Overwhelmed. Recommend me a main meal for 10 please

[BellissimoGecko]

Am hosting Christmas. Mix of veggies and carnivores, two GF. Please recommend me a crowd pleaser main dish that I can cook. I have done chilli, nachos, fajitas…

What would you cook? thank you!

Also, any easy pudding recommendations??

I think I’m going for stroganoff and a veggie chilli with rice…

For gluten free, do a pavlova

Is this for Christmas dinner? If so, surely traditional roast, with an veggie alternative to turkey for the veggies is the obvious solution. It can be made gf with just a few minor tweaks.

No, not Xmas dinner! That’s sorted.

Stroganoff is a good shout.

A couple of recipes from the roasting tin cook books (I love the green roasting tin book it has some great veggie and vegan recipes) and a roast beef. An easy traybake and ice cream for pudding.

In these situations I do a “Spanish Chicken Stew”. Made the recipe myself so it isn’t Spanish at all really. I roast onions, garlic, red peppers, orange peppers with tomato. Add them to a pot and add pasata, stock, paprika, herbs. Independently I chop and fry chorizo and parboil chicken. I shred the chicken and add it to the chorizo. Carnivores add the meats to their stew, veggies do without. Serve it with option of rice or sweet potatoes cooked hassleback. Easy

This. A roast is easy, Make the gravy & bread sauce in advance. Veggie alternative could be baked three cheese pancakes with tomato sauce. All works in one oven.

Then a choice of microwaved xmas pud or fresh fruit salad with a tot of Grand Marnier for afters.

We have hosted this many for last few years - ugh! For Boxing Day we do leftovers supplemented with some shop bought quiche, salad plus baked potatoes that have had middle scooped out mashed with cheese put back in and grilled a bit. You could get some mini veggie sausages as well.

What about an oven baked tomato risotto? You could serve it with some salmon/chicken pieces for the meat eaters if needed. Lemon posset for pudding with shortbread and some bought gluten free biscuits.

Curries - a chicken one and a veggie one?

A lasagne with good quality ingredients is easy to make if you're overwhelmed. Put it with roast spuds, roasted veg, salad, a few chips etc. Then a pavlova or a trifle for desert. And chocolate brownies and ice cream for the chocolate lovers. Tesco do nice brownies. They're lovely heated in the microwave and served with ice cream 🍨

Or you could get one of those spice tailor curry kits in Tesco. They're lovely, have natural ingredients and it's easy to make a big batch

All in the centre of the table: Big bowl of pasta with separate bowls of tomato sauce, cheese sauce, and pesto. Garlic bread and grated parmesan also there, plus a green salad. Everybody helps themselves to whatever combo of the above they fancy.

Edited to add, smaller bowl of gf pasta and gf garlic bread for those guests.

Ratatouille on garlic bread, maybe serve everyone gf garlic bread. Maybe gammon on the side for meat eaters.

I think make the main thing veg and gf then add on meat.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/meringue-gelato-cake-with-chocolate-sauce

We have this at Xmas instead of xmas pudding. Requested every year by my DDs. Dead easy to make in advance, you just need to warm the sauce before serving and add a few fresh raspberries

I know you said you did chilli - but it sounds perfect, tbh! With sides, sour cream, nachos, avocado, rice, nan bread.

Top your own jacket potatoes.
Toppings can include beans, cheese, ham, butter, Marmite, creme fraiche, tinned stewed steak etc, with a big bowl of mixed salad.

The Anna Jones vegan chilli recipe feeds a big crowd and is easy to pull together. It has a long ingredient list but is mostly just adding things to a big pan.

Something I do for big crowds is a Stilton and mushroom pasta bake. Feeds 6 as it is and is easily doubled:

Fry 600 -900g of mushrooms with plenty of garlic until lightly browned and starting to release their juices. (Any mushrooms will do)
Crumble a wedge of Stilton into the pan and melt
Add milk or cream until it's the consistency of a sauce
Pour over 600g-900g COOKED pasta (dry weight)
Place in a baking dish and top with mozzarella (grated or sliced balls, doesn't matter)
Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes at 180C
Remove foil and turn the oven up to 200C to brown the top (you can also do this under the grill if you prefer)

You can make this ahead up to the topping with mozzarella stage. If heating from cold add another 15 - 20 minutes before you remove the foil.

I usually serve it with a side salad and garlic flatbreads.

It's usually popular with everyone. It's my fallback when we have visitors as I can ask them to call me when the pull off the motorway and it's ready 10 minutes after they arrive.

I'm a new vegetarian and not a fan of mushrooms but I really do love a mushroom stroganoff.

Otherwise, I am making a good old fashioned potato and sweet corn chowder. Easy to put bacon in half of it for meat eaters.

Moroccan is different enough to chilli but has similar advantages. One meat one veggie tagine and couscous, salads, roasted veg with sumac etc. can pretty much all be done in advance