Although I’m not vegetarian, I also don’t feel like eating meat every night. So I do cook quite a few meat free dishes. Meat can get quite expensive, especially as I prefer to buy local, free range, top quality meat. I would rather eat meat less often and buy the best I can get, than eat cheaper/mass produced and imported products.
Meat free Mondays is an international campaign aimed at encouraging us to take a day off meat and raise awareness of the personal health and environmental benefits of reducing our meat consumption. A number of Australia’s celebrity chefs and cooks are involved, including Maggie Beer and Kylie Kwong. Some of the facts quoted on the campaigns website include:
- Australians are some of the world’s biggest meat eaters, with many consuming double the global average.
- 9 out of 10 Australian adults aren’t eating the recommended amount of vegetables.
- Health authorities recommend against eating large amounts of meat.
- Australian livestock industries are responsible for approximately 10% of our total greenhouse gas emissions.
- Livestock production accounts for 70% of all agricultural land around the world.
- Meat production is water intensive.
While I don’t limit myself to eating meat free dishes only on Mondays, I think anything that encourages people to add meat free meals to their diet and raises awareness of the benefits of a meat free meal once a week is a great initiative. With that in mind, here is the latest meat free dish I have tried. I added in a pinch of cayenne pepper to the recipe and I think the addition of the heat from the cayenne works well with the sweet and creamy pumpkin.
I also used filo pastry from the fridge rather than the freezer section for the first time, and found this so much easier to work with than frozen filo.
