Meat Free Mondays is a great, easy way to make a big difference.
Animal agriculture is a big environmental problem: it accounts for 51 % of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and 2,500 gallons of water are required to produce one pound of beef.
Over a billion animals are killed every year for food just in the UK - 22 million animals a day.
Cutting out meat from your diet for just one day a week is a great step towards helping reduce these figures!

It's really easy to do; vegetarian food is cheaper and quite often healthier - so what are you waiting for?!

Below are some recipes we enjoy to get you started. Happy eating!

http://www.meatfreemondays.com/
https://www.vegsoc.org/goveggiehelp
http://www.viva.org.uk/going-vegetarian-vegan/going-vegan/how

Walnut and Mushroom Pie

I can't remember where I got this recipe from but it might be adapted from Oi Polloi's Anarcho Pie. It takes a bit of effort but it's absolutely worth it and makes enough pie for at least 5 meals. It'll easily keep for around 5 days in an air tight container in the fridge or you can (probably) freeze it. Serving suggestion; with a small mountain of chive and mustard mashed potato! Suitable for vegans so long as you use a brand of pastry which is vegan such as Jus-Roll.

Time: Prep 20 minutes. Cooking 40-45 minutes. Serves 4-6 (depending on how much you like pie).

Ingredients:

• 250 g can chopped tomatoes or pasata
• 375 g mushrooms, sliced
• 125 g shelled walnuts
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• 500 g puff pastry
• 1 tbsp gravy powder or cornflour
• 2 tbsp vegetable/sunflower/rapeseed oil.
• 1 dsp yeast extract
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp soy milk (to glaze)
• 1 dsp sesame seeds, to garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Oil a 30 cm pie dish or six 10cm individual dishes. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Put chopped tomatoes (or pasata) in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the mushrooms, walnuts, carrot, onion, red pepper, and mustard powder. Stir well, then cover the pan and simmer for 15 mins.
3. Flour a work surface, cut the pastry in half and roll out to a 5mm thickness (if you don't have a rolling pin a bottle of wine works well). Bake for 7 minutes to half cook it.
4. Combine all remaining ingredients in a small jug and gradually pour into the simmering pan, stirring constantly as it thickens.
5. Spoon the stew into the half cooked pie crust. Roll out the remaining pastry and use to cover the tops of the pie(s). You can use a little water as glue to stick the edges of the pastry together.
6. Brush the top of pastry with soy milk, sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional). Use a fork or knife to gently pierce the top of the pie(s) in the middle (helps let out excess steam as the pie cooks). Bake for a further 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.
7. Serve and nom.

Salt Spicy Fried Tofu

This is one of my favourite recipes. They're really cheap and quick to make once you've got the hang of it. It's a good recipe for people who like to experiment as you can use any mix of herbs and spices you like! This lets you tailor the flavour to whatever food you're eating it with. They make really good burgers if you put them in a burger bun with a bit of salad and maybe a smudge of hummus!

Ingredients:

• Tofu (firm)
• 3-4 table spoons of cornflour
• Various spices (personal preference), a nice mix I often use is plenty of curry powder, gram masala, turmeric, ginger powder, garlic powder, powdered coriander and a bit of chilli powder.
• Salt
• Oil for frying.

Method:

1. Optionally freeze the tofu and thaw it out again. The freezing process changes the texture to be firmer and chewier, which is ideal for this recipe.
2. Slice the tofu into rectangles. It doesn't matter how large so long as they're no more than 1cm thick (ideally about ¾ of a centimetre is good).
3. In a small bowl, mix the cornflour and spices. The amount of cornflour and spices you'll need depends on the amount of tofu you've got. You can always mix up more so it doesn't matter if you run out. You will want to make the mix quite strong about 40-50% volume cornflour and the rest should be whatever mix of herbs/spices you've chosen. Make sure the cornflour is well mixed with the flavourings (pictured below).
4. Place each slice of tofu in the bowl of spices, flipping it over to cover each side with the spice mix.
5. Fry the coated tofu slices in vegetable oil until they go golden brown and crispy. The spice/cornflour coating should turn into a crispy shell of flavour around the tofu pieces. They can soak up quite a lot of oil, so if the pan gets too dry just add a little extra.
6. Serve as a side in a meal or use as bugers. Store any excess in the fridge.

