Catering for vegetarians at a house-warming party, do I need to provide separate food?

[IslandCanary]

Everyone is bringing a dish, so far most of these contain meat/fish (apart from the salad) as we're doing tapas-style.

One couple have just told me they are vegetarian.

Do I need to ask everyone to bring vegetarian dishes instead? Or is it ok to just provide some salad/rice and let them bring a dish they can eat? I don't want them to feel excluded.

I find most vegetarian food bland and unpleasant and would rather have meat/fish dishes to cater for the majority (I'm planning to make spicy chicken wings, someone else is bringing meatballs, another is bringing battered tempura prawns, crispy squid, vegetable risotto etc.

If I need to provide more veggie options does anyone have any ideas?

Sometime what's worse than no vegetarian main is a vegetarian main with the meat removed.

I went to a catered family birthday lunch, where the starter was mozzarella, nectaries and prosciutto salad (mozzarella and nectarine for vegetarians) which. was bad enough.

The main was grilled sea bass on a bed of pea risotto - with pea risotto for the vegetarians! My family member paid the same per head for everyone. A total piss-take.

Maid - unless the veggie pie was marked as exclusively for veggie guests I'd take a slice of the one I liked the most.

Again I don't think putting the onus on meat eaters not to eat veggie options is the right approach here.

Maybe there are 20 pies of each type? Maybe there are no vegetarians at the party?
Maybe the meat pie is pork and the guest is Jewish?

You can't assume that each guest has an understanding of the dietary requirements of every other guest.

It's up to the host to ensure there is enough food for everyone - either by restring access to some foods, prioritising who gets access to the buffet first, labelling foods to make clear they are for certain guests only or ideally by making sure there is enough of everything in the first place.

Maybe the meat pie is pork and the guest is Jewish?

If you're at pearlylum's house, tough.

I've got a feeling that if you invited a Jewish friend to a hog roast they would probably make sure they ate before hand

maybe this has been said already, but please make sure all the food is LABELLED
there's nothing worse than looking at a quiche and thinking 'is there some random flesh in that'- actually, what is even worse is thinking that some food is safe and then taking a great big bite and finding your mouth full of wierd tasting chewy stringy stuff, especially in company when you can't just spit it out

A good way to deal with it is having a veggie base for the meal that is substantial and covers all guests. E.g I have done cous cous with a big veg stew. Filling in its own right. Then put out extras such as chicken portions for those who want them. You will have an idea how many if you are catering for friends. Then a dessert or two that suit everyone and a selection of nice drinks. For a buffet, bread and butter (supplied not on the bread if you like). Seperate meat and cheese platters (or whatever you want to serve) so people construct their own sandwiches. Then you don't run out of or get left with a particular type. Benefits meat eaters who prefer a particular meat too. Crisps, big salads etc that suit all. Veggie pizza or quiche is something that most people will eat. Extras like skewers, sausage rolls etc can provide extra meat fixes without taking away options for those who don't eat them. Surely a variant of this must be possible for most themes or cuisines - a base that everyone can have that is substantial and satisfying, with add ins to customise it to veggie or meat.

On the pie question, it all depends on what the pie was filled with! If the meat pie looked like meat I wouldn't fancy, I would go for the veggie pie. But what is a veggie pie?

If it was marked "for vegetarians only" I wouldn't touch it. But if it was within the general buffet, how are we supposed to know we shouldn't touch it? I love all sorts of dishes that don't have meat in, I just don't think of them as "vegetarian". I think of them as... dishes without meat in!

Us meat eaters don't live on meat, we vary our diets with lots of other foods too! And at a buffet we just aren't psychic! I would look at the pie and think.. yum, it has spinach in, I'll have a slice of that!

Yellow I had a couple of muslims to my hog roast, they weren't worried! (and I had catered for them seperately, and the hog was round the back!)

I think it would be a bit weird to have labels on food in your own home.

But what I've seen before and I think works really well is to have the vegetarian food on different coloured plates or platters.

Blue plates are for food suitable for vegetarians, white for everything else. Looks lovely too. And before anyone clutches their pearls at the expense, where I saw it done the caterer didn't buy new everything - they were lots of non-matching plates, probably from charity shops, all in different shades of blue.

