Mexican meals minus the meat...
Wahaca co-founder Thomasina Miers chats to LAUREN TAYLOR about her new recipe book
MEXICAN cuisine might conjure up images of tacos al pastor (with barbeque pork), meat-packed enchiladas or fish-topped tostadas – but Thomasina Miers says, historically, Mexican fare is more heavily focussed on fruit and veg.
“It’s one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and the foundations of the diet are corn, beans, the courgette plant, tomatoes, chilies and wild herbs,” says Thomasina, 46.
Mexico has around 50,000 native plant species (by some estimates), with some 200 varieties of chilli alone, compared with the UK and Ireland’s 1,500 or so.
Protein often came from moles (a traditional sauce made from beans), “enriched with lots of ground seeds”, adds Thomasina.
“The authentic way [to make it] is often very complicated, with 37 ingredients.” (But don’t worry, she has recipes with just eight).
“A lot of the housewives in Mexico make their own vinegars at home out of guava, pineapple or apple,” she notes. The idea of packing your diet with a rainbow of vegetables is the focus of her new book, Meat-Free Mexican.
“I think we’re really beginning to think about food as medicine much more these days, which I think is completely right,” she says. Plus, “people are looking at eating less meat anyway, because environmentally, how much meat we’re eating is a total catastrophe.”
Thomasina – who won MasterChef in 2005 and is the brains behind the Wahaca chain of Mexican restaurants (where 50% of the menus are now vegetarian) – says: “I love that ancient Mexican food and the modern way we’re all kind of starting to eat, feel very in synergy together.”
From plant-based versions of Mexican classics, like beetroot ceviche, celeriac and chard enchiladas, chickpea rancheros and cauliflower tacos, to vegetable dishes that celebrate Mexican spices and flavourings, like chipotle-tamarind baked sweet potato gratin and baked polenta with veracruzan sauce, her eighth cookbook (and her third Mexican-focussed) is, like all of her recipes, for “people who are busy”.
So although some are longer, it all feels do-able for the timestarved generation.
“I’m a working mum,” she says, “I’m perpetually short of time. For me, food has got to fit into busy lives.” There’s even a place for Tex Mex, with her ‘chile non carne’ – a handy family favourite.
“Some people will spend two days making a recipe and that’s great – and I used to do that, before kids,” Thomasina adds with a laugh. “But not everyone has that time.”
The mum-of-three first fell in love with the food of Mexico while travelling there between school and university. She has spent time living in Mexico City and opened her first Wahaca restaurant in London’s Covent Garden in 2007 – now there are 13 across the UK.
Impact on the environment is the main reason Thomasina is flexitarian. For the future of our planet and our kids, we have to eat less meat, she urges. But we can still enjoy food responsibly.
“Cooking should be fun, it should be about feeding the people you love, it should be about pleasure, but within limits.”
“It’s not about having whatever you want, whenever you want, but it is about flavour and taste, and joy,” says Thomasina.
“Why should we eat meat all the time at the expense of species decline and insect extinction and the total destruction of our soil? For the future of mankind, apart from anything else, it doesn’t seem to make sense to me.”
■ Meat-free Mexican: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes by Thomasina Miers is published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £25. Photography by Tara Fisher