Start guide
Getting started: pick a pace that fits you
You do not have to decide between everything and nothing. Here are the common starting points, from one meal to a full switch.
Ways people start
Most people who change how they eat do it gradually. Each of these is a real, useful step, and any of them can be a destination rather than a stage.
- One dinner a week from the dishes list: pick one that sounds good and cook it.
- One day a week without animal products: a full day is a good way to discover what you would actually eat.
- Meat at weekends only: keep it for Saturdays, Sundays and eating out.
- Swap the biggest item: replacing beef and lamb with chicken, fish or plants cuts most of the environmental impact.
- Replace dairy milk: oat, soy and pea milks are easy swaps with a large footprint difference.
- Vegetarian: no meat or fish; keep dairy and eggs.
- Mostly plant-based: plants by default, animal products occasionally.
- Vegan: no animal products.
What matters most
If your motivation is climate, beef and lamb are the priority. If it is animals, chicken and eggs involve the most animals per meal. If it is health, the biggest gains come from eating more whole plant foods rather than from removing anything in particular.
You do not need to get this perfect. Direction matters more than purity.
Dishes that fit this
Named for how they taste, with the difference each makes against the meal it stands in for.
Smoky black bean burger
Charred at the edges, soft in the middle, with pickled beetroot and a lot of black pepper.
Under a tenth of the land of beef burger.
Golden dal with fried cumin
Soft split lentils finished with cumin seeds fried in oil until they crackle, poured over the top.
About 1.5 times the land of chicken curry.
Chilli peanut noodles
Twenty minutes, one pan, and a sauce of peanut butter, soy and chilli that clings to everything.
About half of the land of chicken noodles.
Slow-roast sweet potato
Roasted until the skin blisters and the inside turns to jam, split open with black pepper and olive oil.
About a sixth of the land of jacket potato with cheese.
Minestrone
Thick with beans and small pasta, better the next day, and it costs almost nothing to make a lot of it.
Under a tenth of the land of beef and vegetable soup.