Is it politically incorrect to eat meat? Do vegetarians really live longer? Why are radical vegetarians like Simon Fairlie, after six years of vegetarianism, now shattering the consensus that we should avoid eating any meat or raising any animals in order to save the planet? In his new book Meat: a Benign Extravagance, he questions the impact of meat-eating on greenhouse gases and says the vegan diet espoused by many environmentalists is “neither sensible nor attainable for society as a whole”. This comes as a blow to Paul McCartney’s calls for meat-free Mondays to combat climate change.

Hogwash or does it makes sense? Let’s not reiterate that vegetables are good for you — we all know they are loaded with vitamins, minerals and fibre — and whether eating more vegetables or meat rocks the ecology of this planet or not. What is all the fuss about?

My meat-lover friends protest that scientists can clone sheep but still cannot grow chicken tikkas on trees. I could become a ‘practising vegetarian’, (an interesting term that I have recently learnt) if I was allowed to eat seekh kababs and burgers. I could absolutely live without chunks of red meat, offal and the oily ‘deep fried chicken steak’ that I recently discovered in Texas. For the uninitiated, Stars and Stripes serves medium rare like daal fry in our part of the world. Anybody, at any time, can dive into a huge platter of chicken fried steak which is actually a disgustingly huge piece of steak, dipped in batter and fried like southern fried chicken. Whatever happened to balance?

Nevertheless, having grown up on a five-day availability of meat schedule where for two days a week the butchers officially shut shop, I am quite used to eating vegetables in all kinds of designer garb as a main dish for two days and as compulsory sides for the rest of the week.

Vegetables were fried till they were reduced to a mush in a pool of orange coloured oil if they were cooked by the paternal side of our family who had roots in Delhi. My mother being a non-Dehli-Punjabi had more love and respect for vegetables so that you could recognise what it was after being lightly cooked in mild spices and little oil.

While potatoes are a favourite with most people, they can be used with other vegetables like tomatoes, onions, spinach and cauliflower to make some divine combinations. A friend whose in-laws are from Sindh does a killer aloo bhindi and that too as a breakfast entrée with parathas.

The trick to cook vegetables tastefully is perhaps to add not all the spices together but just the specific magic ingredient that beings out its flavour. For instance, kalonji or fenugreek with potatoes, garlic and crushed chilli with the generally despised tinday and lauki, tamarind or lemon with arvi, onions to combat the bitterness of bitter gourd, green chillies instead of red with spinach. The sourness of tomatoes goes well with curry leaves, the sweetness of green peas works well with cabbage and so on.

A run of the mill, onion, tomato, ginger garlic, red chillies, turmeric, coriander and cumin powder mix makes all vegetables taste the same which is quite unfair as all vegetables have different textures, colours and tastes to be experienced.

Did you know that sweet potato wedges or fries with chilli sauce instead of ketchup adds a new twist to burgers instead of the regular potato fries with ketchup? For all those who swear by Atkins, vegetables can be consumed instead of carbs which will make you feel energetic instead of bulky and heavy.

If bhujias, cauliflower cheese, veggie cutlets, steamed and cooked vegetables do nothing for you and even tedious Mughlai entrees like nauratan korma or cashew stuffed squash doesn’t turn you on, there are hundreds of salads to fulfil your veg requirements.

Combinations of seasonal vegetables and fruit on a bed of crisp spinach, iceberg or romaine lettuce, topped with nuts or light croutons in a freshly made dressing with natural unprocessed ingredients like honey, fruit juice, balsamic or apple cider vinegar and peanut or olive oil is a power packed meal that provides energy and is full of nutrition. Meat lovers could always add their choice of meat, sea food or poultry and there you are with a healthy, balanced one pot meal, your start to smart living.

Second thoughts, Mr Fairlie?