Help! Vegetarian coming for Christmas dinner

[Allaboutthegirliguess]

So we planned to have a quiet Christmas this year, but my son is now coming with his vegetarian girlfriend.

Can anyone help with what we can make her please.
We will be having a roast, meat, and our potatoes are cooked in goose fat.
Ideally I need something that wont create an issue as we are cooking our meal!
So maybe can be done before or done in the airfyer.

Hoping someone can come up with an idea
Tia

Hi. I’ve been a vegetarian for 11 years and this is quite a funny post to read. I struggle to imagine there are people who haven’t catered for vegetarians before.

My Christmas go-to is a nut roast or a vegetarian wellington. You can both pre-made at most supermarkets. Do some separate roast potatoes and make an onion gravy. It’s not a big deal.

The test is 'Would you have gravy with it?'

Some suggestions on here would definitely not go with gravy.

Just to add, I always make this for our dinner. I am vegan but my omni son will enjoy it as will his gf when she comes over (likely day after Boxing Day). https://bosh.tv/recipes/bosh-classic-mushroom-wellington

Probably best to ask
but have a few suggestions

I hate vegetarian roast type things and I’m not a fan of potatoes

I usually get the Tesco or M&S big massive pastry Christmas dish
and I’ll take the leftover with me on Boxing Day

either don’t do the potatoes in goose fat or just buy a ready made version from the supermarket I don’t care for roast potatoes but I do like the little garlic herb microwave potato bags
we have a big cauliflower cheese
loads of Yorkshire’s
and veg

we still have 2 types of meat on the table/pigs in blankets/stuffing

but the best thing to do is check her tastes

So we planned to have a quiet Christmas this year, but my son is now coming with his vegetarian girlfriend

Sorry, but this did make me laugh as well

We’re famously noisy and disruptive, you know. We scream over our nutroasts.

Yes, definitely this. I’m a veggie and I just like all the veg (especially potatoes). Personally I’m not bothered about anything else, there’s always so much, and am not a nut roast fan. I’m sure she could tell you if there was something She’d like

I would offer everything I cooked for everyone else & remove the meat. I'd add a veggie tart to go along with it. I certainly wouldn't stress about it especially on Christmas day. If she is neurotically strict or its due to allergies she could always bring her own food.

Do you live near a Lidle or Aldi ? One of the kids was vegi for a number of years by choice, and they always have vegetarian selection of options for the holidays that can go into an air fryer or oven.

I’m not! It’s really hard to find anywhere that serves a decent nut roast, the options are always something “Mediterranean”, or a curry. A nut roast carvery would be my idea of Heaven!

Veggie here.

Ask her. It’s so easy.

I don’t like the meat substitutes, they don’t taste good. COOK! Veggie meals are VERY hit and miss, DM gives me one as a replacement for meat and they are spinchy slop mostly over seasoned. Dreadful.

Leek mornay is no substitute for meat and pigs in blankets, also if the meat eater eat it too, it will make her feel like there was zero effort.

In my DH family they make a veggie option which is delicious and then all the meat eaters want to try it and usually it’s all gone before the veggies can get to it.

Honestly just ask what she wants to eat and what she would usually eat. M&S Wellington sounds good, or a nut roast. Then it feels more inclusive to join in with the side dishes.

When my daughter and her partner come for Christmas (both veggie now) I do a separate protein, veggie gravy, vegetarian pigs in blankets , I don’t use goose fat anyway for the potatoes . This year I am going to attempt a veggie version of the sausage and chestnut stuffing. It gives me great joy to provide a meal they will enjoy - it’s not that much effort.

Thanks again everyone@! My first step will be to ask her and to share the links so she can choose!!!

I need to address the fact I said we were having a quiet Christmas the a vegetarian is coming... yeah that was badly written

She is actually a very sweet person.

I met her once before and I made a sloppy nut roast that time :((

The reason I meant quiet is we usually host loads at Xmas and this year was gonna be just me my partner and our 2 younger kids. I in no way she not quiet because she is a vegetarian 😂😂

Thanks again for all the amazing ideas!!

