Catering for a vegetarian?!

[Magenta3]

My brother's gf is a vegetarian. We're having everyone over next weekend for a get together. My family eats a lot of meat and I feel a bit unsure of what to cook her, and if I'm being honest I don't see why we should change our catering for one person.

I asked my brother to bring along some of their own food for her (he eats meat so will be fine, it's literally only for her) and he seemed annoyed at me. He obliged but I could tell he wasn't happy. When we've been to theirs she doesn't cook meat for us so it feels one sided. She jokes she'd probably poison us as she doesn't know how to cook meat but realistically she doesn't want to cook it, so why should we for her?

I would rather eat a proper sausage from the butchers

You can disagree. But nothing wrong with it.

My MIL was very pleased with the “Linda McCartney cheese and onion plaits” she presented me the one Christmas we visited.

Basically a cheese and onion pasty out of the freezer.

They were all vegetarian for about 8 years so I don’t know why it’s so difficult for them to work out what to make me. (I don’t go anymore.)

My bowels are perfectly fine thank you.

op was from a werewolf family and trying hard not to out herself

the question is, do you put meat in EVERY single dish you make? I am a meat eater, but I still manage to have starters, salads, make omelettes without lardons, serve cheese and puddings... all without meat. Kids have yogurts, pancakes, cereals for breakfast, who's got time to cook a full English every day?
Might not be suitable for vegans, but they are perfectly vegetarian.

Assuming she's not vegan you can make an omelette or fry up some halloumi - very simple and easy, and will go with whatever you are having.
Or buy a veggie ready meal for one you can stick in the microwave if you really can't be arsed to try and make her feel welcome.

So bloody rude and obnoxious. Your BROTHER could cook meat. Plenty of people don't mind eating vegetarian and I'm a veggie and would assume most people wouldn't mind eating veggie, I'm hoping the people I know aren't so horrible.

You could easily have said " I can get something frozen in is that OK?"

I haven't read the thread but it's nice and welcoming to cater to people if at all possible. Literally just having some quorn sausages or a boiled egg to offer instead of the meat is usually enough. If you were eg gluten free I'm sure she'd get some gluten free pasta for you. I also don't think it was a joke re she might poison you all if she tried to cook meat - even if they were willing I wouldn't want to eat meat someone with no exeoerience had cooked you might get salmonella or very over or undercooked burgers!

Don't be so rude and hysterical. The shops offer thousands of non meat foods, pick a couple and cater for this person in your life. Life is too short to be trivial like this. 👍🏼

Do people really do the ready meal thing? I would be too embarrassed to do that for any guest. Can you imagine serving up a home cooked feast for everyone and then microwaving something out of plastic for one person?

I suppose I might buy in a few premade things if someone with a very restrictive diet came to stay for a week but for one meal, I will happily cater to anything

If you can't manage to cook a pasta dish or a risotto, buy a vegetarian ready meal.

Quorn do some nice vegetarian steaks, most supermarkets have a vegetarian aisle in the fresh/fridge area with lots of lovely and easy bits.

You really do come across as disliking your brothers girlfriend.

A really easy meal = Spice Tailor korma + cauliflower, broccoli & peas. Couldn’t really be easier.

What's wrong wrong with a ready-meal?

Diner invitation means food, not home-made food from scratch.

It doesn't have to be the budget option stuck in microwave, but you can buy something perfectly decent from Cook or similar, put it in the oven, and it will be fine for any guest.

I bet in many cases a ready meal from Cook is better than some of the food people make from scratch 😂

@SacAMain

If you don't know how to cook them you are probably right.

But if you do - then ready meals are rank in comparison to home cooked.

Totally.

I have tried the higher end ready meals (when our kitchen was out of action) and they are nothing like as good as my food.

Lots of quick and easy vegetarian Indian dishes - chana masala if you use tinned chickpeas is hardly difficult or complicated.

But mostly if you wouldn't feed all of your guests a ready meal from the supermarket, it's not ok to do it for your vegetarian

It really depends on why you're hosting. If you're a good cook, love hosting and invited everyone over then you should make the effort.
However there are situations where yours is the 'default' house due to space, or unexpected people turn up.

I had a curry night once (clue's in the name) and someone asked if they could bring a friend over at the last minute. No problem - but said friend hated curry! I just got them a ready meal. Wasn't going to faff about accommodating someone who wasn't even invited in the first place.

Of course this isn't really relevant to the OP as she invited all these people over. But I can see why.

In situations where lots of people have restrictive diets I don't cook - we get takeaway. Don't see why I should be slaving away in the kitchen. People who actually enjoy it might have a different perspective.

They really aren't, unless you're lying about your diet.

That's easy.

Make the sauce. Put one portion in a smaller pan.

Put bits of animal in the larger pan. Add half a tin of chickpeas. Put the other half in the smaller pan.

Or make the usual chicken one and do a separate pan with enough potato and chickpeas to serve everybody.

Or open a jar of curry sauce. Add chicken to half the jar and mushrooms/cooked potato to the other.

Girlfriend gets a main sized portion, everybody else has opportunity for a side dish to turn their nose up at

Sorted. Everybody gets fed.

Thank you, @Velvian - I didn’t know that. I’m glad I found out before I served it to anyone who was vegetarian.

I’d assume that an Italian style hard cheese would work as well.

@Purplebunnie , why don't you say 'I don't eat meat'?

A vegetarian is someone who eats no animal product.

You do sound over the top OP. My DH stepsister is a vegetarian and he will either do breaded mushrooms or breaded halloumi before making chicken pakora as a starter for us all from scratch. He will then cook curries from scratch he’ll just make a vegetable or halloumi curry first before making meat curries for the rest of us. Macaroni Cheese or pizza with garlic bread, arancini with a tomato and herb sauce or soup if you want an alternative simple starter that everyone can eat. Stuffed peppers with a side salad, stuffed potato skins or mushroom risotto There are loads of simple vegetarian options in the shops now too if you don’t want to cook something.

As so many others have said, it would be so easy to cook whatever you're making, serve her the veg, and something vegetarian from the supermarket - even my local very-mini-Waitrose has two 'foods without' sections.
If you do that, remember not to smother it in meat gravy (I've had that in the past).

Then tell your brother that she is not invited.
Like another PP said she may not eat meat for ethical reason and for same reason can't cook meat but you can eat vegetarian food, when visiting her / your brother but she cannot eat meat so you need to provide something she can eat or tell brother she is not invited or just give her a glass of water.

Yes every single dish has meat in it, sometimes fish.
its not a full English weekday ps only bacon/sauasage sandwiches or an omelette with bacon, tomatoes &mushrooms