Advice from vegetarians needed please!

[tkband3]

We're having some friends over for lunch on Sunday. The husband is veggie, although he eats fish, but the rest of the family eats meat (wife and 2 DCs). We all eat meat and my 3 DDs are all coeliac so gluten-free.

So I'm racking my brains over what to cook - normally for Sunday lunch, I would do a big roast, which my girls love and I think would go down well with the other children too. My girls will eat fish if forced, but aren't that keen - they definitely wouldn't eat anything like a fish pie (unfortunately) and anything involving plain fish normally turns into a stressful meal.

Anyway, my question is, would vegetarians be offended if I did a roast for 8 of the 9 people there, and bought a veggie pie or something similar (a nice one, not just a greggs cheese and onion pasty or something ) which the husband can have with the vegetables everyone else will be having with the roast? Or should I do something fishy for the adults and end up doing sausages or something similar for the children that I know they will eat?

I don't want to offend anyone, but at the same time, I only have a small kitchen and one oven, so can't be doing all sorts of different dishes to serve at the same time!

[murphyslaw]

What about a big veggie goulash - my kids love the creamy sauce served with rice. Otherwise - I dont think it would be rude to cater for 8 and give the awkard veggie one a separate thing!

[Lizzzombie]

What about a curry? you could do meat/fish or veggie dishes depending on each diet. Also a win with coeliacs too!

[tkband3]

Thank you for your suggestions. Unfortunately, none of the children is keen on stuff in sauces, otherwise the goulash or curry ideas are fab - certainly the kind of thing I'd make if the meal was kid-free .

I'm going with the roast I think and will do lots of yummy roast vegetables to go with it.

[tearinghairout]

I was a veggie for 13 years, and I think your suggestion of the roast plus a pie or whatever is a very good one.

It's probably best not to make a big fuss. In his position I would've been quite happy to have had all the veggies plus, say, a piece of cheese as protein. But a little individual pie will be nice. Use veggie gravy granules

[Baconsarnie]

A big roast, with a separate veggie pie/quorn steak would be perfect for my veggie DP. He wouldn't be offended at all, he'd be made up. Go with that, but don't forget to do separate gravy (instant veggie gravy granules are great) for the veggie.

[thirtysomething]

or you could do a separate batch of the roast veg as veggie kebabs with halloumi or fet and litle cherry toms basted with a thyme oil if he eats dairy stuff?

Or plonk roasted veg inside a puff pastry case (a quarter of a block of ready-made puff-pastry) and do a kind of tart with the veg you're already doing for everyone else?

[tkband3]

dittany, I just sent my friend a text to see if he'd prefer a veggie pie or a piece of salmon . But I also like the idea of the veggie kebabs with halloumi - I know he likes halloumi.

Thank you for the reminder re the gravy - in the past when I've done something similar, I've always felt bad that the veggie option looked a bit dry, so will definitely get some veggie gravy granules this afternoon.

And it's chocolate pavlova for pudding, which I know everyone will like .

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[BibiBOO]

I've been veggie for almost 20 years and I can't tell you the amount of times I've eaten a Sunday roast without the meat or gravy. I'd be made up if you did a veggie pie and gravy for me. I think that wold be fine. If you're cooking for all those people, don't kill yourself makng several different things, keep it simple.

[nickelbabe]

our sunday dinners are the same for everyone apart from the meat.

make sure you make the gravy from veg water (bisto gravy powder is perfect) and you can do swiss bouillion powder for the coeliacs.

and cook the roast veg (inc potatoes) in vegetable oil.
make some stuffing too (you can do stuffing using rice insted of breadcrumbs for the coeliacs).
i normally don't have a meat substitute because i have so much of the veg, potatoes and stuffing, but you could offer linda maccartney sausages or sausages from Cauldron (which are veg bassed so wouldn't offend any veggies who don't like meat substitutes like quorn {which i personally wouldn't touch with a bargepole})

[theDeadPirateRoberts]

Speaking as a veggie, I've often found it hard to get hold of a vegetable when eating out - people worry so much about providing protein, or just do a variant on bread/pasta and cheese...

