Nothing brings history alive quite the same way as food. It provides not only a visual aid, but one you can touch, smell and taste, too. Maybe that's what makes the family dinner table such a good place to tell a story. After all, you have a captive audience for at least as long as it takes them to finish their meal.
A story I've come across recently, and one that's certainly worthy of storytelling, is the origin of Meatless Monday. While the term has been more recently known in the past decade or so, the practice of forgoing meat one day a week actually reaches back to World War I, and came about for a completely different reason.
By the time the United States entered World War I, citizens of allied countries, including Belgium and France, were starving, as farmers were sent to the front lines and their farms were turned into battlefields. In an effort to help feed our allies and our own troops overseas, the U.S. Food Administration asked Americans to cut back on meat, fat, sugar and wheat by participating in Meatless Tuesdays and Wheatless Wednesdays. More than 11 million American families pledged to take part in the campaign, which resulted in a 15 percent reduction in home food consumption during the 12 months from 1918 to 1919.
The term Meatless Monday was coined in the early 2000s, this time in effort to get Americans to cut back on meat for health reasons. Monday was chosen as it was assumed to be the day people are most likely to start new diets or end bad habits.
Whatever the reason, eliminating animal protein once a week is a great way to steer your family away from the standard "meat and potatoes" and introduce a few new healthful dishes into the dinner rotation. One that's become a much requested meat-free meal in my family is falafel, a Middle Eastern fried or pan-fried patty made of ground chickpeas mixed with a variety of herbs, spices and other aromatics that is often served in pita bread.
My version is pan-fried and served in a whole-wheat tortilla with chopped tomatoes and cucumbers and a drizzled with a sauce made from tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds, lemon juice and Sriracha, a spicy chile sauce. If your entire dining crew doesn't like a dish that hot, feel free to leave the sriracha out and just serve the sauce on the side.
The crispy falafel patties are equally wonderful served on a salad for those who are trying to bring both Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays (without the tortilla) back in fashion. Either way, it's a good story and a delicious one, too.
Meredith Deeds is a cookbook author and food writer from Edina. Reach her at meredith@meredithdeeds.com. Follow her on Twitter @meredithdeeds.
