The Meat Free Monday Cookbook

Is one of your resolutions to eat less meat this year? From the minds behind the Meat Free Monday campaign, this beautifully photographed cookbook will walk you through an entire year of meat-free Mondays. That’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner taken care of….every Monday…for an entire year. Fruits, vegetables, and grains galore. What’s not to love?

• Who wrote it: UK Meat Free Mondays Campaign

• Who published it: Kyle Books

• Number of recipes: 52 menus covering breakfast, a packed lunch, a sit-down lunch, dinner, a side dish, and dessert. So…over 300 recipes to keep us busy!

• Recipes for right now: Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Arugula Pesto, Limoncello and Ricotta Cheesecake, Hot Mozzarella Sandwich, Creamy Broccoli Soup, Crunchy Cauliflower and Macaroni, Crepes with Lemon and Sugar, Pumpkin and Tofu Laksa, Lentil, Chickpea, Cheddar, and Onion Burgers

• Other highlights: Honestly, with over 300 recipes in this book, I figured surely a few of the menus must contain repeats. And yet, as I’ve been flipping through the book, I can’t find a single one. Granted, some recipes are much simpler than others, like Avocado Toast and Stir-Fried Cabbage, but still. There’s zero risk of getting bored with these menus.

I really love the menu-driven approach, too. It makes the whole idea of eating meat-free every Monday — or eating more meat-free meals in general — feel a whole lot more approachable. And these recipes sound seriously delicious! Some of them are a little more labor-intensive than can conceivably be accomplished on a Monday evening after work, but it’s totally within reason to go about about prepping ingredients or making whole recipes on Sunday afternoon for Monday’s meals.

While this cookbook is driven by the idea of consuming less meat, reducing our impact on the environment, and maintaining a healthier diet, I appreciate that it doesn’t become a soapbox for those social issues. We’ve all heard these messages again and again, but sometimes lack the knowledge of how to put the concepts and theories into action. This cookbook is about action. It makes its case for the core issues and then steps aside and lets the menus and recipes work their magic. Tasty, tasty magic.

• Who would enjoy this book? Cooks wanting to integrate more meat-free meals into their rotation, vegetarians looking for new meal inspiration, busy cooks who work well with meal plans.

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: The Meat Free Monday Cookbook: A Full Menu for Every Monday of the Year from The Meat Free Monday Campaign

• Visit the website: Meat Free Mondays

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.

(Images: Emma Christensen)