World Vegetarian Day has been celebrated since 1977, and is officially recognized on the 1st of October.

It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. In the US about one million people a year become vegetarians.

As Michael Lee-Richards recently wrote (North & South, July 2004)

"I’d love to be a vegetarian, and by rights I should be a vegetarian bearing in mind my hopeless addiction to any sad and soppy animal face."

" I have no problems tucking into the recommended two meatless meals a week that the doctor orders. My current favourite is a simple sauté of mushrooms, red onions and thyme piled into phyllo pastry and baked to a crisp. I serve it with Greek yogurt, plum sauce and lashings of black pepper, and of course prefaced by my much anticipated (vegetarian) gin and tonic."

See the World Vegetarian Day Recipes here >