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?

HoundoftheBaskervilles that's another really good point; assuming I could abandon all my moral convictions I wouldn't know what the hell to do with any kind of meat ad certainly wouldn't be tasting it as I went. I could easily end up killing omnivores accidentally with campylobacter.

Proginoskes how about you consider being vegetarian as being in the same category as religious beliefs then. Do you consider all people who follow a religious diet to be up on a high horse too?

hound

Dammit just how attatched are you to living up north??

rousette

Do love me a good pie

I dont like aubergine, a friend very kindly cooked me baba ganoush (something auberginey and mushed) It was foul, i had to eat it by just swallowing, no chewing was involved.

Worse thing ever is when someone very kindly gets you something like a a quorn burger at a bbq, which you eat out of good manners and then you get everyone telling you that they dont know how you can eat that rubbish.. YOU FUCKING SERVED IT TO ME!!!!

This thread has inspired me to break out some of my cook books

Are you genuinely uncomfortable eating vegetarian food Prog, does it cause you feelings of sadness?

This made me laugh til DS came upstairs wondering what was so funny - it sounds like the opening of a TV advertisement for a rehab centre. No. I eat food that doesn't contain meat or meat-products all the time. Voluntarily. Multiple times a day, even. I know, it sounds astounding. I even, if I have vegetarians come to a dinner party, make and eat a vegetarian dish as our main! Amazing, isn't it?

Ah, so you don't hold any ethical or moral positions at all then, Proginoskes? Completely amoral and happy to do whatever you think will be acceptable in the current company you're keeping?

I wouldn't say that. I certainly wouldn't attempt to remove an entire food group from someone else's meal on the grounds of my own personal preferences, that's for sure. Nor would I assume that because I considered my personal dietary preference to be the moral and ethical way to eat, that it was fine and dandy to sneer at others for being "amoral".

hound I live up North, can I come? I am a vegetarian though...

Meat is not a sodding food group. It is a source of one of the food groups, and by no means the only one. Anyone who is served food cooked by me will get a balanced meal that includes all the (actual) food groups.

I haven't sneered at anyone for being amoral. Your comments about being on a moral high horse were completely unnecessary and unjustified.

Worse thing ever is when someone very kindly gets you something like a a quorn burger at a bbq, which you eat out of good manners and then you get everyone telling you that they dont know how you can eat that rubbish.. YOU FUCKING SERVED IT TO ME!!!! shock

Funny!

Of which food group is meat a source? Genuinely puzzled here. Food groups: Meat, Fruit/Veg (including pulses), Grains (inc. nuts/seeds), Dairy.

Ah, so you don't hold any ethical or moral positions at all then, Proginoskes? Completely amoral and happy to do whatever you think will be acceptable in the current company you're keeping?

The above? Preeeeeeetty sneery. Didn't care for it one bit and I think someone's definitely just left a High Horse poo as they were riding on by. Look, you can tell by how far it's splattered.

Maid - I'm actually very polite and I think in real life we'd spend 20 mins trying to persuade each other to have the spinach pie before deciding to go halves

Oh man, Quorn. The great divider. Never had it, never been anywhere it was being served, but have heard friends have great big dust-ups about whether it's "legitimately" vegetarian or not because...I guess it's made from fungus/mushroom? Also have heard of a couple people having fairly severe allergic reactions, but maybe they'd also be the same group who are allergic to mushrooms (I'd hate that, I love portobello 'burgers').

Vegetarians/vegans/dietary restrictions/all religious observances welcome (can't do Kosher though, only have one sink) Arborea, I happily cater for them, interestingly I have absolutely no objections whatsoever about what anyone chooses to eat, when I invite people for food it just makes me happy to feed them.

Maybe I'm just odd.

Or maybe I'm like the majority of people who don't tie themselves in knots about such trifles (dairy, egg and gelatin free obviously).

Oh, and I would never serve anyone Quorn, it doesn't even register with me as a foodstuff. Is it a foodstuff?

It was a question... you've interpreted as sneery. It was after you threw out the high horse comment, in an attempt to understand why you had such a strong reaction to what I said. But you don't seem to want to engage sensibly in an actual discussion, which is a shame.

Hound - I'm up North :-) Yorkshire if that helps

Unfortunately I'm quite attached to living up North Rufus, it's one of the reasons we relocated back to the homelands (from DH's native Wales).

Excellent Yellow, maybe we should all start a Northern Supper Club, all comers welcome.

Northern supper club sounds like a fab idea - I'm Yorkshire too

hound

Thats fine, im going to need a lft and a bed for the night

(Vegetarians are entitled? I will show you entitled love )

Wouldnt usually use Quorn myself (except for the childrens spag bol) but i appreciate that its an easy go to for anyone catering for a vegetaraian thats not used to it

but have heard friends have great big dust-ups about whether it's "legitimately" vegetarian or not because...I guess it's made from fungus/mushroom?

I'm thinking either your friends don't know what being 'vegetarian' is; or you don't know that some of your friends are vegan. You have some bizarre arguments.

Oh, and I would never serve anyone Quorn, it doesn't even register with me as a foodstuff. Is it a foodstuff?

It...claims to be? Then again, Donald Trump CLAIMS to be a legitimate Presidential candidate (larf) so I guess anyone can claim anything they want...

Loving the northern supper club idea

Can you tell I love cooking???

I planned my whole blooming kitchen (and blew most of my budget) around my monster cooker!

Yellow Niiiiiiiiice set up

Food groups: Meat, Fruit/Veg (including pulses), Grains (inc. nuts/seeds), Dairy.

No. Food groups: Carbs, proteins, milk and dairy, fruit and veg, fats and sugars.
(The Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid also includes Alcohol as a food group, as does Italy's government issue healthy eating guidance.)

www.gosh.nhs.uk/children/general-health-advice/eat-smart/food-science/food-group-fun

VERY nice cooker Yellow, am quite jealous, due to relocation we are living in a rental until we can find somewhere and it has the world's crappest cooker, WITH A SINGLE CONVENTIONAL OVEN.

Mind you, workmen and tools and all that, quality of output has not been affected.