Unexpected guest

[bubblicious47]

Is coming to our Sunday roast dinner today. My son has invited his new gf (great!) but only just told me she's pescatarian. We are having roast gammon with roasties, carrots, broccoli etc. what could I make her (or pref buy - I'm not feeling that great) that would go with the same sides?

Salmon fillet in tin foil 'bag' with oil, lemon chunk and parsley. 20 mins in the oven - all self contained. Lovely!

Ask DS if he's ever seen her eat salmon.
I also don't eat 'meat' only fish but absolutely hate salmon.
I'd prefer lemon sole or cod.

A nice easy way to accommodate is to make a special nutty stuffing - just use your usual stuffing recipe (without the meat fat) and add chopped mixed nut and perhaps fried off onions and peppers. I don't think you need to worry about trying too hard or making extra trips to the shops. I'm a lifelong vegetarian and am very happy to have a roast dinner with everything except for the meat. We (my home and meat eating in laws) always do a cauli cheese with the roast dinners, which suits me fine. If I go to my mum's she always does a nut roast as there are a couple of vegetarians, but I wouldn't expect a non veggie family to do that.

For my Veggie mil we always just cook more sides. Cauliflower cheese, Yorkshires, Stuffing. You could maybe roast some extra veg like squash, sweet potato, parsnip etc. I wouldn't buy a specific Veggie 'thing' though

It's just following traditional fasting rules. The 15th century Council of Constance defined "fish" as anything that lives in water, hence including beavers. Allegedly leading some monasteries to drown piglets in their ponds in order to re-classify them. And then there's the apocryphal abbot who solemnly baptized a roast piglet as "carp."

That is so interesting @GrumpyPanda!

Just steam a piece of fish steamed in the microwave in lieu of the gammon. She can have the veg you are having with it, providing you aren't roasting them in animal fat.

Massive eye-roll from me. That person is a meat-eater.

Salmon in a foil parcel topped with two teaspoons of green pesto. Oil the foil first.

25 mins in the oven on 200. Unwrap and serve. So easy.

Another vote for the salmon. So many people won’t touch the ultra processed vegan or vegetarian meat substitutes. You know she eats fish so can’t go wrong with that

Salmon with a roast dinner sounds awful
to me , I’d just do some veggie sausages and make sure her gravy is meat free , Linda Mcartney do great ones or I love the vegan Richmond sausages

I'm veggie rather than pesc, but usually have veggie sausages (only the Richmond ones) or just extra stuffing.

I'd get another type of fish, like basa, incase she doesn't like salmon. A simple cheese sauce over that, potatoes and broccoli is easy to do.

Salmon en croute, mushroom Wellington or something like roasted squash with cauli cheese would be my preference.

I'm a bit surprised by the pescetarian saying they'd be disappointed by a lentil loaf. Do you expect to eat fish every meal? Don't meat eaters eat vegetarian (or fish) on occasion?

@bubblicious47 Salmon is fine. Season well. Bake it in the oven with lots of butter in a foil parcel and it will generate enough liquid to pour over the top of it and stop the whole meal feeling dry.

Can't remember if you said how you were doing the veg, but again you can roast carrots/parsnips etc in a honey glaze to help brighten up the sides that would normally be buried under gravy.

Good luck!

Given it’s late notice, I’d just expect her to eat the cauliflower cheese, and other veg and be happy with that. Just apologise and say you were not aware she was pesc until just prior but you will cater accordingly next time and it will be fine.

Sigh.

I was sort of joking when I said about being disappointed with lentil loaf, hence the ! and the smiley but it appears that on MN you need to preface everything non-serious with LiGhThEaRtEd!!11!

I was pointing out that many posters appeared to be conflating pescatarians with vegetarians and vegans and they are not the same thing. Of course I don’t eat fish with every meal and regularly eat vegetarian food. Personally, if I was going to a Sunday lunch where everyone else was having a roast, I’d prefer something like salmon en croute rather than a lentil thing from a packet but ymmv.

