AIBU to hate the veggie option?

[BabooshkaKate]

It's always halumi.

Why? Why must it always be halumi?

How many different ways can you do halumi?

Why do restaurants never think outside the box?

Only recently stopped eating meat , but I've already noticed the lack of choice in restaurants for vegetarians. The menu for our work Christmas night out was a good example, for the meat eaters turkey, beef, salmon for main course. The vegetarian option was a butternut squash & feta muffin...? WTF is that??

I've always been a bit half hearted about meat, and used to never cook it before I had dD. But I would never choose the vegetarian 'option' in a restaurant because they are so dire. If it's not goats cheese something or other its pasta with some left over vegetables cooked up with a tin of tomatoes. However, if we come across an actual vegetarian restaurant we will always opt for that. There is so much more to vegetarian food than cheese and nut roast.

cocoabuttersosoft Try finding local Asian supermarkets for Tempeh, if you are in the area Thai's R Us in Canterbury sells it frozen.

Cocoa Planet Organic sell tempeh, and you can get it on-line from goodnessdirect and Amazon.

To put it in context, this is Spain, where it's notoriously bad, but check out the only veggie option - cheese and beans jacket:

Oh dear...

foxtrotoscarfoxtrotfoxtrot
Finally, I've had a chance to run through everyone's suggestions, and you guys are great. Thank you. So many ideas, and all of them delicious. I can't wait to get some on the menu.

I think chef would enjoy a few meals out at some of the recommended restaurants to get some ideas, possibly a cordon vert course (so than you for those ideas), and then we'll get cracking.

Good luck! And let us know when the new menu launches so that we can all come and taste test

I remember a week in France where meals were part of the deal. They couldn't work me out. After three days of over-runny omelettes I was given a plate of steak and veg. I sent it back and they sent it back out again having scraped off the meat but leaving all the juices on the plate. I'd have loved that jacket potato...

I thought about becoming vegetarian some years ago but decided I wouldn't because I found veggie meals so boring and/or horrible and I am a fussy eater anyway. I gave up red meat but having fish and chicken/turkey options gave me a bit more choice (though in some restaurants they often have beef, lamb, pork and then one of chicken or fish, so still not much of a choice).

I do like butternut squash soup though! It is my chosen starter for my work Christmas meal. For another one, I am having carrot soup which I am a bit less enamoured with.

Interestingly I had no vegetarians at my wedding at all (out of 60). Most people had lamb and about 8 of us had chicken.

cocoa goodness direct sells tempeh. Holland and Barrett sells tempeh bacon if your local one has a fridge.
www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/277501_Impulse_Foods_Organic_Frozen_Plain_Tempeh_227g.html

Went to an event once where starter was melon, main was a roast veg tart but it had some sort of dressing that made it sweet, and desert was sorbet. Big sugar rush then felt sick!
I agree most veggie options in this country are poor.

I'm not a vegi but absolutely love goats' cheese, mushrooms and yes, halloumi, (and even roast vegetable tart) so find myself quite often going for the vegi options as they sound nicer to me than the meat/fish ones.

Am curious what proper vegetarians would like to find on the vegi menu if not these delightful items?

What does gourmet vegi food look like?

Am curious what proper vegetarians would like to find on the vegi menu if not these delightful items? What does gourmet vegi food look like?

Interested in the answer too! I think mushrooms and haoumi and goat cheese are awesome.

I'm in France and have learned to adapt over the years. I will eat fish if it's served to me when I'm invited out, but prefer not to. I will travel MILES to get halloumi! But actually, France is waking up a bit in the last few years & if you find a restaurant which has taken "the veggie option" seriously, it's very, very good ime.

Flowers and ate

Choice!

I rather suspect the majority of those saying 'I don't like mushrooms/cheese/whatever' don't not like ALL those things but they're often the ONLY veggie option.

What are the better veggie options?

Really curious!

I'm not a veggie so clueless :)

For the past four years at the work Christmas parties I've had:

Starter - Butternut squash or pumpkin soup
Main - An inspired pasta with mushrooms
Dessert - Poached pears

Vegetarians are made to feel (by some) that we should be grateful for having something to eat. No. As the years go on I judge more and more "chefs" who can't come up with something interesting, and an actual option rather than ONE dish. Vegetarians are allowed to have dislikes and preferences too.

That should have been UNinspired! Pasta is rarely exciting...

Nut cutlet.

Bleugh.

I like goats cheese and halloumi, but just get very very bored of them as the go-to choice for the single vegetarian option. (Don't like mushroom at all!)

It's nice to have a choice of more than 1 dish, and for it to involve vegetables cooked properly with lots of interesting flavours. Possibly involving pulses, nuts, and I like tofu too but I know not everyone does. Plus it doesn't suit typical English/French/Italian food.

I asked as my ds has recently gone vegi and in an effort to get some protein into him as a growing boy, I seem to be giving him enormous quantities of lentils and chickpeas, plus eggs and cheese (he's vegi not vegan, mercifully) and yes, halloumi!

But I'd love some ideas for alternatives as not keen on giving him processed vegi sausages/burgers, which is all he seems to get elsewhere.

Am curious what proper vegetarians would like to find on the vegi menu if not these delightful items? What does gourmet vegi food look like?
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Interested in the answer too! I think mushrooms and haoumi and goat cheese are awesome.

The problem is choice. I love halloumi and goat's cheese - but if you don't, it's massively frustrating that there's no other choice. If a meat eater doesn't like duck, no one notices because they just order chicken or lamb. Veggies can't.

We've not got round to it so far, but next time we come to the UK, this is what I have in mind as a "better veggie option" www.vanillablack.co.uk/menus/a-la-carte-menu

My favourite veggie foods are curries, chillis, stews, stir fries, burritos/enchiladas/wraps, veggie burgers, veggie tarts/pies.

In most restaurants the veggie option is normally a lazy pasta dish (the kind of thing I could easily make at home) or risotto. Or if they do go for something more adventurous, the veggie choices are so limited that if you don't like mushrooms or goats cheese or halloumi you don't have any other choice.

Toby Carvery has a really good vegetarian/vegan menu IMO. Mainly because there are actual choices and you're still eating the same sort of the food as the meat eaters. If everyone else I having a roast I want a roast too, not pasta!