< Back to Main Blog Posted: Sep 2025

From Field to Fork: How More Nature-Friendly Beef Made It Into Our Lasagne

This week our new Recipes for Change Lasagne hit our freezers, good news because it’s better for us, better for the planet, better for farmers … yet it costs the same as our Lasagne al Forno and tastes fantastic.

The story behind it began two years ago, in a field in Wales, when our leadership team went to meet Aled and James Evans, two beef farmers with a bold idea: to rethink the way beef is farmed.

Why Beef Matters

Beef has a big environmental impact. Every year we look at our farm-to-fork carbon emissions at COOK, and beef alone makes up about 30% of the total. That means it’s also one of the biggest opportunities we have to make a difference.

Enter Aled and James, along with Alastair, who together set up Grassroots. Their mission? To put nature back at the heart of farming.

Farming with Nature, Not Against It

So, what’s different about their approach? Here are just a couple of the examples Alastair gave us:

Diversity, not monoculture. Instead of grazing cows on one type of grass, they graze them on a rich mix of herbs, legumes and grasses - around 15 different species in one field - echoing how nature works in the wild. That biodiversity makes for healthier land and animals.

Managed grazing. Rather than leaving cattle in one field all year, the herd moves paddock to paddock, grazing one for a couple of days before moving on. It’s a modern-day version of how predators once kept herds moving, and it turns cattle from being a strain on the land to a benefit. Their manure becomes “probiotics for the soil,” feeding it with nutrients and helping biodiversity thrive.

Bringing Nature-Friendly Beef to COOK

After that farm visit, we knew we wanted a/ this beef on our menu and b/ to help grow demand for it. The challenge? Cost. Farming this way produces less meat per acre and takes more time and work, so it’s inevitably more expensive.

So, we started small, with our new Recipes for Change Lasagne. Procurement Director Tony Mayer (who jokingly cast himself as the “bad guy” in this story) set the challenge: how do we make this lasagne affordable, without compromising taste?

A Recipe Reimagined

That’s where Development Chef George came in. Simply swapping in nature-friendly beef would increase the lasagne’s price, so to keep the cost the same, he rebalanced the recipe:

Slightly less meat protein
More veg: chestnut mushrooms and speckled lentils
A little less béchamel and grated cheese on top

The result? A lasagne that costs the same as before but is better for you and has a smaller environmental footprint.

We blind-tasted the new recipe alongside our much-loved al Forno Lasagne and brought in focus groups. The feedback?

“I wouldn’t have realised there’s less meat.”

“Plenty meaty, lovely sauce, terrific crisp top. Nice to know there’s a feel-good option.”

The Proof’s in the Pudding

Our aim is simple: to show that you don’t need to compromise on taste or cost, whilst making food better for people and planet.

As of this week, our new Recipes for Change Lasagne is in our shops, alongside our others. So why not do your own taste test? Try them side by side and tell us what you think, we’d be really grateful for your feedback: change@cookfood.net