Calling all vegetarians

[HELLITHURT]

My son had recently decided to become vegetarian, we have 14 due for Easter lunch, 13 meat eaters and the lamb is ordered for those.

So as a vegetarian, tell me what you would love to be served as your Easter lunch?

A roast that doesn't include meat abs a meat substitute, if so what?

Something completely different?

AIBU to ask your favourite veggie Easter meal?

Mushroom cobbler is my absolute favourite there’s a good BBC food recipe online for it and it’s very tasty

Quorn escalopes are lovely , go really well with a roast

BOSH! ultimate nut roast. Fiddly to make but absolutely delicious and makes so many servings so can be used for sandwiches etc if it doesn’t all get eaten at the meal.

@Seriously79

I was a vegetarian when I was younger. I didn't have anything as a replacement, just extra veg and potatoes.

Really helpful input

Richmond meat free sausages, but the fact I hate pastry clouds my judgment on what others may like.

I'm vegetarian and when i cook a roast i just eat everything apart from the meat, no meat substitute. That includes Christmas and Easter dinner. I can have extra vegetables if i feel more hungry.

@ZaraSizeMedium

An M&S nut roast is my go to for veggies who come for roast dinner.

Tbh (depending on how old your son is) if my son decided he was becoming vegetarian he be told to come up with some ideas himself, rather than making and announcing the decision, and then expecting me to do the leg work.

Have you asked your son to come up with ideas @HELLITHURT? If he's serious about being vegetarian then he needs to know how to feed himself well in later years - the sooner he starts learning how to eat healthily the better (especially when he can still run it past you for guidance).

@WhereYouLeftIt he is 26 and married with a child of his own.

[quote HELLITHURT]@WhereYouLeftIt he is 26 and married with a child of his own.

[/quote]
Sorry typo ... 29!

[quote HELLITHURT]@WhereYouLeftIt he is 26 and married with a child of his own.

[/quote]
Doh, I misread! Thought he was 14, my bad.

But - 29? Yep, he should be able to make suggestions!

I know we all like different things. So please excuse me; I really, really don't wish to sound impolite. I have been vegetarian for decades and I cannot stand Quorn or fake meat of any kind. There are so many delicious 'proper' vegetarian dishes - to my mind they are much, much nicer than processed fake meat, which is very unhealthy, or than 'ready meals' which always somehow remind me of bad restaurants and school dinners. And which are, for what you get, terribly, terribly expensive.
Also, most pastry - so often offered to vegetarians - is such a cheap-for-the-seller option, and again not very nutritious. Unhealthy fat and carbs. Hardly any protein or veg.

I must admit that vegetarian haggis can be good, with broccoli or kale and a celery/celeriac dish and perhaps mashed swede (with olive oil and parsley). It also goes really well with mango chutney, if you like that sort of thing. Agree that Halls brand is NOT nice. I also like cauliflower cheese but even better - IMHO - is a mix of winter veg (onion, leek,celery/celeriac, parsnip, carrot) plus cauliflower in a very mustardy cheese sauce. Served with a crispy-skinned baked potato. Or roast potatoes if you like them (not keen).

What else would I suggest? Maybe mushroom stroganoff, maybe a dish based on interesting posh roast vegetables, maybe a fancy frittata (red onion, red pepper, thyme, blacke pepper, creme fraiche is good....) with a luxurious salad. Stir-fried broccoli with garlic and soy sauce is great; serve with a plain omelette, perhaps.
Maybe - if pastry required - a proper Greek herb and feta and spinach filo pastry effort. Or - no pastry - potato/celeriac/leek cooked dauphinoise-style, topped with grated cheese - ideally gruyere - with a green salad with herbs. There are other splendid dishes featureing potato/onion/grated cheese. Or slices of grilled halloumi with a really sharp salad and green olives and french beans.... And also Italian dishes such as aubergine parmigiana... Even a really well-made bubble and squeak, with a fried egg. There are lots and lots!

We just had the M&S beetroot bourguignon pie with roasted veggies and that was really good! If you wanted something a bit fancy. I’m not a huge beetroot fan but it wasn’t over beetrooty

Portobello mushrooms with Stilton cheese/ peppercorn sauce... that's my Christmas lunch, delicious!!!

Strangely the red "beef" bisto gravy is also vege, and is our preferred gravy.
I like the green one and brown onion one too.

As he is a new vegetarian, I'd go for a meat substitute. Things like cauliflower steak tends to be 'veg and two veg.

On a more ongoing basis, things like a cobbler, pie or wellington is just carb and fat, and risotto or pasta doesn't go well with a roast dinner