Meat-Free Monday was launched by Paul McCartney and his family to raise awareness about the environmental impact of eating meat and encouraging people to have one meat-free day a week.

The meat and livestock industry produce a massive amount of greenhouse gases, and is responsible for large areas of rainforest de-forestation to clear land for grazing.  Meat production is a particularly inefficient way of producing food, using far more grain, water and land to feed the same number of people as producing grain or vegetables (If you’d like some more statistics and background, click here.)

So meat is bad news for the environment, but we don’t all want to be become vegetarian.

That’s why we at Vanishing Species like Meat-Free Monday: you don’t have to give up bacon sandwiches or your sunday roast, but changing your behaviour just a little will make a difference.  Our philosophy is small changes we can all make and sustain will add up to a big difference.

We can all do with a few more vegetables in our diet, right?  And eating less meat is definitely kinder to animals.  What’s not to love??

Last night, Anna and Kate made Aubergine Towers.  Bloody delicious and they look pretty.  Recipe below.

Aubergine Tower

• 1 large onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 4 handfuls chard, spinach, or similar, rinsed and roughly chopped
• about half a cup of white wine (optional)
• salt and pepper
• 3-4 medium aubergines (eggplants)
• 200g goats cheese (any type is fine, but the type that comes in logs is easiest)
• small amount of olive oil for cooking
• salt and pepper to season

Chop the onion, saute over a medium heat in a little olive oil.  After a minute or 2 add the crushed garlic.

Once onions and garlic are softened, slosh in about half a cup of white wine (optional, but it does taste nice.  And it gives you an excuse to open a bottle on a monday night.)  Allow it to evaporate for a few minutes before adding the tinned tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper and leave on heat to reduce a little while you prepare the aubergines.

Slice the aubergines in circles about 1cm (half an inch) thick.  Heat a frying pan or griddle, add just a little oil to the pan and gentle pan fry or griddle all the aubergines on both sides until they’re cooked (roughly a couple of minutes each side).  Keep any you’ve already cooked warm in the oven set to about 100 degrees C (around 210 degrees F)

Slice the goats cheese into circles.

On each plate, place a circle of aubergine, a circle of goats cheese, and then a dollop of the tomato mixture.  Add to the tower with another round of aubergine, goats cheese and tomato, finishing with a round of aubergine.  (I usually find you need to make 2 or 3 smaller towers per person – otherwise they get too tall and fall over).

Spoon any extra tomato over the top, and if you’re feeling fancy, garnish with a sprig of basil.  Very quick and easy to make and awesomely impressive to serve to guests.

This recipe makes enough for 4.

What can I do?

Go meat-free one day a week (Or more days, if you feel like it!)  Learn some new recipes and spread the word.  Too easy!

Tell us your meat-free stories or share some recipes in the comments section below: