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?

Yes, my dad's like that, a meal needs meat, preferably 2 sorts.

There is no such thing as 'vegetarian food'. Humans are vegetarian, food is not. There is 'food suitable for vegetarians' but that doesn't mean 'unsuitable for people who also eat meat'.

When people are offering food around the office they sometimes get to me and say "Ooh, sorry, you can't have these". I delight in telling them I can have them, I just choose not to. But I don't like being told what to do
Eatsleep - yes. I agree but compare that to TheSolitaryWanderer's post further up which implies vegetarians "can't" eat meat.

Yes as you are hosting you have to provide a veggie option or two, Mabey margarita pizza and some veggie rice or garlic potatoes, nothing too tricky.

Can I make a plea that you let them eat FIRST. I can't tell you how many times I've been to a buffet and found the meat eaters have demolished absolutely everything I can eat in preference to the meaty dishes, leaving me with nothing!

Quorn make lots of cheap snacks that you literally just take out of the packet. The chipolata sausages, scotch eggs, and sausage rolls are lovely.

I think if food is labelled "vegetarian" at a buffet, old fashioned meat eaters like my DH will avoid it. Little does he realise we eat "vegetarian" most of the time! However, if I told him it was vegetarian he wouldn't want to eat it. (Last night's tea was a delicious roasted red papper lasagne which he loved!)

rousette sounds exactly like dh

I didn't say can't

'Which vegetarians don't eat.'

Throw some Quorn sausages and hotdogs in too. Yes you really should cater for your veggie friends, you want to make their experience at your house enjoyable don't you!

if everyone is bringing a dish surely the veggies are bringing veggie stuff?

YANBU to add veggie options though - plenty of them

I agree 100% with other saying 'let veggies go first' - I always tick the 'vegetarian' box at catered events - and there is never enough left - at work now they let veggies go first! Who doesn't like samosas and cheese butties - but I really don't want the ham, tuna or beef ones - so I either eat the radish decorations or go first

Yes as you are hosting you have to provide a veggie option or two, Mabey margarita pizza and some veggie rice or garlic potatoes, nothing too tricky.

And that would fit perfectly with the OP's description of food for vegetarians being "bland and unpleasant"

Roussette - sounds like my DH. He will say things like "it's not a proper meal without meat " - and then happily eat a cheese and tomato pizza or a bowl of carrot soup for dinner.

The idea that EVERYTHING on a buffet would have meat in if not for vegetarians is blowing my mind. That sounds like a bloody horrible buffet.

Cook at parents' evening provided a meaty option and a veggie option on the buffet, by the time the vegetarians got to the table, the meat-eaters had eaten all the veggie things .

Please keep some veggie things to one side so they have a reasonable choice, and make sure no-one's put a serving utensil from the meaty or fishy things into the veggie food

Yes.... if I was to say that I've tried a new recipe from Delia's vegetarian cookbook (which is a great book) he would be put off. I just cook it and he says "this is goooood"
Funny creatures men are

I would def provide a lot of veg options. I eat meat but not that much of it and certainly not exclusively! I would absolutely eat vegetarian options at a buffet and would not feel at all guilty for doing so just because I also eat meat.

I totally agree siani. We aren't veggie but about 80percent of our meals don't contain any meat. I don't understand how any buffer would be so meat heavy as to leave vegetarians without anything to eat. Poor planning.

SuburbanRhonda, in the 70s, your options were usually a cheddar sandwich.
Sometimes just a slab of cheddar in place of the meat. Potatoes, peas and cheddar brick.
Or Heinz tomato soup with all the bread you could get your hands on.
I don't miss those times!

Yes, tortillas are a great option, proper spanish ones, everyone loves those. I'd do loads of those for a buffet.

No internet back then either.Now look, 1829 recipes available at a click!
Plus you don't have to trek to the arse end of beyond to find ingredients any more.
www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipe/vegetarian-buffet-recipes-keyword.html

Yes, I remember those times, solitary

And the only supermarket cheese suitable for vegetarians when I was a student was labelled "vegetarian cheese"

you forgot nut-fucking-roast - the only thing on the menu until about 1984!

solitary

Sometimes the cheese would be grated

once they put gravy on it

I hate buffets as well, i am a pescitarian now but eat mainly vegetarian food. I always sent dh up to get my food...he is unstoppable at a buffet, takes it as a pesonal challange

and having to shop at Holland and Barrett for veggie sausages and veggie mix