Vegetarians and vegans: What would you like to be served at a wedding?

[VegetarianWedding]

I'm helping to plan a wedding for a friend.

She's going to offer a vegetarian and a vegan option. Two separate meals so that the vegetarians can have dairy and/or egg.

What sort of dishes would you like?

TIA

For vegetarians, I think it's really key that the only option isn't also vegan. A vegan dish is great for vegans, but as a vegetarian, really would grind my gears. I like eggs and cheese.

I also really like a 'main' like whatever it is - I don't mind a goat's cheese tart - but I like having an actual main, hearty bit of food, plus sides, like if you think, a steak, plus potatoes and veg. Too often vegetarians get lots of sides shoved on a plate, but I want more to eat than just potatoes and various veg sides.

Not any sort of risotto. I hate risotto. It's like the lazy vegetarian option that everyone offers. It's boring stodgy rice. Most people don't actually know how to cook it properly anyway. Just no to any sort of risotto.

I want a proper pudding too. Vegetarians often end up with the fruit plate because the pudding has dairy/eggs/gelatine in it. It's so easy to make vegetarian or vegan puddings. We aren't on a diet. We like to eat. I once got offered as the only vegetarian breakfast option: a fruit plate with a side of fruit plate.

Totally excellent thread. Every time someone mentions something they like, someone else pops up and hates it 😂.

Yeah I was reflecting that I think it's really hard to have a vegetarian "default" in the way that meat eaters have meat + potatoes+ vegetables.

Maybe the best you can do is have some protein, some carbs, some veg on a plate so people can pick and choose?

Something that compares to the non veg menu, I get real food envy when everyone else has a lovely hearty meal and I'm left with a salad with some goats cheese faff. Also, agree with PP as a classic veggie I get soooo pissed off with vegan only options. I bloody love cheese

We contain multitudes! But having said all that, OP, when I go to someone's wedding it's because I like the couple, and I would never dream of criticising the food. I would just eat it quietly. ( Maybe not it is a piece of toast with a tomato on it). Same as when I am invited to dinner.

I think the problem is the lack of choice. Restaurant menus might have 10 meat choices and 2 vegetarian, one of those being vegan.

So if you eat meat, you have plenty to choose from so there's likely to be something you like. But if you don't, you're relying on the one or two meals that you can eat not being made from ingredients that you don't like.

Indeed. Though there was one wedding I went to where the food was so awful that the vegetarians took it in turns to go out for chips so it was at least a little bit subtle

I love pastry...but i had a great nut roast at a recent wedding which can be vegan and vegetarian without any fake meat. Melon is a good starter option...a lot of people find soup too filling.
Crumble is a great pudding...the topping can be easily vegan. I do like custard!

I think whatever you serve (if it’s a buffet) then please make sure there is enough of it because the meat eaters will scoff it as well. So many times I have been left without food because the meat eaters have scoffed all the vegan food. Usually by the same people who normally insist vegan food is icky and they would never eat it 😂

They’re popular with caterers, not consumers.

Goat’s cheese is a strong flavour - I happen to agree that it tastes like goats smell and is rank, yeah some people like it, but it’d be like putting anchovies on everyone else’s main course. You’d not exactly be surprised if loads of them didn’t like it.

Mushrooms - my job involves asking people about food preferences, disliking mushrooms is really common, then tolerating them is next and only a few people actively like them.

Things like lentils or risotto, IMO the objection isn’t to them in themselves it’s that wedding caterers batch cook and freeze them with no actual flavour and what you get is tasteless gloop... and also that you then don’t even get potatoes and veg the same as everyone else so you’re just sat there eating what might as well be glue.

I’m not massively fussy or anything, I can’t eat goats cheese I’d have to eat round it, but I’ll manage anything else even if it is something like mushrooms where I’d never choose them for myself and I’ve had multiple meals at weddings that were either really awful or actually inedible, which is honestly pretty shocking given the cost of them to the people getting married.

Obviously you’ll never suit every single person exactly, but it shouldn’t be worse than a supermarket ready meal and it often is.

A good nut roast with all the trimmings is great. A good 'wellington' with all the trimmings is great.

Agree with the others about the veg and two veg and fruit salad type meals being disappointing.

Other than that, at a wedding, I wouldn't worry if it was vegan for everyone who wasn't having the meat, but I'd want the host to have made sure that the vegetarian/vegan/gluten free/allergy-free option actually is vegetarian/vegan/whatever.

How about a vegetarian starter for all? Agree not mushrooms/goats cheese but there's plenty of options that would appeal to most and just happen to be veggie. Or even vegan. It's becoming less common to find people who insist on meat at every course.

It's a while since I've been to a sit down wedding meal so this might not happen anymore but I've had to preorder before and would love to have had the choice of the veggie food too without having to declare myself veggie. Note I'm talking about when individuals order in advance, not when people claim veggie food on the day and don't leave enough for the actual veggies.

Best wedding food I've ever had was at an Indian wedding, hands down. Personally I'd love indian/thai/Mexican but it probably depends a bit on the demographic of the wedding whether that would go down well or not.

Some time ago I had a mushroom and lentil Wellington with green vegetables - suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Dessert was a vegan Eton Mess with vegan meringue and vegan cream. Not sure what the vegan cream was but it was lovely (not all vegan cream is nice!).