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?

Well, meat is a very small part of a healthy, sustainability-sourced diet, whereas "vegetarian" covers most types of food, so isn't difficult to cater for as it's just normal food without the added bit of meat.

If you're finding it difficult, try just giving her the food that is not meat (I'm assuming your family don't only eat meat). You can always buy veggie sausages, or just add halloumi to a bbq, chickpeas to a salad or boiled eggs, whatever.

Vegan diets can be harder to cater for, but vegetarian includes cheese, eggs, honey, milk.

Do you literally never eat a single meal without meat in it?

Do you not like her? Or do you just not have any manners?

It's very rude to invite someone round and expect them to bring their own food.

It's really not that difficult.

Curry is one of the easiest veg things. Just make a daal as a side for the meat eaters and she can have it as a main. Or the same curry sauce that you're doing for the meat eaters and put potatoes and cauliflower ans peas in hers. Or if even that's too difficult just buy a veg curry ready made from a supermarket

You can’t “portion out some curry before the meat goes in” that’ll be gross.
surely you could just buy a veggie microwave curry and pop it into a bowl if you can’t be arsed learning to make an easy Dahl?

I have a vegetarian coming for Christmas and it wouldn't enter my head not to cook separately for them .
If you can't cook appropriate meals for dietary differences then you should invite everyone over for food
It's petty

I’m actually fascinated by your curry recipe that you could do this! What curry are you making?

🤣 🤣 🤣
You do sound lIke a bit of a meanie OP, do you not like someone coming very much?

OP I understand your concern if you're used to cooking mainly meat and treat veggies as a side then it might not be delicious. If you've tried your best she can't complain, if you're that nervous get her a takeaway curry but really, you can't ask her to bring her own food!

DH hates veggies and all he does is steam them. If a veggie was served that they'd complaing definitely...

You sound like a terrible host.

Novel idea, make a veggie curry!

So you can't possibly eat a vegetarian meal, even just once?

And because of this you are happy to alienate someone who might end up being a long term member of your family (if she and your brother stay together)?

This is so obviously completely unreasonable, that I initially suspected a reverse

A PP made me google 'meat fruit salad' and who knew, but it's a thing.

That's your pudding sorted, OP!

Actually my mil made such a big deal out of me not eating meat that I offered to bring my own nut roast for Christmas Dinner once, but she is really set in her ways. I've not forgotten it though!!

Careful OP you might become an anecdote....

I’m a vegetarian- if a vegan friend invited me for dinner I wouldn’t expect them to prepare anything with cheese, milk or eggs. I would also happily cater for a vegan, as long as they accepted it might be pre-bought if I was short on time.

We used to eat at DH’s grandma’s regularly. I was the only vegetarian but she bought me ready meals from Sainsbury’s or M&S. I was more than happy with those.

If you’re making curry then spinach and paneer is a great choice, provided she isn’t vegan.

Curry is simple, just cook a vegetable curry alongside your meaty offering. When I cook curry I typically make chicken (for all meat eaters) dal (for the vegetarian and the rest of us meat eaters but not the one who hates lentils) and a veg based curry like cauliflower. Serve with rice, breads, yogurt and it looks like you have made a huge effort but curries are so easy, and use pastes if you aren't confident blending spices.

Obviously not one that involves browning or marinating the meat!

Doesn't sound a great curry, whether it's veggie or meat.

You’re very mean… poor girl. You could do easy things like baked potato with beans and cheese, veggie pizza, pasta with a veggie sauce… it’s really not that difficult. Stop being contrary

Why invite them to dinner if you don't want to cook for her and you end up with reciprocal invites you resents because she won't cook you meat?

It all sounds a bit joyless, and she is being made to feel unwelcome by being required to bring her own food, it's not as if she has a very restricted diet with multiple allergies.

If you’re making curry, how about also making a daal? That way, everyone could have some of that too, and she’d be fully included?

Thank you for the ideas for recipes.

I was invited to dinner by an Indian colleague. One of the best meals ever and all of it was vegetarian.

I can't be arsed doing different meals so my vegetarian go-to's are:

• chilli using quorn mince - slightly different texture but I bet not many would notice

• chicken risotto (bear with me). Serve vegetarian first and then add chicken. Use a vegetarian alternative to parmesan (easily available) though as parmesan is not vegetarian but again, no one else would notice

If you think this is hateful, you're not going to cope with actual hate. I say that as someone frequently vegetarian (due to religious reasons) myself. And of South Asian descent.
How many times do we see on vegetarian threads... veggie complains that not enough 'effort' has been made for them. Either because it's just an adapted main with no thought to taste or they have a small number of dishes while there are more meat choices.

Plus depending on the type of curry you don't just 'take the meat out' different curries have different spice mixes. Also unlike meat you can't just dump the veggies in you need to choose the right type or you'll get the texture wrong!

I mean OP should just buy it in if not confident. But I can see why she doesn't want to make lots of extra effort. I wouldn't either for someone else's choices.

You can make her a main and ask her to bring any other side dishes she might want. That's a fair compromise IMO.

In my house if I made a load of veggie sides nobody else would really eat if apart from me and the other veggies. I can't force people to eat what they don't like!

Do a curry. And in a separate pan. Put the sauce and quorn piece. Honestly it isn't difficult

Yeah the idea of one "curry sauce" with both curries is a bit grim - every set of ingredients needs different spicing. Cauliflower needs different spicing to lamb

Why wouldn’t you cater for a vegan? It’s easy. I often find I’ve been accidentally vegan. Most of the supermarkets have plant based ranges now if it’s really too difficult to think of something.