To ask vegans about their biggest dinner party bugbears

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I am a brown butter and cream loving non vegan with wonderful vegan friends and I want to lay on a wonderful meal for them, but I'm a total rookie.

So: asking vegans what makes their hearts sink (and conversely, what they'd most like to eat) if a friend is cooking for them?

things like candles (make sure they’re not beeswax) if you’re burning any and handwash/soap has no animal products in.

Again all vegans are different, but this is a fairly ridiculous. I am not going to be demanding to see the box your candles came in, or storming out in a huff because Jeremy is brazenly wearing a wrist watch with a leather strap!

Ah yes, bread is another one that people struggle with. Traditionally bread is just water and flour and the vast majority of bread sold in supermarkets is vegan. Yet the amount of people who seem to think bread has milk in as a standard ingredient and vegans either can't eat bread or have to buy special vegan bread constantly amazes me.

Chocolate is another one that annoys me. I constantly see people on here refer to chocolate without milk as not being real chocolate which again makes no sense to me because chocolate comes from cacao which is a plant. People add dairy to it but not all chocolate has dairy. If I see one more person use milk chocolate and proper chocolate interchangeably I am afraid I will not be able to be held responsible for my actions.

I'm veggie not vegan, but have been veggie for a long time, including when it was a lot less mainstream.

I'm genuinely very grateful when anyone makes an effort rather than expecting me to either come up with an idea or bring something myself. My mum and dad have a vegetarian repertoire of two-three dishes. The vegetarian dish is always an after thought and every single occasion they plan beautifully for everyone else and I'm expected to do my own meal planning and probably cook it too. Next time I'm hosting I might make them meal plan the non-veggie option!

In short, I'll be grateful with whatever you give me as long as I don't have to do the mental labour.

The best roast potatoes are made with rapeseed oil. And I speak as a meat eater.

The simple answer as with any dinner party, I ask in advance - is there anything you hate or are allergic to.

My vegan SILs biggest bugbear is the expectation that she will quiz them on the food. She assumes its vegan and as long as reasonable effort has been made she will eat without hesitation.

By reasonable effort i mean not making her a meat dish or adding a homemade cream sauce. Shes been fed quorn before and eaten it politely knowing there is egg in it and just made a passing reference a few months down the line in general conversation that quorn are moving away from using egg.

My go to is bulgur wheat chilli with loads of veggies .

A lot of people seem to think pasta has eggs in which to me doesn't make sense because you can keep pasta in your cupboard for years. Would you really keep something with eggs in your cupboard for that long? Yet the myth that vegans can't eat regular pasta persists

That's because of the number the supermarkets did on the public with the assistance of sleb chefs - dried pasta was just durum wheat flour and water (and perfectly good enough for Italians, btw) until the chefs appeared on telly proclaiming that Proper Pasta is Made With Eggs and made at home with purely coincidentally expensive pasta machines and attachments under their branding or bought 'fresh' in packets from the supermarkets, at which point the increased price points for egg pasta became the preferred method of selling, due to the huge markup.

After all, why would supermarkets want to encourage people to buy huge bags for between 19p and £2 that would last months when a little bit of encouragement payment would get 'experts' persuading punters to bang out three quid plus for a single meal?

Make enough vegan food so no one goes hungry.
ideally do something vegan for everyone, but if you have die hard carnivores have a meat option that requires zero effort (eg. Make your curry, pasta etc vegan and cook meat separately to put in at the last moment or serve on the side.
Make sure you have a carbohydrate and protein option to avoid people getting
hungry.
vegan recipes are fine for table talk. Vegan ethics are not. Vegans don't enjoy their ethics being put under a microscope every meal and contrary to popular belief, it's always an omnivore that initiates it.
Cater for your guests. If they're a group who'd happily go to a curry house, serve Indian. If they're less adventurous, Italian.
if the recipe needs cheese or meat to make it nice, it's not a good recipe. Pick something that doesn't rely on these to prop it up.
set out cross contamination rules at the beginning, someone will accidentally contaminate your hard work otherwise.

And thank you for thinking of us beyond a salad. Myself I'm a salad Dodger. It's always disappointing when it's the only choice.

Veganuary has some great recipes. I'll dig out my chocolate lava cakes for you too. Good luck!

hat's because of the number the supermarkets did on the public with the assistance of sleb chefs - dried pasta was just durum wheat flour and water (and perfectly good enough for Italians, btw) until the chefs appeared on telly proclaiming that Proper Pasta is Made With Eggs and made at home with purely coincidentally expensive pasta machines and attachments under their branding or bought 'fresh' in packets from the supermarkets, at which point the increased price points for egg pasta became the preferred method of selling, due to the huge markup

But that's just nonsense really, isn't it? The vast majority of pasta sold in the UK is still dried pasta without egg. Fresh pastas have become more popular but there are no tv chefs that pretend that fresh pasta is the most common or popular, and hardly anyone actually makes it. Fresh egg pastas are a tiny proportion of the market.

Cooked vegan food, and always have Engevita ( great cooked cheese alternatives,) and marigold orange stock powder used for most dishes except beef.
Hate coconut, as a non vegan, or red beans ink I’d do a nice risotto ( prob butternut squash) and good pasta dish ( tend to buy rice pasta, which I think is egg free.
Made a lovely vegan cheese cake, and adapted ingredients, yummy

madebyluci.co.uk/chocolate-lava-cakes/

Me gluten intolerant and hate coconut also allergy to blackcurrant

Best mate vegan

Mil vegetarian with pepper allergy.

Any suggestions?