help - vegan coming for dinner.

[HufflepuffRavenclaw]

Having friends over for dinner next week. Woman of the couple is quite faddy in her eating. Over the time we have know them she has been gluten-free for about 6 months, abandoned that and then gave up alcohol completely for about a year, stopped doing that and then cut out sugar, was also a pescetarian for a while. Latest is that she is vegan.

I am not a vegan and have zero interest in vegan food/cooking. I am looking for ideas which are easily adapted to vegan diets - so for example I could do tomato/mozzarella/basil and crusty bread for a starter and use vegan "cheese" for her.

Think I may buy a dessert for her as any decent pud has to have cream and butter in it.

Any ideas?

They'd be getting a ready-made meal from Sainsburys tbh

Ooh yes, tapas is a good call. Make sure you make enough of the vegan options because the meat eaters will also want to eat them, especially the patatas bravas.

I’m guessing OP isn’t a good cook. A good cook wouldn’t need this much input about a dinner with friends. That’s ok though, not everyone is a good cook.

OP I'd love to be invited to a dinner party in your house minus the vegan. I'd be devastated to go for a dinner at friends and get served roasted cauliflower and fruit salad.

Brilliant idea, especially as you think she'll just tuck in anyway. And it can look really special.

We had the most amazing fruit and cheese salad in spain, you could do some {awful) vegan cheese alongside the normal stuff - grilled feta, halloumi and camembert with strawberries and balsamic vinegar....

These giant beans will make tapas easy
www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/zanae-giant-beans/007848-3733-3734

Are you deliberately trying to piss off the OP. She wanted suggestions for non-vegan meals where the meat/egg/dairy component can be cooked separately and added or not by the individual dinners, or where a portion could be easily separated out before the meat was added to the main pot. Plus a bit of a moan because this friend is a fad dieter rather than a long term dedicated vegan. She specifically did not want vegan substitutes for dairy because she doesn’t like the taste/texture/idea.

Vegan food is just normal food that everyone will eat. It's not special weirdy food that people only eat if they're vegan.

The OP is doing tapas, so she can serve patatas bravas, gazpacho, maybe a spinach and chick pea dish, bread and nice olive oil, then meatballs and the vegan version.

So just normal food that people would eat if they were going for tapas and only the meatballs are not vegan.

To repeat - I am a good cook. People enjoy coming to my house to be fed. Weekday meals are cooked from scratch. I want people to leave my home with a full stomach and having enjoyed a good meal. I do not cook vegan meals for my own family and would never try something entirely new when we gave people over. Because you want to guarantee it’ll be good. And you cannot guarantee that with a dish that not only have you never cooked, you’ve never eaten either.

is they so weird? To want to guarantee that you are feeding people tasty food, not something that turns out to be weird or just a bit meh?

olive bread with oil and balsamic
padron peppers
garlic mushrooms
stuffed peppers
vegetable empanadas
braised peppers or giant butter beans in cider
saffron roasted cauliflower with almonds

Are all nicer than bought vegan meatballs and something that non vegans would happily eat.

Oh I think the OP is getting rather more respect that they are showing for their "friend".

Plenty of posters are pointing out that "substitution" meals are not the best or easiest way of catering in this situation. If the the OP wants to make a point of supplying meat and fish and just bung a sub on the plate for the vegan then no need for a thread here.

Also find someone describing themselves as a good cook who can't conceive of puddings without dairy.

And I'd tell her she's not vegan. You should too 😅

To repeat - I am a good cook. People enjoy coming to my house to be fed.

😂😂😂

Why all the hate for vegan cheese?
I'm not a vegan but I like the cheese vitalite slices are my favourite. I buy it cos I like it instead of regular cheese sometimes

Ooh yes, tapas is a good call. Make sure you make enough of the vegan options because the meat eaters will also want to eat them, especially the patatas bravas
Oh yes, this so true! Carnivores wanting the best of both worlds!!!
When my boss puts a buffet on at work for us she always reminds people that they can eat everything but I can't so be mindful. I always get to have first pick as well!

(Before anyone things I'm being entitled, we are a small team, we have known each other for over 15 years and we socialise outside work, there is no problem with me having first dibs. If there was I would certainly know about it because there is no holding back in my team!!)

Don’t worry @InForTheNight - you’re not on the guest list.

it used to be vile but now it's fine. I'm not vegan anymore but still enjoy both. Honestly some of it it really nice. there's that many, to say they are all vile is just silly.

Why don't you put together the menu you would like to go if everyone ate meat and then post it here and see what others can suggest to do similar for your vegan guest

Plant based Cathedral City is really good. My family who aren’t vegan now only eat this as it’s as good as other cheddar. It actually tastes like cheese and I was very happy to find it, having never been keen on any of the other vegan cheeses I’d tried.

People are omnivores not carnivores. We're not cats.

The caterer/host should assume that everyone would want to eat foods like patatas bravas and provide accordingly.

I think she’s probably more than ok with that. 😂

if anyone is vegan and fancies a curry, you can come to mine. I’m also a good cook 😌😝

Carnivores wanting the best of both worlds!!!

To be fair, we are omnivores rather than carnivores, so we just want to eat what we can eat - which is everything!!

That said, if I serve a buffet and I have vegetarian/vegan guests, I do include enough for all but suggest that they go first and take plenty.

I'd go with tapas too OP, where much of it the food is naturally vegan. I'd do a side of chicken wings and meatballs for the meat eaters. Richmond vegan sausages can be chopped up and served in the same tomato sauce as the meatballs for your vegan friend.

You’re getting a lot of flack but I can sympathise with this. I have friends/family who are vegan, vegetarian, dairy free etc and will happily cater for them. I also have a friend who changes her diet constantly and it annoys me slightly having to change my menu to accommodate whatever fad she’s currently into. I once spent an entire afternoon of my holiday trawling Spanish supermarkets for gluten free bread for her only for her to order (very much gluten) pizza then cake for pudding in the restaurant that evening! I love her dearly but do roll my eyes when she tells me she’s on a gluten/dairy free, eating ‘clean’, raw food, vegan, paleo, low carb whatever diet because from experience each new way of eating lasts only weeks.

My daughter eats mostly plant based and I do find it easier to do a plant based meal with meat on the side (veggie curry and sides with tandoori chicken or vegetable noodles with grilled chicken or steak on the side for example). I also sometimes do something like bourgignon where I’ll make the sauce as one then separate out some and add beetroot or aubergine to hers and add beef to the rest before slow cooking. It’s not authentic but turns out indiscernible after the long cook.

Carnivores wanting the best of both worlds!!!
I was being light heated! I dont care what other people choose to eat ( unless they take all the hummus and crackers, then I get mad!🤣)

People are omnivores not carnivores. We're not cats.
Oh you can rely on MN to be pulled on anything you write slightly wrong, even though the word carnivore is often used to describe meat eaters these days in informal conversation.

The caterer/host should assume that everyone would want to eat foods like patatas bravas and provide accordingly
They should, especially works training courses, but everytime we have an outside caterer they put a label with veggie option for 1 ( me) separately and it's a single portion of whatever is veggie. If I'm not quick enough it's gone. However that's a moan for another day!