How far would you go to accommodate a vegan?

[Juicyj1993]

In a few weeks we're hosting a bbq for my Husband's birthday.

We have about a dozen guests coming, one of whom is vegan. As we don't normally buy vegan food I've started looking at what we'd normally buy and what is and isn't vegan. To make sure the vegan has the same variety of choice as everyone else I'm going to have to spend quite a bit on alternatives. As we have the non vegan alternatives we won't be eating the vegan versions, so they'll either go home with the guest or be thrown.

How much would you accommodate a vegan?

Would I be unreasonable to provide vegan burger with vegan cheese, plus bun and nothing else or do I need to go the whole hog and get vegan sausages, vegan condiments and vegan coleslaw?

Ps they are vegan by choice, not for medical reasons

When they can afford meat.

We always accommodate vegetarian guests at a bbq. It isn’t hard to provide the food itself. Cooking it can be a right faff though because they either have to be fed first, which is a bit divisive, or two barbecues need to be used.

I have no experience if catering for vegans but I imagine it would be similar.

I’d accommodate every guest no matter their diet choices with a full meal so I’d provide a burger/sausage and sides. You can make sides for all guests that the vegan can eat eg veg kebabs/grilled portobello mushrooms/lettuce, tomato, red onion/mixed salad with olive oil and lemon juice dressing

My mum's vegan.

She won't eat anything at a BBQ that's been cooked on the BBQ so I just buy her some falafel and she has that with the salad/ crisps/ etc that everyone has at BBQs anyway.

I used to buy a disposable BBQ for her food but I got annoyed at that as they never work very well.

I would go VERY far to accommodate them because I think it’s a great thing they are doing
how can it not be worthy of support?! Animal welfare in the meat trade and also eggs/ milk etc is horrendous.
I love vegans

I love vegans

So do I, but I couldn’t eat a whole one.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen
@Begsthequestion

its not a fad.
and lots of people are not vegans cos they can’t afford meat. It’s because they abhor the horrific animal
welfare standards (or lack of)

Imagine being so openly ignorant about the fact that you think people are vegans only because they can't afford meat.

And imagine thinking it was ok to be a bit racist while you're at it.

The trend seems to be be slowing in the UK

The decline of veganism

Well off course they’re not going to purchase meat as it goes against their morals. Much the same as Muslims who don’t eat pork, they don’t eat it elsewhere, nor would they buy it. It’s not a silly fad, it’s good for environmental reasons and health reasons, there’s also the ethical side that is the biggest deciding factor for most people.

To be honest I couldn’t be arsed. I might supply stuff that was naturally vegan- French dressing for salad, roast vegetables on the bbq. If they were a close friend I’d ask what burger alternatives they wanted (because as others have said many are fussy when it comes to meat alternative or not) but I wouldn’t do much more.

i can’t stand food waste and the idea of buying mayo, condiments vegan cheese (🤢)and a range of burgers and sausages for one person that are then likely to be thrown away does my head in.

I used to be accommodating, but after repeatedly hosting friends for the weekend and being left with stacks of the stuff -that they then refuse to take away with them I don’t bother any more. I usually offer and say why don’t you take the rest of the milk, ice cream, butter spread and they just wink and say oh you should try it. I have, I don’t like it, it was bought solely for you it is now being thrown away… pisses me off

First off, ask the vegan for advice. ‘I don’t really know much about vegan food so I thought I’d ask you so I don’t go wrong’ kind of thing. They will likely be more than happy to help - indeed as a vegan I would usually offer to bring something myself. Particularly coming to a bbq.
Vegan food can be extremely tasty (there are some amazing bbq type foods out there - as someone said, try Aldi for inexpensive but tasty). Get vegan coleslaw for everyone - Coop and Tesco regularly stock it and it’s cheap. Get a jar of vegan Mayo - with the Hellmans you literally can’t tell the difference. There are some great suggestions in this thread.
Finally… shape up. Stop treating the vegan like some weird alien - and try some of the food. Why even think of throwing it away?

@Banderbear "If I was invited to a BBQ hosted by somebody who wasn’t a vegan and I had to eat fake meat I’d be devastated."

Who said anything about fake meat?

