What if I post an easy, vegan recipe every single Monday? I’ll do it early enough that you can pick up the ingredients on your way home from work… Well I just missed my UK folks today but from next week – earlier, I swear! I promise it will be tasty & not super time intensive – because Mondays are already tough enough.

Imagine how much we can do for the environment personally by participating in Meatless Mondays!

Forgoing one burger a week has the environmental impact of taking your car off the road for 320 miles, according to the Environmental Working Group. And if your family of four skips meat and cheese for an entire day each week, it’s like taking your car off the road for five weeks.

Imagine the personal impact on your health!

Going Meat free will reduce your risk of many chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and obesity.

Sounds like a great plan to me! I eat vegan every day and on Monday I am usually thinking about dinner by noon anyway so I may as well share my recipes and together we can fight for a better health for us & our planet.

So here’s the first one:

Vietnamese Hot & Sour Soup

Makes enough for 4

Ingredients:

200g tofu
200g prawns
1 tablespoon thai red curry paste
3 tablespoons tamarind paste
2 tablespoons sesame oil to fry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons sugar
a sprinkle salt
1 litre water
1 each medium chopped
onion
tomato
100g each
mushroom
baby corn
sugar snap peas
pineapple
bean sprouts to garnish
1 stick celery sliced
1 chilli sliced
2 spring onions sliced to garnish
30g torn coriander to garnish

In a pot on medium heat fry tofu, onion & prawns. Add curry paste, stirring to dissolve. Add water, tamarind paste, soy sauce, lime juice, sugar & salt – check broth flavour and adjust to suit. Turn down to low and add in mushroom, corn, tomato, chilli, peas, celery & pineapple. They barely need to cook at all, you still want them to be fresh and pretty crunchy. Pour in a bowl and top with bean sprouts, coriander & spring onion.