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Original poster

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

713 replies

IslandCanary · 06/04/2016 07:06

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
IslandCanary · 06/04/2016 07:49

Some great ideas here, thanks Smile
I'll make sure I include a selection of veggie dishes. I feel a bit awkward asking others to change what they're bringing but some of these ideas are really quick and easy to put together so I can easily provide them.

Should I put all the veggie food at one end of the table or just put labels on the plates?

OP posts:
TheSolitaryWanderer · 06/04/2016 07:50

'We're not all un-thinking meat eaters'

Grin I used to take my own picnic on occasions when I'd been left with the crisps and dips and garnish option before, and cheerfully unpack it.
Meat-eaters don't like to be though of as selfish, but what else could I do? Manners only go so far when you are hungry.
When I was younger and more insecure, I'd eat before I went, so no-one felt embarrassed or cross with me when there was nothing I could eat. Now I think 'Fuck 'em' and roll out my spread.

MattDillonsPants · 06/04/2016 07:50

Make a few big vegetarian pizzas, Make veggie sausage rolls, have some big bowls of hearty salad which include avocado and roasted sweet potato.

Original poster
IslandCanary · 06/04/2016 07:51

(On the serving plates I mean, to indicate the dish is vegetarian)?

OP posts:
MattDillonsPants · 06/04/2016 07:51

In simple terms...vegetarian's "meat" is stuff like avocado, cheese and nuts...another idea is Fallafels which are easily made the day before the party and as long as the breads are fresh they're lovely!

MardyGrave · 06/04/2016 07:51

Because buffet isn't a set meal, it's a choose your own. Most people appreciate veggie food as just a side dish/accompaniment for their plates though, so do think vegetarians should get first go at plating up.

Izlet · 06/04/2016 07:52

Risotto at a buffet is weird, the rice will go all claggy and it's not nice cold. Better a rice salad.

For veggie tapas look to India and the Middle East for inspiration. Samosas, pakoras, kachoris, falafel, hummus with crudités or pitta, tzaziki, grilled hallow I with chilli sauce, spicy bean salad, Thai inspired papaya and peanut salad etc etc etc. if you do vegetable tempura fry the veggies before you fry the fish or it will taste rank.

I fail to see what's bland and boring about any of the above. Usually it's the unadventurous cooks who think veggie food is all mushroom risotto and goat's cheese.

TheSolitaryWanderer · 06/04/2016 07:53

I love labelling on buffets!
It's hard to manage otherwise with some foods, you either have to study it like a hawk, ask someone who has a piece already or risk finding random meats in a forkful.

TheSolitaryWanderer · 06/04/2016 07:54

I don't care if people think veggie food is boring, as long as I get some.

Izlet · 06/04/2016 07:56

Yes, a nice guacamole, also spicy tomato dip.

I would label everything that's veggie, it will save a lot of questions about the contents. There's nothing worse than biting into a quiche to find a layer of ham at the bottom. Because ham is not meat doncha know? Grin

BadDoGooder · 06/04/2016 08:01

Yes yes label the dishes!
Horrible staring at a dish wondering if it was chicken or veg stock, or as a pp said biting into a quiche and discovering bacon or ham!

Scholes34 · 06/04/2016 08:01

Having two children who are vegetarian makes me truly appreciate how difficult people/organisations find it to cater for vegetarians, yet how much meat-eaters like vegetarian food, based on how quickly the vegetarian option is consumed.

pearlylum · 06/04/2016 08:01

I would actually label the meat items.

Everyone eats vegetarian food, only some eat the meat.

Scholes34 · 06/04/2016 08:03

What's the obsession with goat's cheese? It's rank stuff and the reason my family by-pass many restaurants when it's the only vegetarian option available.

pearlylum · 06/04/2016 08:04

doreen
"And you eat the food that HAS BEEN SPECIFICALLY PROVIDED BY THE PEOPLE THAT GAVE THEIR FOOD PREFERENCES'.

Fucking gets my goat."

No need to be so rude- you didn't make that clear. Yes I would eat mostly vegetarian food at a buffet because that's my choice. Just because I do eat some meat doesn't mean I should be forced into eating only meat items..

SanityClause · 06/04/2016 08:06

It would depend on the food offered, Doreen.

