By foodie editor Susan Luscombe
I have been thinking and learning a lot lately about ways of reducing my red meat intake. There are several reasons why this is a good idea – for personal health, the health of the planet and for cost-of-living reasons.
The Australian dietary guidelines recommend no more than seven serves of unprocessed lean red meat per week. A standard serve is about 65g of cooked (90-100g raw) beef, lamb, veal, pork, goat or kangaroo.
If you struggle with the idea of reducing your meat intake, consider ways of incorporating small amounts of meat into a dish supplemented generously with plant-based foods. One idea is to supplement beef mince nachos or tacos with canned kidney beans.
Here is another example of a meat-based dish with lots of veggies (adapted from a recipe from SBS Food).
Lamb mince pizza (serves 1)
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ onion
- 1 ripe tomato, chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp sumac
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 90g minced lamb
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp yoghurt
- squeeze lemon juice
- 1 Greek pita flatbread
- toasted pine huts and chopped parsley for garnish
Method
Fry the garlic and onion in 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the chopped tomato and tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Add sumac, paprika, chilli and salt and pepper. Stir in minced lamb and remove from heat.
Brush the flatbread with olive oil and spread over lamb mixture. Bake for 15 minutes.
Mix tahini, yoghurt and lemon juice and drizzle over pizza. Top with toasted pine nuts and parsley.
For an extra serve of veggies, I served the pizza with a salad dressed with olive and lemon juice and included chopped cherry tomatoes, diced cucumber, chopped parsley, coriander and mint.
