Meatless Monday, Tofu Tuesday or Wild Mushroom Wednesday: I may have already lost a few of you, but adopting a vegetarian diet — even if it's just a day or two out of the week — can lead to significant savings on your grocery bill.
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"For some reason, people think eating plant-based costs more, but it costs less," said Chef Nedra Banks.
Banks is making it her business to save her clients money. Chef Nedra runs Grub Bank, a meal-prepping company that focuses on plant-based, whole foods.
"If you were to have a client that's plant-based versus a client that wants meat, what would the price difference be?" I asked her. "Even when you're shopping, what would that look like?"
"It would look like a 30 grocery run to a farmers market for a week, versus $100, maybe getting two meals for a week," Chef Nedra replied.
Her method is to use the same ingredients for multiple meals. Like one night, you make a stir-fry, and the next day you would make a soup with the same veggies.
Some other easy swaps:
- How about instead of Chicken Curry, you use Chickpeas?
- A Lentil marinara instead of beef
- King Oyster mushrooms instead of scallops
But trust me when I say, lack of meat doesn't mean lack of flavor.
I'm trying Chef Dunny Davis' Jackfruit wings: they are delicious and inexpensive to make. You can get a can of jackfruit for as low as $2. That one fruit can be the source of many meals.
"Let's say a big one pork, carnitas," Chef Davis said. "Like if you used to grabbing that, get that jackfruit cook that down, let it cook down season it well its going to take on a shredded like texture where you can play around with it and make tacos, you can make quesadillas, you can make even with a jackfruit roast if you want to get Sunday famous with it."
Also, these BBQ ribs, which if you're wondering, also get the Kiara stamp of approval, as well as this chickpea salad, which mimics tuna fish.
"Just making it available and affordable," Dunny said.
If you want to try some of these meatless options to help you save some money, check out the recipes at this link.