 

4-minute Microwave Cake

This is a great recipe to have in your library for when you've finished a meal but you're still craving something sweet. If you're as lazy as me then the idea of a cake which can be cooked in 4 minutes using only a microwave may sound tempting...

Ingredients:

• 100g Self-raising flour
• 50g Sugar
• 1tbsp Cinnamon
• 1tbsp Nutmeg
• 1tbsp Ginger
• Lots of currants or raisins
• 4tbsp Oil (whichever you like; I use nut usually)
• Small cup of water

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, currents) in a microwavable jug.
2. Add oil and water, stir in to make sure everything is well mixed.
3. Microwave on full power for 4min.
4. Serve with custard, cream or chocolate sauce (http://mylittlecelebration.com/vegan-hot-fudge-chocolate-sauce/). Voila!

There is a bit of guesswork involved in the spices so just use as little/much as you like. It's an easy recipe to experiment with too! For example you can replace the spices with cocoa powder and chocolate chips to make a chocolate cake, or lemon juice for a lemon cake...the possibilities are endless!

Three great dip ideas

These quick and easy dips make an excellent healthy snack. Eat with crudités – pepper, celery, breadsticks, ryvitas, pitta…

Carrot and Sunflower Seed Dip

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 3 dessert spoons sunflower seeds
• A little olive oil
• Curry powder, cumin, pepper
• Garlic and ginger

Method:

1. Boil the carrots with cumin (I cook them in a bowl in the microwave because I’m lazy).
2. Blend with a hand blender with the sunflower seeds and curry powder, pepper, garlic and ginger.

Spicy Kidney Bean and Sweet Potato Dip

Ingredients:

• Tin of kidney beans
• A sweet potato
• Half an onion and garlic
• Curry powder, chilli powder
• A little vegetable oil

Method:

1. Cook the sweet potato– prick holes in it and put in the microwave or oven.
2. Fry the onion and garlic with the spices.
3. Add the tin of kidney beans and the sweet potato, peeled and cut up into chunks.
4. Whizz with a hand blender

Hummus

Ingredients:

• A tin of chickpeas
• Two table spoons of tahini
• A clove of garlic
• Olive oil
• A squeeze of lemon
• Optional – paprika, curry powder for a new flavour

Method:

1. Put all ingredients in a blender and mix.
2. If the mixture is too thick add a splash of water.

Lentil and Tomato Soup

Quick, cheap and healthy soup! Suitable for vegans, freezing and feeding to your friends. Why not toast and slice some pitta bread for dipping?

Time: Start to finish takes 15-20 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Lentils
• Tin of tomatoes
• Garlic
• Half an onion
• Herbs or chilli to flavour
• Vegetable oil
• Optional – mushrooms, aubergine, carrot or other vegetable to add more flavour

Method:

1. Chop the onion and garlic and fry in olive/sunflower oil.
2. Add the lentils and then pour on twice as much hot water as lentils. Cook for 5 minutes with the water boiling.
3. Add the tin of tomatoes after about 5 minutes.
4. Add flavours – salt and pepper, and curry powder or chilli, or herbs.
5. Pop it in a pretty bowl and eat!

Vegetable Korma

Quick and easy vegetable korma recipe! Freezes well, so why not make enough for next week?

Time: approximately 20 minutes from start to finish.

Ingredients (quantities depend on the number of servings):

• Korma sauce
• Potato
• Sweet potato
• Carrot
• Bell pepper
• Oil (for frying)

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Frying pan
• Cooking oil
• Wooden spoon

Method:

1. Peel and chop the sweet potato and boil (high heat) for five minutes in the saucepan.
2. Do the same with the potatoes, adding them to the sweet potatoes. Leave for five more minutes.
3. As the potatoes are being prepared, peel and chop the other vegetables. Put some cooking oil in a frying pan and cook your veggies for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Drain the potatoes and add the fried vegetables to the saucepan.
5. Pour the korma sauce in with the vegetables and cook for however long the instructions recommend.