Vegetarians invited themselves for Christmas- got beef ordered!

[EdenFlower]

So, my vegetarian relatives and asked if they can join us for Christmas? I have it planned- joint of beef on order, I've perfected my roast potatoes and like them cooked in beef dripping, likewise the yorkshire pudding, my sprout recipe is cooked with pancetta, starter is parma ham and figs...and so on! Grrr! Now everything will need to adapted to be veggie because I'm not doing two versions of everything. It was already adapted to be gluten free for MIL but now two more special diet guests is a push.

Would it be rude to ask them to bring their own veggie options with them- nut roast and vegetarian gravy or whatever it is they eat?

Precook roasties and Yorkshire's in veg oil freeze them and re heat on the day
Honestly they are great and only take 15 mins in a hot oven to warm up .

Buy veg gravy and pre made side dish/ red cabbage etc They'll love it

Ask them what main they would like and can they bring it for re heating?

that sounds like the tiger who came to tea

It does. Pure fiction.

You said only three things in your Christmas dinner don’t have meat in them! That doesn’t sound like a decent roast, or a discerning cook.

Maybe one of your resolutions should be to experiment more with different flavours?

I experiment with different flavours practically every day of my life. It's literally what I do. Cook new dishes and develop new recipes. This week alone I've cooked four new things from cokkery books that I've never made before and I've been shopping for about six or eight esoteric ingredients that most people probably haven't even heard of, let alone have in their pantry.

A traditional British style roast dinner is based around a joint of meat or a bird. Roast potatoes require fat or they are not roasted, they are just baked. Ask any decent cook who is not a vegetarian and their roast dinner will probably include basting stuff in the meat juices or dripping from the joint, or some goose fat, and making gravy using meat stock. It's sort of the whole point of a roast dinner with meat. The meaty flavour.

I am very happy to try new alternatives to things (except fake vegan Frankenstein 'meats') and I don't eat meat every day. But on Christmas Day I want my Christmas turkey dinner cooked the way most chefs would recommend cooking it. And that includes using meat stock, meat fat and meat juices.

@YouJustFoldItIn

You said only three things in your Christmas dinner don’t have meat in them! That doesn’t sound like a decent roast, or a discerning cook.

Maybe one of your resolutions should be to experiment more with different flavours?

I experiment with different flavours practically every day of my life. It's literally what I do. Cook new dishes and develop new recipes. This week alone I've cooked four new things from cokkery books that I've never made before and I've been shopping for about six or eight esoteric ingredients that most people probably haven't even heard of, let alone have in their pantry.

A traditional British style roast dinner is based around a joint of meat or a bird. Roast potatoes require fat or they are not roasted, they are just baked. Ask any decent cook who is not a vegetarian and their roast dinner will probably include basting stuff in the meat juices or dripping from the joint, or some goose fat, and making gravy using meat stock. It's sort of the whole point of a roast dinner with meat. The meaty flavour.

I am very happy to try new alternatives to things (except fake vegan Frankenstein 'meats') and I don't eat meat every day. But on Christmas Day I want my Christmas turkey dinner cooked the way most chefs would recommend cooking it. And that includes using meat stock, meat fat and meat juices.

Most chefs are not cooking a roast dinner like they’re serving Henry VIII. Most chefs are not sticking religiously to one flavour because of some weird tradition. I think you’ve misunderstood what it means to be a decent cook.

I've made this before and it was easy to make and very nice. You can make the nut bit a couple of days in advance or even much sooner and freeze it vegisle.home.blog/2019/12/13/cashew-nut-pate-en-croute/

@YouJustFoldItIn, normal food is just food.

Things like bread and butter or boiled/steamed veg with poached egg, or a baked potato with cheese, an omelette or scrambled egg, egg chips and beans, home made quiche, or a beanburger etc

I wouldn't have the bread and butter or jacket spud very often as I like a meal to have lots of veg.

I eat hummus several times a week. It's easy to make and is proteiny and cheap.

A more interesting squash would be a crown prince or kabocha maybe. Butternut squash is ok but it's just a normal veg

I absolutely love most veg and easily eat at least 5-a-day without trying, my preference is the leafy greens

Most chefs are not cooking a roast dinner like they’re serving Henry VIII.

I need a cokkery book.

I've been vegetarian for a couple of years now - so I don't eat meat, but I know how much work goes into cooking it, and I remember what it tastes like.

Honestly, if you were doing a 'proper roast', I'd just eat the veg. A lot of people are hung up on coming up with a special main, but I like vegetables - clue is in the word vegetarian.

