Meat- Free Monday Take 3

Yesterday saw the third Monday in February grace us with its presence, and once again I stuck to eating no meat. Today, having got the hang of avoiding meat I thought I would try some different dishes. Rather than just avoiding putting meat on my plate I would try and do something that could be made with meat.

Lunch was inspired by a typical Israeli dish – shakshuka. It is a tomato based dish with baked eggs in it. Add in a few onions, peppers and chillies and you are well on your way to a new favourite for brunch. If I was to make a slight criticism it is quite a wet dish, especially if you keep your eggs nice and runny. However, had I coupled this with a good serving of crusty bread it would have been a winner. I think if you were to make this dish for a number of people, serving it in the dish might be best as it is hard to present elegantly. You can check out my runny egg dish below.

For dinner, I thought I’d make something I’ve made thousands of times before. Burgers. Thousands is no exaggeration I’m from a beef farm that sells some award winning burgers. My dinner, however, is unlikely to be picking up any awards anytime soon! The texture was wrong. For a meat substitute, it was fine tad dry, but it wasn’t the succulent burger I was after. I’d packed it with chilli, cumin and spring onion so I can’t moan about flavour. I’d also spread some chilli mayo on my lightly toasted burger bun. Like all top burger chains, I also had an onion ring in the burger. This was served with homemade potato wedges. If there is on thing I have mastered in the kitchen, it is potato wedges. I knew trying something new for dinner needed a safe option on the side!

 

I’d probably not rush to have these black bean burgers again, the texture was too dry for me, but the mix has left me with two in the freezer. I will have them again, but maybe with a bit more sauce! They did break up a bit when cooking, so I might have to add some moisture to them before cooking again next time to try and hold them together a bit better.

I’m still yet to see any significant changes in my life by avoiding meat one day a week. There has been a benefit, though. This has been adding variety to my diet. It is so easy to plan a meal around the meat. This has changed the way I plan my meals, so it hasn’t been an all bad experience! Next week I will provide a more in-depth view on my takeaways from my month long trial.