain types of cancer.

But how can you create a family friendly, crowd pleaser of a dinner without meat? I decided to test this question by replacing the 500g of beef mince I would use to make spaghetti bolognese with 500g of tofu. It’s a really simple recipe idea that will satisfy the whole family. In order to prove this, I cooked it for my sister, her husband and their 18 month old daughter!

Method

1. In order to get that mince like consistency, I grated the block of tofu and fried it up with one brown onion and crushed garlic.
2. Once all this had caramelised, I added a can of crushed tomatoes, two tablespoons of tomato paste, half a cup of vegetable stock and about 6 tomatoes I had chopped up.
3. I then added a bunch of chopped mushrooms and grated carrot and let the whole dish simmer for approximately 40minutes.
4. After this, I mixed in some fresh basil and served it up with fettuccini.

 

In four simple steps you have a delicious recipe ready to roll, which was enthusiastically attested to by an eighteen month old! Meat free Monday’s are a great incentive to generate conversation about your meat consumption and strategise ways in which you can reduce your intake to a more sustainable degree.