I'm with the people saying "ask her". Yrars ago, my brother brought his vegetarian girlfriend for dinner, and in all good faith I made a (frankly delicious 😂) veggie lasagne. Turned out she hated the vegetables i used. 🙈😂
Tbh I'd be tempted to ditch the roast meat altogether and make one meal you can all eat and enjoy. Too many people think they couldn't possibly eat vegetarian food for one meal, but its delicious. And no, I'm not vegetarian.

@Reallyneedsaholiday Too many people think they couldn't possibly eat vegetarian food for one meal, but its delicious.
Yes but it's not just one meal is it. It's the one big annual family meal and there are something like 6 people at the table.

(I'm a vegetarian.)

Well it IS "just one meal", thats kinda the point. It's one meal.

It is one meal where tradition is expected. It is 'just one meal' in the way that Christmas day is 'just one day'.

I’ll put my hand up as one who asked “what kind of vegetarian?” Because I have known many vegetarians who were actually vegan but without wanting the militant connotations of calling themselves vegan (so aimed for vegan but if there was butter in a dish made specially for them, they would eat it).

Others who were vegetarians at home but wanted the meat option on camp/bacon butty for a hamgove…

Some who didn’t like red meat but it was easier to say vegetarian with fish than have the argument about red meat.

Some who are vegetarians, properly, but love dairy products and had allergies to nuts.

Some who have dairy allergies and the easiest way around it was to be “vegan” when out but enjoy a steak at home where they controlled the oil cooking it…

So that’s why I was saying OP needed to ask the GF, as different shades of “I am a veggie” could mean radically different things, especially when dealing with a Christmas roast and what might need to change, or not.

It is “just one meal” yes, but a meal that many people expect certain specific foods, cooked caldera in specific ways, using family recipes going back generations. Which have already gone through the debates of whether it’s the husband or wife’s mother’s” version of sprouts that is allowed …

Some people may love vegetarian food, some people will always have meat-focussed meals. But the Christmas dinner has connotations (as does the whole Christmas Day/season) and possibilities for family feuds.

and in fairness, OP sounded like she wanted a nice meal for the visitor rather than cobbling together the 2 sides that could work from their normal menu. But the traditional meal is often quite a juggle to get everything done, on a stressful day and with limitations in cooking space, without adding a new element to it.

@BiddyPopthe2nd , take it to mean someone who doesn't eat any products that have come from a dead animal.

The 'vegetarians' who eat fish, chicken bacon butties, shellfish or don't care if they eat goose fat, suet, gelatine etc. are not really vegetarians. These people are those who make it difficult for other vegetarians.

There are different types of vegetarians - some might not eat dairy but will eat eggs or vice versa.

I tend to say I'm a strict vegetarian because I don't eat anything that has come from a dead animal. I am not a vegan.

I do not want to eat food prepared by someone who comes out with things like 'Some vegetarians eat fish'.

Some people may love vegetarian food
I hate the term "vegetarian food". It seems to be used as a catch-all term for what non-vegetarians think vegetarians eat.
Typical "vegetarian food" seems to be butternut squash, beetroot, goat's cheese, mushroon or veg. wellington/tart, veg lasagne/chilli or risotto.

Most of what I eat is just normal food that happens to be vegetarian. You know like egg, chips and beans, margherita pizza or a bowl of cereal ...

When people say 'Well I like vegetarian food' they mean they like mushroom/butternut squash risotto/beetroot and goat's cheese tart etc.
They're ok, wouldn't choose to eat them but I don't want them served as 'a treat'.
I like good food that doesn't have meat or by-products in it.

It IS “just one day” 😂
If the food and the presents are the most important thing about Christmas, to you, then you missed the point of it.
You can make as many meals as you want to, it makes no odds to me.

It’s still one meal. When traditions are uncomfortable… change them.

@Reallyneedsaholiday , I think in a lot of families they will still harp on about that dreadful Christmas when they had goose instead of turkey for years and years.

😂😂😂😂

Does this remind anyone else of the Royle family sketch where on hearing the girlfriend is a vegetarian, the grannie asks hopefully "can she eat wafer thin ham?"