Meat free Monday is a weekly awareness campaign to advise people to stop eating meat for just one day of the week. With more awareness to this campaign it would mean that people would start being healthier in what they eat, by less meat being eaten, and it would also help the planet with less animals needing to be killed.
Rice
Over the past couple of weeks we have discussed meat free meals, to give you ideas of what to eat each week, so that you can take part in the meat free campaign. Last week we discussed using pasta, as pasta can be used in many different meals. This week we are going to discuss rice, as similar to pasta you can use it as an ingredient in many different meals. Once you start to sample some of these meals each week you may want to turn completely meat free. Some vegetarians believe that they eat tastier food than meat eaters do and have a more varied diet. In some ways this can be true as vegetarians are more likely to sample different vegetables and overall do have tastier meals. For those who still like the taste of meat or the texture of it, the Quorn brand allows you to still enjoy the taste of your favourite meat such as chicken or sausages, without a single animal needing to be killed for it. Many supermarkets also offer a meat free range which is always worth looking at.
Vegetable Risotto
A vegetable risotto can be a very filling and nutritious meal. You can add whatever vegetables you like to a vegetable risotto such as tomatoes, green beans and spring onions. Simply fry the vegetables in a small amount of olive oil in a pan, heat up your rice then serve the vegetables and the rice mixed together.
Mushroom Risotto
A mushroom risotto can be a very tasty and filling meat free meal. With mushrooms you can decide what kind of mushrooms you would like to use, whether it be one particular type of mushroom or a variety of mushrooms. A mushroom risotto can be easy to make. You can make a mushroom sauce up, with mushrooms, onions, garlic and a white wine sauce, boil up some rice then add the two together to make your meal.
Vegetable Rice
Vegetable rice is a very easy dish to make. Simply fry up your desired vegetables such as peas, carrots, broccoli and peppers, boil some rice and then mix the two together to make the dish. This can be served as a side dish along with some potatoes and quiche, or can be eaten as a main dish which would be very low in calories and a very healthy meal.
Vegetarian Chilli Con Carne
Chilli Con Carne is traditionally made with a meat mince such as beef or pork, however with the meat free Monday campaign we want to eliminate all meat from our dishes to make them meat free. It is easy to swap your mince meat and change it to a Quorn mince to make a Chilli Con Carne meal. This will make the dish completely meat free and will always make it healthier and less calories. Use lots of red kidney beans as well to make this dish even tastier.
Stuffed Peppers
As discussed a couple of weeks ago, stuffed vegetables are a great meat free dish to make. One of the ingredients you can use to make various stuffed vegetables can be rice mixed with chopped up vegetables. This can make a very filling and healthy meat free meal. Peppers are a great vegetable to use as they are large in size, all you have to do is scrape out the inside of a pepper, add your filling then bake in the oven until warm.
Vegetable Spring Rolls
Vegetable spring rolls can be made out of a mixture of rice, carrots, peppers, red cabbage and green beans. You can then wrap your ingredients by using rice paper to keep it all together. You can have this as a cold or a warm dish. If you have it warm then simply fry your vegetables first before placing them into the rice paper.
If you go to many Chinese or Indian restaurants and takeaways you will find that many dishes are rice based, and you will also find many meat free rice meals there too. If you don’t feel like cooking, then you can always choose a meat free rice dish at a local Indian or Chinese restaurant and takeaway. Most importantly, enjoy whatever dish you decide to go for.