If it were me, I'd love a huge thing of yorkshire - made with wheat/gluten free flour obviously, lots of veg, covered in veg gravy. [dribble]

[nickelbabe]

exactly, deadpirate : so many times you go otu to dinner and all the meat eaters have proper food and you're left there with a (usually cold) mushroom puff pastry. i mean, yum.

[overmydeadbody]

I'm with thirtysomething, just do loads and loads of roast veg or some veg and cheese kebabs for him to have with the roast.

Do some veg gravy too. Or make/buy a vege pie meat alternative thingy for him to have with all the vege parts of the roast.

When my veggie sis comes over and we do a roast I make her some lovely nut rissoles to have with the roast potatoes, roast veg, gravy, stuffing and yorkshire puds, and I also make a little cauliflower cheese dish too (I love cauliflower cheese with roast potatoes)

[overmydeadbody]

at chocolate pavlova

[theDeadPirateRoberts]

btw - olive oil is as good as goose fat for crisping roast potatoes [further dribbling]

nickelbabe we went to a 'gourmet' hotel recently, the meat-eaters were gasping over the delicate flavours and I had a plate of liquid mushroom risotto, looking not unlike the cowpat i'd failed to sidestep earlier. [sigh]

[overmydeadbody]

no no! normal vegetable oil or sunflower oil or rapeseed oil is much better for roasting potatoes, olive oil burns at a lower temperature than other oils and quite frankly it is a waste to roast things in olive oil as it is best enjoyed uncooked (imvho).

[theDeadPirateRoberts]

'tis the low burn point makes it crispy though...

[moosemama]

We are a veggie family but love our Sunday dinners. We have a wide variety of vegetables, tonnes of roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips and plenty of yorkshire puds, stuffing and veggie gravy.

We usually just have vegetables, stuffing and yorkshire puddings, but we love ambledown pies for a treat. They are really tasty and well worth the price.

I would never be offended by just being given vegetables and yorkies at someone else's house. The only time it has ever bothered me, is when someone only cooks their usual amount of vegetables and most of them are eaten by the meat eaters. I would make sure to do plenty of extra vegetables and roasts potatoes in particular (but then roast potatoes are one of my favourite comfort foods).

[janeite]

Do a roast for everybody and then roast a butternut squash for him - halve it, scoop out the seeds roast it for a while and stuff it with some fried onions and peppers and maybe mushrooms, some fresh rosemary and some cheese and then roast again until the cheese is all melty. Yum. Much nicer than a quorn pie!

[janeite]

Ambledown pies are vastly superior to quorn - unfortunately nowhere near us seems to stock them anymore.

[grumpypants]

we always do a sunday roast and the kids and I have veggie sausages while dh (not veggie) has meat. Everything cooked in sunflower oil, Bisto onion gravy, so really we are catering for the awkward meat eater! Plus totally agree that I would happily go to a carvery, eat the veggies and potatoes etc rather than be palmed off with some manky risotto instead.

[nickelbabe]

hhhhmmmmmm, janite, the butternut squash roast sounds lovely!

[jemart]

We had a similar situation when some of DH's friends came for dinner - wife was veggie - so we did a nut roast. Was well recieved, it turned out okay considering I'd never made it before. Veggie gravy is so bland though, bleurgh!
I reckon as long as you have a good variety of veg to choose from it will be fine.

[moosemama]

I add veggie worcester sauce to veggie gravy to give it some oomf. They sell it in Tesco.

[tkband3]

Thanks so much for all the input. I've bought a Higgidy Pie, which I've had before and I thought it was yummy. I will be doing lots of roast pots, sweet pots, butternut squash, red onions and parsnips as well as beans, broccoli and carrots so hopefully that will be enough . And I got some Bisto veggie gravy granules - presumably, as he eats fish, adding some standard worcester sauce to it to spice it up a bit would be ok?

Right, now to make the meringue .