Meatless Days

CEBU, Philippines — In the Philippines, being a mainly Catholic country, the Lenten season means meatless days. The more pious in the population even go further and take “meal-less” days – they go fasting. All others still eat, but they abstain from eating meat.

Nowadays, most people understand why going on meatless days is good. “It’s good for the spirit,” the religious would say. It’s also good for the body, since eating meat leaves substances that ultimately become toxic for the body.

Health gurus are one in preaching that, by nature, humans are not supposed to be meat eaters. They point out the fact that humans don’t have sharp teeth for chewing meat, like lions and other carnivorous animals do. And the human intestinal system is much longer compared to that of carnivorous animals, whose intestines are short in order to excrete consumed meat quickly; otherwise they would get poisoned by toxic substances emitted by decomposing meat the longer it stays inside. 

Fruits and vegetables are the better alternative diet. But anyone these days would quickly pass over two bananas for a small piece of pork chop. The human race has since completely fallen in love with meat. 

It has now come to a point that people need to be obligated to hold back from eating meat, even just for a short period. The Lenten season is one example. Since it has been a long held tradition, everyone tends to follow.

No one complains. At least abstaining from meat is a much lighter sacrifice than total fasting. Besides, especially with vegetables, there’s a lot of ways to make a meatless diet just as delicious.

An expertly cooked vegetable dish can be a full meal by itself, with little rice of course. There’s “Ginisang Gulay,” for example. It’s a simple sautéed vegetable dish consisting of eggplant, okra, squash, ampalaya, string beans and other vegetables as available.

“Ginisang Gulay”

Ingredients:

1 medium-size ampalaya, cored and sliced

6 to 8 pieces okra

1 cup sliced tomatoes

8 pieces string beans sliced in 2-inch pieces

1 medium Chinese eggplant

¾ cups vegetable broth

1 medium onion, sliced

1½ cups cubed squash (calabaza)

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp cooking oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

• Heat oil in a pan.

• Sauté garlic and onion.

• Add the tomato when the onion gets soft. Cook for two minutes.

• Add the squash. Stir and cook for another two minutes.

• Put the eggplant, okra, string beans, and ampalaya in the pan. Stir fry for three minutes.

• Pour in the vegetable broth. Cover and cook for five to seven minutes.

• Remove the cover. Add salt and pepper to taste.

• Transfer to a serving plate.

Serve and enjoy!