We eat too much meat. This will upset a lot of people who think that a meal should always consist of some kind of meat but it’s true – in the US and Europe in particular we eat far too much meat. This is not only catastrophic for the environment (ideally we need to reduce meat consumption by 50% according to studies…) but we also don’t need that much meat in our diet. I regularly see people eating chicken for lunch and then they will cook more meat later on for dinner. Countries such as Germany and Hungary are still big on having cold meats for breakfast too.
However, I do love my meat and make sure to include this in my diet and meal plans. The protein has so many health benefits but by cutting out some of that meat you are then eating more vegetables and different flavours by not just relying on meat.
I started cutting out on meat by having a meat free monday. I now try and have 2 – 3 meat free dinners (also excluding fish) a week. I sometimes have meat free lunches too.
This recipe is a great one for your meat free dinner. It is packed with plenty of vegetables and a mix of spices.
- 1 aubergine (diced)
- 1 courgette (sliced)
- 1 red pepper (sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic (peeled and crushed)
- 1 onion (peeled and sliced)
- 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbpsn tomato puree
- 1 tomato (roughly chopped)
- Juice of half a lime
- Fresh coriander
- Black pepper
- Sunflower oil
- 1 tspn turmeric
- 1 tbspn cumin
- 2 tspn garam masala
- 2 red chillies (finely chopped)
- 1 tspn dried chilli flakes
- Heat a large pan with 1 tbpsn sunflower oil. Add the onions and garlic with a pinch of salt and gently cook for 2 - 3 minutes.
- Add the aubergines and another glug of sunflower oil. Cook for a further 2 minutes and then add the courgettes and red pepper. Mix well and then stir in the chopped tomato (not the tinned tomatoes just yet).
- Add the turmeric, garam masala, cumin, chilli flakes and tomato puree. Squeeze in the juice of half a lime and mix well. Leave the spices to cook with the vegetables for a couple of minutes.
- Pour in the tinned tomatoes and mix well. Put the pan on medium/ high heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes (stirring regularly).
- Take the pan off the heat. Stir in some black pepper and fresh coriander and serve.
- Serve with some poppadoms and plain basmatic rice on the side.
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