Most of us eat too much meat and those people who eat burgers eat way too much. Not that meat is bad for you, except burgers which rot the soul as well as the colon; it’s just a question of quantity.

Not only are we overstressing our digestion, we’re not helping the planet’s climate either. One of the surprising facts in this book’s foreword is that just eating no meat one day a week would cut down our individual annual emissions by the equivalent of a 1,160 mile car trip. No I don’t know how they worked that out either and what emissions do they mean? The ones that almost invariably result from eating a burger?

The Meat Free Monday Campaign was launched by Paul, Stella and Mary McCartney in 2009 and has grown as more people discover the benefit of taking a day off from meat – health wise and budget wise too. It’s also sensible as most people will balk at the idea of going totally cold turkey on meat, but once a week is do-able given the right incentives.

And this book does incentivise through a day’s menu plan of breakfast, lunch and dinner (or supper if you read The Independent) that is relatively easy to achieve and looks pretty tempting.

There are 312 recipes in all from great chefs such as Jose Pizarro, Tom Aitkens, Giorgio Pocatello, Bryn Williams and Yotam Otttolenghi, as well as Twiggy and Kevin Spacey. There are also some from the McCartney family, although looking at Stella you might think being vegetarian makes you miserable.

Breakfast on roasted mushrooms with tomatoes, prepare a packed lunch of Cannellini bean and watercress salad, eat a lunch at home of Fatoush salad with grilled Halloumi and round off the day with a Leek and Ricotta Tart.

There are a lot of very tempting recipes here, culled from around the globe. A few require quite a bit of prep, a lot of pots and pans, and a big store of spices and herbs but it was always thus with veggie food. There is though hardly a dull day, and some sound very good indeed

Don’t like Mondays? You might change your mind with this book.

{ISBN:0857830678}