Cut meat with whole foods and flavour hits
Like it or not, raising animals on an industrial scale isn’t planet-friendly, and the voices urging us to eat less meat is getting louder.
Whether it’s the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the ‘‘choose protein foods that come from plants more often’’ advice in new dietary guidelines, the message is the same: people in wealthy countries need to trim their meat consumption.
So how can ameat lover go from more to less? Tweaking familiar meals to include less or no meat is a good start – and if zero confidence around cooking with plant protein foods like legumes holds you back, just open a tin of lentils, chickpeas or beans to replace or reduce meat.
Think burritos with a spicy mix of black beans, garlic, mushrooms and corn, or spaghetti tossed in a tomato based sauce with lentils – or curries and tajines made with less meat and canned legumes to make up the difference. Don’t forget nuts. Try raw cashews to replace some, or all, meat in stir-fries.
‘‘One of the main barriers for meat lovers is expecting dishes without meat to taste boring,’’ says dietitian Ellie Bullen, author of Elsa’s Wholesome Life, a collection of meatless recipes with fad-free nutrition advice.
Bullen uses ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, seaweed, tamari, liquid smoke, and coconut aminos to create the savoury, umami flavour that makes meat so irresistible to so many people.
Other flavour boosters are spice mixes that make it easy to create meals from Middle Eastern, Latino or Indian cuisines that have turned legumes into star dishes for centuries. Mushrooms of any kind are flavour enhancers and a decent stand-in for chorizo or bacon in big breakfasts. Large portobello mushrooms, drizzled with olive oil and baked in the oven, can also satisfy the need to bite into a piece of something meaty – as can firm tofu.
What about all the plant-based mince, burgers and schnitzels in the supermarket? ‘‘Eating these foods once in awhile is fine, but not as a main stay of the diet,’’ says Sydney-based dietitian Dr Kate Marsh.
‘‘They’re often very processed or high in sodium so if you’re reducing meat for health reasons they’re not as good a choice as whole food sources ... like legumes, nuts and tofu.’’
Still, some products are less processed than others. Her advice is to read the label and look for those based on lentils, chickpeas, beans or tofu.
‘‘Choose products with less sodium. The recommended upper limit of sodium is 2300mg daily ... and some products have 600mg or more in a single serve.’’
But knowing that processed food production also uses up fossil fuels, how environmentally friendly is plant meat? It’s hard to know.
‘‘Many new plant-based meat alternatives are made from complex and proprietary recipes of highly processed ingredients and it’s difficult to independently assess their environmental credentials,’’ says Dr Brad Ridoutt, principal research scientist with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO’s department of Agriculture and Food, adding that most of what we know so far is from research funded by food companies themselves.
‘‘These products may avoid some methane emissions, but may increase CO2 and N2O emissions so the net benefit isn’t always clear.’’