The vegetarian option

[evilharpy]

A thread in AIBU about "if you had your own restaurant" had lots of responses about vegetarian options usually being shit and always involving goat's cheese, mushrooms or beetroot which is sadly bang on. Although where our work Christmas lunch is, both the (only) vegetarian starter and main are based on chestnuts. I've seen another Christmas part menu that has three veggie starter options out of six, and two out of six mains, none of which involve mushrooms, goats cheese or beetroot. And no risotto!

Wondering if you are vegetarian (or not, but just like the veggie option on the menu), what sort of things would you like to see? I would like meat-free meals out more often but they really do often seem like an afterthought/token nod.

I’m not veggie but I love cheese!!

I would happily have halloumi, or goats cheese starter or a paneer curry! Agreed that many places put a vegan option on to cover both veggie and vegan

@DrCoconut

Try getting a Christmas (or indeed any) dinner out when you don't eat meat or gluten 😫

I was a chef in a previous life and worked for a short time at a restaurant that was quite popular with coeliac groups as we catered for them properly. As long as we got a bit of advance warning we would do a roast with all the trimmings including GF yorkshire puds, or pretty much anything else from the usual menu. Usually people with allergies etc tend to phone ahead. There were also GF things we would cook ahead and freeze in portions so there was always a decent choice if anyone came without notice.

Sadly that restaurant closed down a few years ago. It's such a shame GF seems to be an afterthought in so many places.

I can't actually remember what we had on the menu as a veggie option around Christmas. I do remember there being a bubble and squeak pie.

I've just looked up the Christmas menu of a restaurant in my home town. The vegetarian option (1 dish out of 7) is something called "vegan goujons". God knows what's in them, it doesn't say.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Something else that makes my blood boil:

So called 'festive' menus, where the veggie option is a bowl of bloody tomato pasta, or a risotto. I want roast spuds and stuffing etc, not a little bowl of something entirely unrelated to Christmas.

There is a special place in incompetence hell for restaurants who when serving the "Christmas menu" are so useless that they can't even knock up a nut roast or pie to go with the standard veg and some veggie gravy and instead serve microwave pasta.

My assumption would be all the food is microwaved and they don't have a trained chef and I'd look elsewhere.

On the whole, repetitive or multibuy vegetarian options are a sign of a poor restaurant or chef which doesn't auger well for the meat/fish eaters either.

The best veggie meal I've ever had - possibly one of the best meals of any kind I've ever had in fact was in my work's canteen about 10 years ago. It was Christmas Dinner day and I'm not a huge fan of roast turkey - once a year is plenty - so I had the veggie Festive Wellington - brie, pine nuts and cranberries (sorry cranberry haters) in the lightest puff pastry I've ever tasted. It was absolutely gorgeous and all the more surprising because it was a canteen meal! I would have paid proper money for it in a restaurant. They never did it again though unfortunately.

I'm not vegetarian anymore due to health reasons, but it always used to bug the hell out of me when the only vegetarian option on the menu was something that had beans inside it or had a shed load of spices in it. I like to be able to taste my food not feel like my tongue, mouth and throat are on fire. The McDonald's veggie burger is the worst for this! Things I enjoyed. Brie and cranberry parcels, anything with mushrooms or leeks in, or a veggie burger if it was veg and not spicy

Im another thats hates when the only ‘vegetarian’ dish on the menu is vegan…you know what i mean

But butternut squash…why is it in everything?

Went to a Mexican restaurant the other day….all the veggie options were butternut squash, whats wrong with black beans or kidney beans

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I came on here to say exactly that! Year after year I am being served fucking risotto or a pasta dish while everyone around me ticks into a lovely Xmas dinner. It’s not hard to make a veggie roast diner, I do it every fucking Sunday! Really pisses me off!

I don’t go to the work Christmas dinner any more because I don’t want a Thai curry. I want a Christmas dinner.

And yes x 100 to the vegi option being replaced by a vegan one.

My bug bear currently is that at the DC's school, the veggie option is quorn at least 3x a week. DC aren't veggie but DS would definitely choose a vegetarian option over, for example, a hot dog. But it's just a quorn dog. A decent vegetable sausage made with actual vegetables he'd eat quite happily, but.....

@PlumManor

I’m not vegetarian but sometimes I pick the veggie option as it’s preferable to
The mains. I’m keen on risotto especially with fennel, broad beans, peas.

You are, but those of us who are vegetarian are sick of risotto appearing as the only offering and it usually being badly made.

You are choosing the vegetarian option, but could choose something else.

If restaurants only offered only one meat option and it was always lamb or gammon or steak&kidney pie, you'd get sick of the lack of choice and imagination, especially if these meals wouldn't be things you'd bother making at home, and if you did you'd cook better versions.

