Now, I don’t recall ever being a particularly fussy eater growing up (aside from sprouts, because, well they’re sprouts). I like to think I’ve always eaten a pretty well-balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetable in it. But yes, I also eat meat, have dairy milk on my cereal and a boiled egg with my buttered soldiers, all things that you won’t catch on the menu at Milk & Honey.
When the Milk & Honey menu moved to being fully plant based and vegan friendly, we also made the decision to try and eat more plant-based meals at home. We made a conscious choice that at least once a week (if not more) our main evening meal would be plant based and we would reduce the amount of meat we use at home in general.
So, what does that look like, have we had to go out and find all new vegan recipes? Is the food a bit boring without meat in it? Have we had to buy some fancy meat replacement product? To all the above, No.
Lots of what we ate already could easily be “veganified” by just literally leaving the meat out of the recipe, seems obvious doesn’t it. One of our favourite meals to cook at home is a Chilli-con-Carne, but its pretty easy to make it “Chilli-sans-Carne” and just don’t put any mince in it and chuck in an extra tin of beans. Same goes with a curry, we will quite often cook a curry, but its easy enough to not put any chicken (or any other meat for that matter) in a curry, and just stick some extra veggies in (big fan of cauliflower in a curry!).
When it comes to alternatives, I think there are some great ones out there, if I’m out and see Seitan on a street food menu anywhere then I’ll probably go for that, and I’m not the biggest fan of chicken on-the-bone so cauliflower “wings” always get my vote. I don’t want to bash any particular product/brand, but for me things like vegan cheese and products that call themselves “vegan-chicken-style-pieces” and other “fake meat’s” just aren’t for me.
I have heard people say that they think going vegan costs more, and some of the “fake meat” products can be a bit pricey compared to their meaty counterpart, but I honestly don’t think that has to be the case. The chilli recipe I mentioned above I reckon costs about £6.50 to make a “meaty” batch of 6 decent portions. If you replaced the mince with a tin of mixed beans it works out about £4.25 for the same number of dinners. Most of the supermarkets also now sell some kind of “wonky-veg”, which is not only cheaper but also potentially saves food from going to waste just because it’s not “perfect”.
I don’t think I would ever go fully vegan (I like cheese too much!), but choosing to have more plant-based meals doesn’t have to be difficult or more expensive, and it certainly doesn’t have to be boring.
Chris Collins