You mentioned cauliflower cheese - I'd happily eat that as a 'main'. What about roasting some carrots and parsnips - should be easy enough to do, and the meat eaters will also enjoy them? Don't feel like because there are a billion things that the meat eaters can eat that you need to have the same variety for the vegetarians.

Everyone stop saying “veg” for the love of God

seasoning

@theworldsastage

I've been vegetarian for a couple of years now - so I don't eat meat, but I know how much work goes into cooking it, and I remember what it tastes like.

Honestly, if you were doing a 'proper roast', I'd just eat the veg. A lot of people are hung up on coming up with a special main, but I like vegetables - clue is in the word vegetarian.

You mentioned cauliflower cheese - I'd happily eat that as a 'main'. What about roasting some carrots and parsnips - should be easy enough to do, and the meat eaters will also enjoy them? Don't feel like because there are a billion things that the meat eaters can eat that you need to have the same variety for the vegetarians.

Me too!

@hotmeatymilk

Everyone stop saying “veg” for the love of God

It’s ‘pots’ and ‘toms’ I hate the most.

I dislike people saying Yorkshires for yorkshire pudding

@hotmeatymilk

Everyone stop saying “veg” for the love of God

I gotta say I did feel a bit queasy at your username ;

I think roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding do taste better made with beef dripping so I'd prefer to do two portions, one made with vegetable/olive oil and the other made with the beef juices. I'd be tempted to make a vegetarian stuffing like apricot and pistachio or sage and onion that could double up as a nut roast.

I think the idea upthread of Parma ham and figs and figs and feta is a really good idea.

Traditional Christmas pudding and mincemeat is made with suet so you may need to make/buy Christmas pudding and mincemeat with vegetarian suet or offer them ice cream or a bought pudding.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask them to bring a main course. My brother is vegan and he always does. Christmas is different to other occasions as oven space is more at a premium so it's more complicated to make a separate vegetarian main course unless it's something you can make in advance.

Do some advanced food prep and freeze, veg lasagne, curry, sausages, maybe whatever you would normally cook for them, some vege mince pies

“Roasties”, aaargh

@MarshaBradyo horrific isn’t it? I’ll line something else up based on this thread for next time I name change. Maybe “normalfood”

Yes it would be rude to ask them to bring their own food

Just say no, ask them over for Boxing Day.

There’s a place I pass called MeatLiquor makes me feel ill. Some things shouldn’t be mixed!

@QuiteQuaint

We'd got some chips and we were all talking about how thet were the tastiest chips we'd ever eaten. I couldnt work out what the flavour was and it was only after we'd eaten them that I realised the flavour was beef dripping

So many meat eaters tell stories like that. There’s no way I wouldn’t know something was cooked in beef dripping, huge difference between that and vegetable oil. So

I am veggie and recently DH got me chips from a new chippy. I knew straight away they were cooked in beef fat - the smell was unmistakable. He also said he suspected while he was in there but it seemed so unlikely that he dismissed the thought. Also, for some reason the place was empty, which he found odd... Maybe because the chips aren't edible?

MeatLiquor isn’t even good. Noisy and you have to be drunk to enjoy the food. Hot meaty milk is from this excellent food thread of horrors: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/4373349-Strange-catering-habits-you-have-experienced-when-eating-at-friends-family-houses

So they are relatives. They asked if they could join and you said yes.
I’m vegetarian and in these circs I’d knowing you to be meat eaters I’d have offered to bring main course and possibly see if you could do some roast tats which were vegetarian. No problem at all. If I hadn’t offered and you asked if I could bring something I’d say yes - no problem. Or You could ask if they’d be ok with eg a really nice tart or similar.
I think I’d find it a bit odd if you were unable to do any vegetarian vegetables at all - ie just a side dish with whatever without the pancetta etc
Have fun

If it was family I’d expect them to cook it for me but there have always been veggies in my family. I have been asked to do my own before by the in-laws and that was fine too (except the first time when they didn’t even try it, which did piss me off tbh!). There is an easy and absolutely delicious butternut squash roulade thing that all meat eaters so-far-tested (including kids-but with chopped up instead of whole nuts) have v much enjoyed. I’ll post the link. You could always see the veggie main as the omni’s veg side and do yourself a joint of meat too?

[quote hotmeatymilk]MeatLiquor isn’t even good. Noisy and you have to be drunk to enjoy the food. Hot meaty milk is from this excellent food thread of horrors: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/4373349-Strange-catering-habits-you-have-experienced-when-eating-at-friends-family-houses[/quote]
I dunno, I quite like the Burgaloo (it's vegan too).