[quote KirstenBlest]@PlumManor

I’m not vegetarian but sometimes I pick the veggie option as it’s preferable to
The mains. I’m keen on risotto especially with fennel, broad beans, peas.

You are, but those of us who are vegetarian are sick of risotto appearing as the only offering and it usually being badly made.

You are choosing the vegetarian option, but could choose something else.

If restaurants only offered only one meat option and it was always lamb or gammon or steak&kidney pie, you'd get sick of the lack of choice and imagination, especially if these meals wouldn't be things you'd bother making at home, and if you did you'd cook better versions.[/quote]
Absolutely fine, but then I didn’t just mention risotto did I? 😁

And actually I was vegetarian for nine years in the 80s that would have given you something to moan about.

And actually I was vegetarian for nine years in the 80s that would have given you something to moan about.
@PlumManor
I'm not sure what you mean - why would I moan about you being a vegetarian for 9 years in the 1980s?

I remember the vegetarian options in the 1980s. Usually nothing and you'd be told that vegetarians eat fish

My point was that I keep being told 'I like vegetarian food, I'll often choose the vegetarian option' and if you ask them what they think of as vegetarian food they say goat's cheese and caramelised onion tart, mushroom risotto, broccoli and pasta bake ...

Following as I'm not vegetarian but I eat more veg meals than meat (it's a taste/texture thing for me) and I'm looking for ideas for 'treat' recipes for if I do ditch meat completely! I almost always pick a veggie option when out, I love a veg/pastry/cheese combo and as PP said there's not a lot wrong with a well made veggie lasagne or bean chilli in my book.

Some great prompts for me to start recipe hunting here though, thank you.

@PensionPuzzle, I like the ones that treat it as food that happens to be meat-free. The Hugh Fearnly-Whittingwotsit ones are good for what to do with different vegetables.

Family Xmas dinner veggie choice is garlic mushrooms followed by mushroom risotto. I don’t eat mushrooms or rice.

Out for 2 other Xmas meals and one is nut roast (vegan option but at least it fits with the other meals) and other has 3-4 veggie choices and I’m having a veggie hot pot.

I don’t like fake meat either.

Vegetarian for several decades and also can't stand fruit/sweet things (cranberries, squash) mixed in with main courses. Nor can I stand fake meat, fake sausage, fake burgers or Quorn. Just as bad is ALL (or so it seems) vegetarian options being heavily flavoured with chilli. A nice veg curry or Mexican dish is great, but not chilli - or sweet chilli jam (yuk) - with everything. All it does is mask otherwise flavourless dishes.

Ooh yes, the ubiquitous chilli or Cajun spiced something or other. And also why is the vegetarian option so tiny? I remember one Christmas dinner out where everyone was tucking into a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Mine was a plate of vegetable pasta that my picky 6 year old could demolish without it touching the sides. I could have scarfed half the roasties they were all sending back because they were full except they were cooked in goose fat 😫

I don't like sweet fruits in my main dish either

The tiny plate of food that is not filling is miserable. I usually eat quite a large portion, because the food isn't as dense as meat

Another gripe is the buffet or barbecue when there are few meat free options, and the omnivores eat them, so you end up with nothing

The main thing that gets me, and you see it everywhere this time of year is menus with carefully thought out meat options, with matching veg, gravy, herbs, spices etc and then the veggie option is....curry. Or stir fry. Zero thought put into it!!

I am always pleased to see quiche, vegetable lasagne, halloumi, burgers or sausages made with vegetables or beans- not fake meat.
I cannot stand fruit in savoury dishes, walnuts, stilton, chestnuts or beetroot.
A bowl of pasta or risotto is not a nice pub lunch!
Vegan mayonnaise and cheese can fuck off.
Please label stuff consistently, if there is a v next to main courses, then please use it for deserts and side dishes!

I saw the best option for Sunday roast for a vege the other day.
Cheese and potato pie.
Simple cheap still goes with all the roast trimmings.

I know it’s not vegan, they still had the but roast. But it was a nice change to see it (it was sold out!)

@evilharpy, feel hungry now. That sounds great.

I think it's impossible to please all vegetarians. I don't like mushrooms or chestnuts. My pet peeve is a normal restaurant offering a veggie curry as the only main. It's nothing like a good Indian curry. One of our local pubs does great steaks but the only veggie option is a vegan pasta arrabiata that I could whip up in 15 minutes at home.

A lot depends on the chef too though. I was underwhelmed when I went to a cafe this summer and the veggie option was asparagus and cheddar quiche with salad. It was amazing. A huuuuge slice of obviously home made quiche (the pastry was incredible, the filling full of flavour ). A mixed leaf salad with a dressing that made me want to eat salad and a balsamic vinegar glaze drizzled all over.

If it's not got goats cheese or Camembert my dd is fed up ... basically she's a cheese addict and not keen on vegetables (awkward for a vegetarian!)