Plant served as a meal (3)
I believe the answer is:
tea
'meal' is the definition.
(tea is a type of meal)
'plant served as a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'te' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tea that I've seen before include "Eg, gunpowder, pekoe" , "Assam, e.g." , "A light meal - eat up" , "Assam, for instance" , "US party" .)