‘The Happier Meal’ has been cooked up by Soil Association Certificate along with Chef Favourite Tom Hunt, showcasing the very best of nutritional differences organic has to offer. The meal, resembling a popular choice for fast-food lovers, is specially designed to make your body and mind happy, without the unhealthy side effects and unsustainable practices.
Formulated by a powerhouse team of experts, it isn’t just a meal, it’s a delicious exploration into the science of gut health and the benefits of switching to organic ingredients grown in healthier soil.
The Happier meal aims to inspire people to consider swapping an element of their meal to organic and understand that means their meal will be better for them, for nature, for the planet.
The food swaps we make like choosing organic meat, vegetables and pulses over nonorganic, contribute to more sustainable farming systems. Studies have also shown that the nutritional profile of organic food is different, due to the different production methods. For example, cattle raised in organic systems are truly free range, given space to graze and roam on clover-rich grass. They are fed a grass-rich (minimum 60% grass) and GM-free diet and are only given antibiotics if they are sick. As a result, there is more omega-3 in organic meat and dairy products, due to this clover-rich diet.
Organic vegetables have been found to contain higher levels of antioxidants including immune-supporting polyphenols because they are not sprayed with fertilisers to help them grow or with pesticides to remove pests, so therefore they must work harder to increase their own natural defences – no couch potatoes here!
To create the meal, Soil Association Certification brought together a who’s who from the worlds of farming, nutrition, and cooking. Including celebrity eco-chef Tom Hunt; award-winning nutritionist Michaella Mazzoni and organic farmer Ben Andrews. All worked together to explore the journey from farm to fork and how organic ingredients impact your body and mind.
After considering the importance of healthy soil, nature-friendly farming practices, organic benefits and optimised ingredients, the team developed the super tasty meal that provides real and delicious benefits while supporting our gut health.
What’s in the Happier Meal?
Available on the Soil Association website is a handy step-by-step recipe for both the beef-based recipe and the vegan burger recipe and instruction guide. So, it can be easily replicated at home, containing:
The main: An organic beef and bean burger with kimchi or organic plant-based bean and walnut burger
- The side: Organic purple sweet potato fries
- The drink: Organic raspberry kombucha
- And of course, a surprise ‘Happier Meal’ toy.
Packed full of whole foods, beneficial plants, ferments, nutrient-dense meat and dairy that are all organic – this delicious meal will support your gut health as well as being better for the soil and planet.
What are the benefits of the Happier Meal?
The main (beef and bean burger with kimchi): For the planet’s and our own health, we need to reduce how much meat we eat and increase the number of fruits, vegetables and pulses we eat. The beef and bean burger with kimchi recipe is a great way to eat less and better meat. Organic beef delivers up to 50% more omega-3 fatty acids and by combining organic beef with beans, the plant diversity in your meal increases, as well as reducing the amount of meat in the meal.
Fermented foods like kimchi are the gut microbiome’s friend, so adding organic kimchi to the burger not only increases the range of plants in the meal but also supports a healthy gut.
On the main meal, celeb eco-chef Tom Hunt says:
“People can eat it this meal knowing that it has been created from the best organic farming practices that hold the potential to rejuvenate personal and planetary health. And for me that means it’s some of the highest quality food there is.”
Eating polyphenol-rich vegetables such as the purple sweet potatoes supports the daily maintenance of the immune system.
Kombucha, or fermented tea, has been around for thousands of years. When properly brewed it is a delicious, slightly fizzy and refreshing soft drink that is low in sugar and naturally contains probiotics and healthy organic acids.
The Happier Meal toy:
A ‘Happier Meal’ wouldn’t be a happy meal without a toy. The team suggest trying an organic skin care product which makes the skin happy.
Organic Beauty expert Paige Tracey says:
“The skin is the body’s largest organ, and it absorbs much of what we put onto it. Products carrying the Soil Association COSMOS Organic logo not only carry a minimum percentage of organic ingredients but are also guaranteed to be free of many controversial chemicals that have been shown to negatively interfere with our hormones including parabens, phthalates and triclosan.
“Unlike in the world of food, “organic” is an unregulated term in the beauty and wellbeing industry, and products with as little as 1% organic ingredients are allowed to say “organic” on the label! This is why it especially counts to look for our logo on these products.”
Anyone wanting to create their own Happier Meal at home can follow this recipe using all the organic ingredients listed, however even just replacing a few non-organic ingredients for those that are certified as organic, can make a big difference to the nutritional goodness of your meal.
