I like vegetables but I also like meat. Vegetarian or vegan diet is a way to have a healthy life. I want to be healthy but I can not quit eating meat. Is there any solution? A plant-based diet would solve my selfish request.
What is Plant-based food?
Plant-based means “consisting or made entirely of plants, or mainly of plants” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). Hence, the food mainly consists of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and so on. But we can add a few animal products.
Plant-based diet VS high animal based diet
There are reasons to eat more plant-based food than animal based food.
1. High animal-based diet is associated with health problems
A diet with a lot of red meat, especially processed meat increases risks of chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers.
2. Reducing levels of total and LDL cholesterol.
Replacing red meat with a plant-based diet is associated with lower risks of myocardial or cerebral infarction.
3. Abundant nutrients
Some nutrients can be taken only from animal-based diets such as vitamin B12. However, you should eat fruits and vegetables as much as possible due to the variety of nutrients.
Furthermore, a plant-based diet has other benefits. For example, eating less beef will help to stop global warming. Cows generate massive amounts of methane and carbon dioxide. Both of which are potent greenhouse gases and if we switch for a plant-based diets, it could help the environment.
The Future of culinary industry
Many people have changed their diet to eat less or no animal-based food and this number is increasing. In fact, I used to make vegan soup every day in my previous job. So, I think we will see more plant-based food in restaurants’ menus in the future and if I own my restaurant, I will definitely create some vegan or vegetarian meals in my menu.
I am going to introduce one of my favourite plant-based dishes called dal curry.
Dal curry
recipe
| Quantity | Unit of measure | Ingredient/specification |
| 30 | ml | Olive oil |
| 200 | g | Onion, diced |
| 5 | cloves | Garlic, minced |
| 1 | ea. | Tomato, chopped |
| 1 | ea. | Chilli pepper |
| 10 | g | Ground cumin |
| 10 | g | Ground coriander seed |
| 4 | pc | Cardamom |
| 1 | pc | Bay leaves |
| 5 | g | Cinnamon stick |
| 1 | Cup | Yellow lentils |
| 5 | g | Turmeric powder |
| 5 | g | Paprika powder |
| To taste | Salt and black pepper |
- Rinse lentils and soak in water overnight.
- Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat. Add a chilli, a cinnamon stick, and cardamoms, then wait for 2 minutes until starting blister.
- Add onion and cook until softened. Add garlic and a bay leaf and cook for 1 minute.
- Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes become a paste, then add ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric powder, paprika powder, and salt.
- Add lentils and pour cold water until it covers the beans. Simmer until it gets soft.
- Serve with rice with a sprig of parsley or coriander if desired.
I learnt this recipe from an Indian restaurant where I used to work in Japan. But, I changed some ingredients in order to be a little bit healthier. For example, I used olive oil instead of ghee to reduce Saturated fat. Thus, the taste is a little different but I like it. This meal does not need to spend a lot of time to cook and you can easily find ingredients in Canada. I would like to cook it again in order to improve the recipe.
References
Cambridge University Press. (2020). Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/plant-based
The President and Fellows of Harvard College. (2019, August 26). Ask the Expert: Popular plant-based meat alternatives. Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2019/08/26/questions-plant-based-meat-alternatives/
All pictures are taken by Takashi Ohara
tak's kitchen 