Recipe optimisation
Lower the environmental impact of recipes while keeping nutrition, taste and food cost in view.
Let’s take a Belgian classic: spaghetti Bolognese.
What happens when we gradually replace the minced meat in a classic spaghetti Bolognese?
We calculated four versions of the same recipe, keeping the other ingredients unchanged:
1. 100% beef
2. 50% beef / 50% pork
3. 25% beef / 25% pork / 50% lentils
4. 100% lentils
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Let’s look at how the four recipe variants perform across three environmental impact indicators: climate change, water impact and land use.
Climate change (CO₂e)
Measures the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the ingredients in the recipe, expressed as kilograms of CO₂ equivalents (kg CO₂e).
The 50% lentil version reduces climate impact by 59%, while the fully lentil-based recipe reduces it by 83% compared with the original beef recipe.
Water impact
Measures water consumption while taking local water scarcity into account. Water use in water-scarce regions therefore has a higher impact.
The 50% lentil version reduces water impact by 28%, while the fully lentil-based recipe reduces it by 49% compared with the original beef recipe.
Land use
Reflects how land use for food production affects soil quality and ecosystems, translated into m² of land occupation per year.
The 50% lentil version reduces land use impact by 55%, and the fully lentil-based recipe by 74% compared with the original beef recipe.
Suppose you serve 5000 portions of this dish in one year. You could potentially save 24 tonnes of CO₂e by choosing the 100% lentils variant - the equivalent of 225 000 km driven.
Overall environmental impact
Brings all 14 environmental impact indicators together into one score, including climate change, water impact, land use, eutrophication and resource use. We compare this overall impact with the average Belgian meal, making it easier to see whether a recipe has a relatively low, medium or high environmental impact.
This broader perspective prevents improvements in one area from hiding trade-offs in another.
Spaghetti Bolognaise variants with:
100% beef
50% beef / 50% pork
50% meat / 50% lentils
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100% lentils
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NUTRITION
What happens to nutrition?
Replacing meat with lentils also changes the nutritional composition of the meal. In this recipe, energy, total fat and saturated fat decrease, but so does protein.
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Nutritional values per serving
A 1-to-1 meat-to-lentil swap isn't nutritionally neutral. Depending on the nutritional goals of the meal, quantities or ingredients can be adjusted further.
TASTE
And what about taste?
Less meat also means changes in richness, umami and texture. These can be compensated for with a few simple adjustments.
Build umami
Mushrooms, tomato concentrate, soy sauce or miso.
Add depth
Red wine, balsamic vinegar and herbs.
Think about texture
Combine lentils with finely chopped, well-browned vegetables.
FOOD COST
Replacing meat with lentils can also reduce ingredient costs.
Replacing half of the meat mixture with lentils cuts the cost of the protein component from €2.59 to €1.26 per meal: a 51% reduction.
The fully lentil-based version brings this down to €0.55 per meal, or 79% less than the original.
Based on the ingredient purchase prices used in this calculation. Actual savings depend on supplier prices and quantities.
CONCLUSION
The 100% lentil version comes out on top on most of the metrics we analysed.
It has the lowest environmental impact, energy, total and saturated fat, and food cost. The trade-off? It also contains less protein, and replacing meat completely can affect taste and texture.
So rather than stopping at the ingredient swap, the next step is to optimise the lentil recipe itself: adjusting quantities and adding protein-rich ingredients where needed, while building back flavour, umami and texture.
- 59%
Climate change
- 28%
Water impact
- 55%
Land use
- 51%
Proteine cost
50% meat / 50% lentils compared with the original recipe
Lower impact is the starting point, a recipe that works nutritionally, financially and on the plate is the goal.
Ready to take a closer look at your recipes?
Whether you want to optimise a few recipes or review an entire menu, we can help you identify where changes can make the biggest difference.