Another question about veggie meals. Why are restaurant portions of veggie food so tiny? I've been to Christmas dinners where the turkey plates are groaning with food and everyone is stuffed while my boring mushroom or butternut squash risotto would just about fit in a tablespoon and I'm bloody starving still at the end of the meal.

But if it was within the general buffet, how are we supposed to know we shouldn't touch it?

Because in this hypothetical, I think a pie is very obviously the main event.

If you were first up and had a line of pies to choose from, labelled as: chicken (and for the sake of argument, you eat chicken), vegetable, beef [gluten free], lamb [halal], would you feel perfectly happy choosing whichever you wanted, regardless of the prompts that tell you perhaps there are people for whom they are intended?

The salads/pasta and pesto/veg and dips/mini pizzas/etc are then presented for the entire group to choose from.

Agree with yellow

This sounds like a logic puzzle though

maybe there are 20 pies of each type? Maybe there are no vegetarians at the party?
Maybe the meat pie is pork and the guest is Jewish

Or maybe a philosophical saying

Rousette. Can I please move in?

Please....😊💐🍷🍫

I do not think I have ever attended any type of function where different diets are actively catered for where the food hasn't been labeled even just a V to indicate vegetarian or if a vegan option is there then they say it in full.

I get that it's the hosts responsibility but what is stopping someone taking a bit of personal responsibility for their own maners if the host has fucked up by chosing an option they can eat without compromising their ethical beliefs knowing this means that the ones who cant will still have food, just because at that precise second you fancy the kale and onion one and the meat pie may not fill your heart with raptures of joy when on any other day it would not phase you to eat it and you sometimes quite like a meat pie,

Anything else is just not my problem I'm ok jack

Why are restaurant portions of veggie food so tiny?
I cannot tell you the number of times I've been at a wedding and been presented with a vegetable terrine (say, a pile of roasted pepper/spinach/courgette/etc) and had to ask the serving staff for some potatoes/trimmings and reminded them that veggies need protein

They're small because people assume veggies are fussy, healthy buggers. They don't imagine us eating whole blocks of cheddar melted onto chips and gravy.

If you saw a meat pie and a veggie pie next to each other at a buffet, would you take a slice of the veggie one?

If the veggie one looked nicer, then yes, I probably would, unless it was made obvious that it was exclusively intended for vegetarian guests. E.g. if it was marked as "vegetarian main course" or "vegetarians only" or "pie for John" I'd leave it, even if the meat pie looked horrible.

But if the two pies were part of a big buffet with several other possible mains, and I have no idea of the proportion of vegetarians, how am i supposed to know whether it's just for vegetarians, or whether it's also meant as an option for meat eaters who don't like corned beef pie or pork pie or whatever?

Really, the more I think about this, the more I feel that it should be the case that hosts ensure that vegetarians and people with other dietary restrictions get first go at the buffet. Then the meat eaters can put a piece of the veggie pie on their plates (if any's left once the vegetarians have filled their plates) without any fears of leaving the vegetarians hungry.

Totally agree Maid if it was "pie buffet". However, chances are, it will just be part of a buffet, amongst other foods! never been to a pie buffet, quite fancy it, I love a good pie!

Extra

Regarding labelling, I wonder......

Take the pie with a vegetable filling....

If it is labelled "vegetarian", do people view that as less fair game than if it is labelled "vegetable"? Does use of the word "vegetarian" focus your mind on the person rather than the food and persuade a different (perhaps subconscious) choice, IYSWIM?

pie for John

You know what, forget faffing around with different coloured plates.

I'd be happy with a massive platter labelled "food for SuburbanRhonda*

Is anyone else hungry?

At my wedding, I made sure that the veggies had food plated up for them and labelled with their name.

I want "Pie for Roussette". A whole pie. Just for me.

Just had a toasted teacake with butter

God there's a lot of over thinking here. You'd think folks were queuing up for breakfast,lunch and dinner every day! Buffets are not a very regular situation so just chill and head for the booze and nuts.

Maid yes, if it said "vegetable pie", I would think it's errrr fair game. If it said "vegetarian pie" I would leave it for vegetarians!