The Coronation of King Charles III is just weeks away.
Preparations and rehearsals are well underway for the ceremony steeped in pageantry and tradition that will see our new monarch crowned.
Ahead of the event, the King announced a replacement dish for the traditional coronation chicken many may have been preparing for their local street party.
A recipe for a ‘coronation quiche’ – a French-inspired dish made with broad beans, tarragon, spinach, and cheese – was posted by the couple’s official social media accounts on Monday.
They were said to be hopeful people would share the dish as part of Coronation Big Lunches on Sunday, May 7, the day after Charles is formally crowned at Westminster Abbey.
The announcement has left many people wondering if the King is vegetarian or vegan – and here’s what we know about his diet, and the wider Royal Family.
Is King Charles III vegetarian or vegan?
Although the King has not fully ditched meat or dairy, he does promote a vegan diet by enjoying days without either.
The monarch previously revealed that each week he goes one day without dairy, and two without meat.
‘The business of what we eat of course is important,’ he said in 2021 while appearing on the BBC’s Big Interviews talking about the environment.
‘For years I haven’t eaten meat and fish on two days a week and I don’t eat dairy products on one day a week.
‘Now I mean that’s one way to do it – if more did that you would reduce a lot of the pressure on the environment and everything else.’
He went on to talk about how where our meat comes from is important, and that cutting down on mean eases the ‘industrialised approach’ that causes ‘huge pressures and damage’ to the environment.
Are other members of the Royal Family vegetarian or vegan?
It’s not just King Charles doing his bit to go green, with other members of the Royal Family opting to adopt plant-based diets on different days of the week.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, follow a vegan diet during the week, with Meghan only eating organic food it has been reported.
A source told Life & Style: ‘Meghan only eats organic food and she and Harry have even built their own vegetable garden at Frogmore. Harry’s picked up gardening tips from his dad, [Prince] Charles.’
Speaking to Best Health in 2015, Meghan opened up on practicing a vegan lifestyle.
‘I try to eat vegan during the week and then have a little bit more flexibility with what I dig into on the weekends,’ she said.
‘But at the same time, it’s all about balance. Because I work out the way I do, I don’t ever want to feel deprived.
‘I feel that the second you do that is when you start to binge on things. It’s not a diet; its lifestyle eating.’
Princess Beatrice has also adopted a vegan diet, according to Live Kindly, and in 2019 she planned a vegan dinner party for her 31st birthday.
On the other hand, the King’s sister, Princess Anne, has clashed with her brother over the topic of vegan diets.
‘You can’t have a world without livestock,’ she told Australian Women’s Weekly in 2020.
‘They are a necessary and very constructive part of our expectation to feed ourselves.
‘Perhaps my biggest irritation is single-issue groups…We need livestock as part of the genuine mix that keeps land healthy.’
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