If the "meaty" food also contained vegetables, then the meat eaters were, of course, being unreasonable. But most meat eating people don't want to comprise a whole meal entirely of meat.

So, if I went to a buffet like the one the OP is hosting, I would expect to be able to eat both meat and vegetable dishes. I wouldn't want to only eat wings, meatballs, prawns and squid. I would probably want to eat at least 3/4 vegetable food to 1/4 meat/fish. (So, yes, OP, do make sure there is plenty of vegetarian food there. A "meat feast" buffet sounds dreadful.)

So, the caterers in your example (Doreen) should have provided maybe 1/3 meat dishes and 2/3 vegetarian dishes.

Of course, if the meat eaters were aware you were vegetarian, then they were very rude not to ensure that was plenty of food there for you. (One of my DDs is a vegetarian, and I often have to fight her corner to ensure that she gets a decent plate of food, or that the Colin Caterpillars are not wolfed down by everyone else in preference to the Fizzy Pigtails.)

pearlylum · 06/04/2016 08:08

scholes34 but is that so surprising. Most meat eaters are consuming 60-90% vegetarian food in their diet. We are omnivores after all, not carnivores.

TheSolitaryWanderer · 06/04/2016 08:09

Pearlylum, hungry vegetarians who thought they'd have food available because they'd stated their preferences tend to be grumpy and pissed off. Not unreasonable.
Hence my picnic option.

pearlylum · 06/04/2016 08:12

solitary- I too have food preferences, but I don't expect people to cater for me.

pearlylum · 06/04/2016 08:13

If it's a medical issue, then fine, but otherwise- then that's just unfortunate.

DoreenLethal · 06/04/2016 08:14

solitary- I too have food preferences, but I don't expect people to cater for me

I specifically said I was on a course, and there were half vegetarians and half meat eaters. Even those with BASIC maths could work out that half the food was for the vegetarians, which constituted half the people there. Seriously - they had all been asked their food preferences before and they still ate the veggie food. Which they had not stated they wanted.

Roussette · 06/04/2016 08:15

I have done buffets and I've kept back some veggie dishes and then taken them out as I've asked the vegetarians to go up to the buffet - so they get first dibs.

I am a carnivore but love vegetarian food too. If you provide attractive vegetarian dishes of which there are many, they will go! Half the time at a buffet, you don't know what is vegetarian and what isn't, so it's not fair to get the rage that people are eating veggie food. People just want a variety on their plate that isn't necessarily all meat.

OTOH quorn might be a winner it's revolting IMHO

VinceNoirLovesHowardMoon · 06/04/2016 08:16

My brother's inlaws catered a party when he got married, my entire family is vegetarian (with 7 of us, it was a good proportion of the party guests) and they cooked some beautiful veggie curry dishes to go with the meat. When food was announced there were a few who clearly took food very seriously, headed right up to the front and took generous helpings of every dish, leaving 2/3 of the veggie curry gone before we got there. It's just selfish and thoughtless. Take a bit, of course, but don't make it the main bit of your meal if you've been provided with a meat main component.

DoreenLethal · 06/04/2016 08:17

So, the caterers in your example (Doreen) should have provided maybe 1/3 meat dishes and 2/3 vegetarian dishes.

What tends to happen is that meat is the 'go to' filling. Thereby if half the delegates say they are veggie, half the food delivered is veggie. If the other half that didn't express that they wanted to eat veggie food, eat the veggie food, then that means the veggies go without.

The best thing to do is to say 'gluten free veggie'. Then you get a plate all of your own - and all because the meat eaters seem to thing the veggie food [that is only there because the vegetarians said 'vegetarian food please'] is fair game.

BadDoGooder · 06/04/2016 08:18

hungry vegetarians who thought they'd have food available because they'd stated their preferences tend to be grumpy and pissed off. Not unreasonable.
YY to this!

If the only veggie food available is seen as the sides to the meat, and not as the only thing some people there can eat, it quickly gets snaffled by the meat eaters. There needs to be more main veggie dishes, not just salads and rice, those are sides, but also if there are meat/veggie tarts for example, it would be polite to leave these for the veggies to take first, as caterers often only provide a small amount based on the numbers of vegetarians who specified.