Easy way to feed a crowd?

[Florencenotflo]

I've got about 15 people at my house for Father's Day. I don't want DH sat in front of the bbq all day. So, give me ideas on how to feed about 15 people with minimal effort! My SIL is vegan (and usually brings her own food but I like to make an effort to include her properly) but the rest aren't fussy. I don't have loads of fridge space (but I am looking at hiring another fridge for the weekend just for drink) and I can't afford to feed them all with an M&S buffet, that was my first thought but I've looked at the cost and it's not possible 😂

I agree with pp slow cooker is the way forward.
For that number of people I'd perhaps do a chilli in one and a tikka masala in another.
Cook some rice and some potatoes and let everyone help themselves.
Or a slow cooked pulled pork always goes down a treat with bread rolls and apple sauce, home made hog roast!

*everything else is veggi so no confusion.i

She’s vegan, not veggie.

If you have a Costco near you they do great platters of sandwiches/nice wraps/rolls. They also do big salad bowls and cheeses/ sushi / fresh fruit platters. Alternatively they do party size portions of ready to bung in the oven lasagne / enchiladas / pasta bakes and also humongous pizzas.
Great quality and reasonably priced. I always get Costco food if we are having a big gathering of people Nd I don’t want to spend ages in the kitchen preparing food.

The veggie chilli that batinahat posted is absolutely delicious. Someone recommended it on another thread. I made it this week and everyone loved it.

Build your own tacos/fajitas, lamb/veggie pitta kebabs, or a few curries with naan bread, poppadoms and Indian snacks. Or tapas.

I had a similar thing for a birthday, around 20 people. Some vegetarians, a couple of downright picky ones.

It was a hot day so a cold buffet, saves messing about with cooking, heating etc.
Made several different breads, bought baguettes, cold meats, chicken, made a fish shape on an oval platter with smoked salmon. Lots of cheeses, various salads, quiches, potato things, crisps, cheese traws, crackers, snacky things, sausages, sausage rolls, cheese & onion, Quorn 'sausage rolls' and snacks. Just made a long list of what would work and raided the supermarket. Tarte au citron and cheesecake went down well.
I did make a slow cooker full of soup, made it first, blended and put in to keep warm and left it for people to help themselves but no other cooking other than a cake.
Everyone had enough to eat, plenty to take home for those that wanted to (close family) and some for us for the next day.

Also had some cake and fancies brought by guests.

Another vote for chilli, one meat and one veggie. Make it mild and have extra chillies for people to add to taste.

Lots of different sides to make it go further - crusty bread, rice, jacket potatoes, salad, tortilla crisps etc

Maybe do some nachos for people to nibble on first

Suggestion for dessert:

Build their own "Eton mess"/sundae:

provide strawberries, meringue nests, cream (or ice cream or natural yogurt even) possibly also peach slices, and fun stuff like hundreds and thousands, choc vermicelli, sugar balls etc and people can make up their own puds.

The vegan can still have the fruit, and some of the sprinkles etc with maybe vegan yogurt?

Morrisons food to go is fab and considerably cheaper than M&S. Tesco do the nicest sandwich platters but they're twice the price of Morrison's so Morrison's wins

I had a party last weekend and served Morrison's buffet during the day and then had chilli and chicken fajitas-type dish each in a slow cooker and a vegan curry for the evening. I'm not the most competent chef (understatement!!) but even ds complimented my efforts . And the food was almost all finished off which I took as a good sign.

Veggie chilli served with rice, cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips and guacamole. If you want meat cook chicken wings as a side.

Great book for curry, chilli etc is Nigella Express. Recipes relatively quick and easy (my 14 and 15 year olds love cooking from it). And when she says six servings it actually does serve 6, not 4 people on a diet!
For vegan there’s a great vegetable curry in Hairy Bikers’ Diet book that’s tasty for everyone (bit on the hot side) and again their servings are on the money.

I would get a huge shoulder of lamb and a massive pork shoulder and slow roast them both (like 5-6hrs) - the meat will just fall apart and people can pile it up on plates along with flatbread, different salads etc. Actually wouldn't be that much work.

Make a huge pasta salad. Quick , easy and nice.

Take the biggest salad bowl you have. Cut into cubes tomatoes, celery, cucumber, add a couple of tins of tuna (drained), mozzarella, add the pasta when cooked, drizzle with extra virgin olive, add stripes of real parmesan .
For you vegan SIL, make a smaller: Cut into cubes tomatoes, celery, cucumber, corn, olives, dry tomatoes stripes, cubes of smocked tofu.

At Christmas I did a lamb tagine, a vegan chickpea tagine (BIL is vegan) & vegan mushroom stroganoff- I didn’t add cream & it was fine. Not as nice but fine!

No good for non meat eaters but by far the easiest ‘feed a hoard’ for me is a massive pork shoulder, slow roasted. Serve with a load of bread buns, apple sauce, stuffing and some salads. Never disappoints.

Chicken, vegetable (carrots, mushroom, courgettes, peas) and cider pie (shortcrust pastry top) - make 2 or 3 pies and serve with new potatoes and asparagus. Followed by strawberries and ice cream or Eton mess.

A bean chilli for the vegan! I'm not vegan but love a good bean chilli!