Can I also point out that roasted squash is a side, not a main, unless it’s part of something such as a pie/en croute. People think that non-meat eaters have a pile of roasted veg as a main dish.

As a life long veggie i do not agree that anyone would be happy with more sides instead of a veggie option and would not enjoy this "meal" at all. they are sides for a reason. they do not constitute a meal. your friends might not like meat substitutes but there are plenty of actual veggie dishes available that aren't fake meat. your friends might also be trying to be polite. i don't know anyone who would be happy with a meal made up of side dishes. so i came here to say don't do this. it would make me feel uncomfortable and very aware that i was an after thought / a bit of a nuisance you couldn't be bothered to (easily) cater for. bunging a pre made goats cheese tart in the oven is not hard.

Around 75% of the replies have mentioned salmon. I really don't think most posters have ignored the pescetarian thing.

I'm a veggie. But thanks for telling me that roasted squah, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, cali cheese, carrots, peas etc is only the sides.

And don't worry - this is lighthearted too.

I'm a vegetarian and in this sort of situation I think it's best to just get your son to ask if she has anything she prefers. I used to panic when being cooked for by someone who didn't know me because I can't stand mushrooms and that seems to be the default vegetarian option.

If you don't want to ask, I would definitely go with some vegetarian sausages (Linda McCartney best in my opinion) and just make a separate jug of vegetarian gravy. Serve with all the usual trimmings, perfect.

I wouldn't go to the hassle of getting a pretendy meat joint type thing. If you're not used to making them, chances are it won't turn out great and lots of vegetarians don't like them much anyway.

Whenever we have new guests. I always ask about food preferences and dislikes. I pride myself on being a good host and making guests feel welcome.

DD is vegetarian anyway, and we all eat a wide variety of foods and cuisines. I have a couple of coeliac friends, a couple of vegan family members and a couple of lactose intolerant family members and find it easy to cater for everyone's dietary requirements.

I would have just asked the DS what his girlfriend's preferences were.

but this guest IS an afterthought - that's the whole point of the thread. OP found out last minute, is feeling ill, and doesn't know this girls preferences other than she is pescatarian. I would be devastated if I was given a goats cheese tart as I hate the stuff and would be in more stress worrying about how little I can get away with eating while remaining polite about a dish clearly bought just for me. And while salmon is popular, it does have a strong flavour that can be divisive, (I also think fish does not at all suit a roast).

The veggie friends/family I mentioned in my first reply would have zero qualms letting me know if they were actually unsatisfied with just sides, sometimes we do a squash tart or similar, but they genuinely love roasties/cauliflower cheese/yorkshires with gravy and to them a 'main' is a distraction from their favourite bits.

Salmon goes perfectly. I often have it as a 'roast' with roast potatoes. It goes nicely with cauliflower cheese too.

Aldi have just started doing a Camembert, Mushroom and Parsnip pie. It’s my new favourite.

Maybe it's because I've been a veggie for so long and my mum was a veggie in the 60s and 70s so I'm "used" to slightly different meal combinations from when there weren't so many veggie options - fake meat or otherwise. But I struggle to see why roasted mushrooms or roasted squash is a side but wrapped in some filo or puff pastry and it magically becomes a main. With a roast dinner and the potatoes and Yorkshires I really hate receiving a load of extra carbs from thick pastry and have often eaten the fillings and left the pastry when given a meal like this.

It is hard to bung something in the oven that you don’t have... and lots of people really dislike goats cheese, so it’d be a risky one anyway.

Given that the OP is asking now she knows, she’d have obviously got something in if her DS had told her in time, but he didn’t.

So making some cauliflower cheese and saying - sorry DS didn’t tell me till today that you don’t eat meat so I made the cauliflower cheese and you can let me know what sort of things you prefer for next time, is totally fine.