I used to really enjoy hosting but not anymore. I read somewhere that the number of people with allergies has gone up 500% since 1990. When I used to host family there was one meal- possibly a few different options of sides put down but it was EASY and enjoyable. Now in my family we have one nut allergy who also cant have seasame, one coeliac a vegeterian and a vegan and it makes things so difficult. Catering for one or 2 of these is fine - all 4 is a nightmare. The veggie doesn't want to be lumped in with the vegans, so many vegan products contain nuts.... I dont actually have enough space to cook everything that everyone wants. And then the veggie will get annoyed because even though they get first pick the meat eaters have then had the rest of the halloumi and whilst everyone else has the option for seconds they cant. Quite frankly hosting family or friends used to be enjoyable for me- now it is just an obligation- I don't have the headspace to get it right for so many different options (and for two of my family members if I get it wrong it could be a disater). I would be tempted to do what the Americans would call a pot luck and ask everyone to bring a dish- but then the nut allergy gets annoyed because they dont trust what everyone else brings.

@ifthe It's easy. Just cook food that suits all the criteria, then serve it with breads and salads that are segregated as necessary. I'll do you a menu if you like.

The only thing I'd really be getting specially is a vegan burger and/or sausages. I'd check the rolls (they are usually vegan). Ketchup, mustard etc are vegan. I wouldn't bother with vegan cheese as it is usually pretty disgusting (and I wouldn't do cheese generally anyway as too fiddly). I would do either corn on the cob or veggie kebabs for everyone. I'd also make sure that most if not all of the salads were vegan. But then I'm not a fan of mayo-based salads anyway eg potato salad (with olive oil, herbs), green salad, and one more (eg roast vegetable and/or pulse based). The trickiest thing is dessert. I'd quite likely do a non-vegan dessert I'm afraid, but then also offer a big bowl of berries and/or sorbet.

My sisters are vegetarian and niece has a dairy allergy so quite used to working round these things. You don't have to do anything very much different really!

I would just make all the condiments vegan (no-one will notice) and everyone can eat it.

Additional items that i would serve as 'sides' which are vegan and the meat eaters and vegans all eat:

• Coleslaw; with vegan mayo
• Potato salad: with vegan mayo
• Salads - Vegan
• Cous- Cous - Vegan
• Pasta Salad - I normally just do a vegan pesto (from the jar) - Vegan
• Tomato and Onion salad - Vegan

I personally would serve the vegan/vegetarian separate from the meat completely. I have a separate little BBQ (as i know a lot of vegetarian/vegans) or i would cook in the oven as i would never eat food that is cooked on a BBQ as there will always be meat residue left on the BBQ.

You don't even need vegan mayo for coleslaw, potato salad etc. Just make a version with a citrus/oil/vinegar/herb type dressing instead.

Not according to the poster I replied to 😄😄 If you don't eat meat then there's no point attending a BBQ apparently.

By the way I didn't mean that I cook value sausages...I meant that plenty I had attended only had this on offer.

Some of my closest friends are vegan. They never make any demands and are always happy to sort themselves, but I adore hosting friends and cooking for people, so I always make sure they’re well fed. It’s really not that hard, there’s lots of ‘naturally’ vegan recipes, and it’s not like non-vegans can’t eat vegan food. I won’t go full-vegan-menu for them, but I’d want them to feel well fed and cared about if I’d invited them over.

It's not that deep. They won't have the meat or the cheese. A lot of food is naturally vegan. There are so many amazing salads and sides that we have as a meat eating family that also happen to be vegan and you could prep beforehand that everyone could eat like a big bowl of cous cous, vegetable skewers, slices of watermelon. Corn on the cob - just don't put butter on theirs. I think you're just overthinking it and making it a bigger deal than it needs to be.

And if you do eat meat, that's all you're allowed to have, as if you eat bread/salad/potatoes etc, you're stealing food from vegans mouths.

Not that you would want that food anyway, because it's special weirdy vegan food, that is only attractive to vegans.

Sounds like you've, sadly, not had the experience of tasting nice food that doesn't have animal products in.

You should try it sometime!

I have a similar conundrum - I'm catering for a team bbq lunch, and a new team member is vegan on religious grounds. I'm totally happy to cater for her, that isn't an issue. But I'm wondering whether I even can - our bbq grill, all my pots and pans, oven trays, chopping boards and knives have previously been used to cook meat and meat products, and I have no choice but to store meat in the same fridge as anything non-meat. I'm not sure if she can make it yet, but if she can, I'll of course ask her about all of that and whether it is a problem. I would hate for her to miss out, but I can't magically make my kitchen entirely meat-product free.

@chupachucks

haha too funny!
not