Tips and inspiration
- Perhaps you’re the foodie in the friendship group or just love having guests over to share a meal. Serving a low-carbon meal can reduce the environmental impact of what you eat while sharing plant-rich recipes can inspire your friends to do the same.
- Cook your favourite recipes but swap out the meat and dairy for plant-based substitutes.
- Missing that meaty taste? Experiment with umami-rich ingredients. Umami provides savoury depth and is one of the five basic tastes along with salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Plant-based sources of umami include dried mushrooms, seaweed, sun-dried tomatoes, soy sauce, miso paste and nutritional yeast.
- Here are some simple tasty recipes to get you inspired: 10-minute dhal, vegan Vietnamese hot pot, mushroom pie and chocolate fudge cake.
- The meal you’ve prepared is a great starting point to discuss with your dinner guests why eating less meat is important. Bringing up the climate crisis doesn’t have to be a mood killer. Follow these tips on how to talk about climate change. Plus, share the actions you’ve learnt using our tool Find Your Climate Action.
The big picture
For the same amount of protein, beef produces 25 times more greenhouse gas emissions than tofu and 50 times more than beans.
You won’t be alone in opting for plant-based options. Meat consumption in the UK has dropped by 17% between 2008 to 2019.
Sources:
The carbon footprint of foods: are differences explained by the impacts of methane? Our World in Data.
Trends in UK meat consumption, The Lancet, Planetary Health.
Why is this action beneficial?
Learn a new skill
Discovering new plant-based recipes teaches you how to prepare new ingredients and gives you the skills to make more of your everyday meals plant based.
Reduce emissions
Plant-based foods produce lower carbon emissions than meat and dairy. By hosting a dinner party centred around plants you’ll reduce the environmental impact of your food.
Spread the word
Hosting a dinner party is a great way to introduce friends and family to plant-based eating. By showing them how tasty it can be, you might inspire your guests to try a new recipe themselves.
Improve health
Eating more plant-based foods can reduce the risk of heart disease, improve digestion and boost your overall immunity.
Beta
We’re still developing the Find Your Climate Action tool. Watch this space for updates and share your feedback with us to help improve it.
More ways to get involved
Fixing Our Broken Planet
The Find Your Climate Action tool is part of our Fixing Our Broken Planet programme, which is designed to inspire people to take action to help the planet. The programme also includes a new gallery as well as experiences and events.
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