Catering for vegans

I think you’re going wrong by trying to buy food labelled as vegan rather than just getting things that happen to be vegan. For breakfast things like bread, peanut butter, jam, baked beans, fruit, margarine.

for meals try think of things where you can have one meal with a meat and vegan alternative: pasta with two different sauce options, tacos with a selection of different fillings (build your own style), curry’s, roast with something out of the vegan freezer to replace the meat.

For desert, fruit and sorbet

i don’t think they should need to bring their own food

Dinner for free yes, special dietery requirements no!

@WendyA22 " I got 2 baskets and gave her one for her stuff. She had no choice but to pay for her own stuff, but really they'd been cheeky expecting it for nothing on all the other visits."

Well, I expect to get my dinner for free if I go to someone's house! Very odd to expect a guest to pay!

@PieandPotatoes YABU

Vegan food can be so simple.

Just do a bean casserole and serve it with ciabbatta.

You can then use exactly the same recipe and put sausages in it for your husband.

My exes family were like this. After several stays I waited until they arrived and said to my ex sister-in-law that we needed to go shopping for her stuff as obviously she knows what she can buy/eat. I got 2 baskets and gave her one for her stuff. She had no choice but to pay for her own stuff, but really they'd been cheeky expecting it for nothing on all the other visits.

My daughter has a husband and a child who have dietary issues and she always brings appropriate food for them.

I’m not a vegan, I happily eat meat but I think you’re being too simplistic.

Eating a certain way becomes a way of life. It would be cruel to deny someone that.

Hence why prisons have to cater to vegetarians etc.

Tell them to bring their own expensive vegan stuff then, sausages, milk, cheese, as you don't want to be left with stuff you won't eat, thats fair enough.

Then cook stuff that works both ways, sausage and mash, just split it and add their vegan butter/cheese/milk to theirs and your butter/cheese/milk etc to yours.

All sorts of things that start with minced beef you could do the minced beef seperately and then split the veggie/tomatoey/oniony base and add the browned mince to your portion. As all those things tend to simmer for a while yours will still taste just fine and you can throw a handful of dry lentils into theirs.

If they object - tell them not to bother coming, in hindsight you're too busy/tired/just can't be arsed.

If they fail to bring with them what they need then they'll just have to have whatever the base meal is, without the meat/meat substitute.

They do sound like absolute dicks though so I think I'd tell them I'm away that weekend.. for the next decade at least. It's nothing to do with them being vegan, it's entirely to do with them being twats.

What's wrong with the question?

When you stay with them do they provide non vegan food inline with your dietary requirements?

Why do people unable to think critically always come on and ask ridiculous questions like this ^^?

I don't think they would provide meat etc because they wouldn't buy/store/cook meat for any reason themselves or others.
Seems to be a complete lack of understanding of what being a vegan is about on a lot of this thread.

Also, your husband could be a bit more helpful and flexible and eat a meat-free meal just once in a while!

Never too late just ask.

I'm veggie but eat a lot of vegan meals. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 5 vegan meals. People who aren't veggie or vegan seems to have difficulty making something that everyone likes. I don't expect someone to cater to me and would show up with my own milk and cheese but I agree with one person here who said your issue is with the friendship, not the meal preparation. BBC good food has dozens of great recipes that you can add meat to for your other half 🤷🏻‍♀️

This! You don't need to go over the top. Vegan cheese is something many vegans dislike and avoid as too synthetic. Chickpeas are wonderful, hummus, rice with veggies. Vegan crackers if there's wine etc etc..
Also asking people to bring something isn't at all rude, it can be like a fun thing to do bring your favourite dish or something like that

Our vegan friends offered to bring their own food, but as I invited them, I felt it incumbent on me to provide the food. I also like a challenge. I think if it had been for a stay over a few days, that would have been too much for my meat-eating husband and I'd have had to hide the dog!

I would hope that your 'friends' come for your company & not for free food/meals. When you stay with them do they provide non vegan food inline with your dietary requirements?
Also, so you all have a break from cooking maybe suggest a meal out when they stay. Most restaurants cater for different food choices nowadays.

Personal they aren't your friends if your having to ask other people for advice.

If this was one of my friends before I even thought of asking others I'd address the person of whome it concerns.

And if I was the person of concern I'd be hurt that my friend has wrote a status involving are friendship rather than asking actually talking to me.

Over all talk to your friend or ask them to bring some ingredients or even they could do the cooking some times

Just stock up on frozen chips and mushy peas.
And serve that alongside whatever meal the rest of your are eating.
I'm sure she will get the hint after a few times

Why is it expensive? Surely it is more expensive to eat meat/fish than vegan. Just don't buy the ultre processed fake stuff, buy real food. You can cook some dhal, a filling salad with some grains and seeds, a casserole or curry with celeriac and mushrooms for example. Why do you buy vegan cheese, which is ultraprocessed and really bad?

I don't understand the fake vegan food. We are going to have a problem if lots of people are going vegan but what they are eating is fake food. You can be vegan and eat proper healthy food. And it is cheap.

Just putting this here again - I believe we've only scratched the surface of this area of research

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/genes_stop_vegetarian#:~:text=There%20isn%27t%20a%20genetic,start%20or%20stop%20a%20vegetarian

Observing the different strands of my family and reflexes of kids has me convinced genetics play a far bigger part than many are willing to admit. And it's also the reason why I have no time for people who think that those who struggle with vegan meals, even for a couple of days, are being unnecessarily difficult. It's far more complex.

Not to mention the very real digestive issues that many experience with high fiber meals.

I will bend over backwards to accommodate allergies. I have a friend with coeliac and when he comes for a meal we clean the whole kitchen, cook his meal in separate dishes, buy specific food for him and begrudge none of it.

I'm very happy to be flexible with my many vegetarian and vegan friends and family - we make sure there's plenty available for them, but I would never stop eating our normal food because someone else chooses to eat another way.

I do however avoid having any sort of pork when my parents stay as they keep kosher (as did I growing up) but this would be really hard for them to be around and they are my parents. They have worked to become flexible enough around all the other non kosher things that we do, but my mom's reaction to pork is pretty visceral and I don't want to cause her pain. This could be how vegans see some of the food I eat regularly so I'd likely try to be mindful of that.

My mom has never lectured me in my own home though! That's where I lose patience with these 'friends'. If you have those sorts of strong opinions and really can't cope with the way your friends live, then stop inviting yourself to their house!

He's not the one who invited himself to someone else's house though is he? Maybe he'd be a bit more accommodating if they were actually invited.

@Cosyblankets "Both choices are equally valid but apparently the OP's husband is a spoilt brat for exercising his right to choose in his own home."

He is a spoiled brat to refuse to have one meal without meat to friends. I have a friend who is one of those people for whom coriander tastes like soap. I could exercise my right to put coriander in a meal I was cooking when she is here because I like it. Or I could not be a dick and leave it out. Ditto my dil who loathes the smell-never mind the taste-of truffle. Good rule of thumb that. Don't be a dick.

I am a vegan and if I am going somewhere I always take my own 'main' bits, and then have whatever veg the host is cooking.

Usual situations are;
Christmas-my Mum will cook veg without goose fat for me and keep aside, along with stuffing that hasn't been in the bird. I will bring my own version of a roast, and some sundries, I usually bring dessert too.

Friends BBQs/casual dinners-sometimes friends will buy something for me but inevitably others eat it too so I'll bring myself a 'main' and have their bread products and veg/sides if suitable.

Dinner at friends who are not familiar at all, I'll ask what they're cooking and explain easy adaptations. If there are none or if everything is getting done in animal fat for example I'll say I'll bring my own, sometimes dropping it off for them to cook in case they want me to.

Exception-I have a fabulous friend who's a great cook and eagerly embraces the opportunity to cook something different. If I am visiting her, she'd be totally offended if I brought anything more than a gift for her (she doesn't even like this to be honest) a bottle of wine and myself.

If she lived at the top of a hill I'd roll down it on my way out.