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?

@TatianaBis

We’re leaning ever-closer to ‘that foreign muck’ here with this talk, and it’s making me uncomfortable.

No they’re not you’re just manipulating to find an angle to carry on your argument from last night.

Traditional UK Christmas dinner with Asian veg dish is a bit of an odd combination. I love Asian food and eat more Asian than trad English but I probably wouldn’t mix the two, and if I did I’d rather it was more skilful than broccoli with soy.

Odd for who?

I regularly eat broccoli and soy with tofu and noodles etc
I can’t imagine what it would taste like with gravy and stuffing etc.

Odd for who?

Being realistic, odd for pretty much anyone.

This is the most bizarre thread.

To me a good host makes their guests feel wanted. This may mean making adjustments to how they normally do things. Equally a good guest won't want to create a fuss and is likely to make suggestions or offer to bring things. If we are invited anywhere I automatically offer to bring food for my daughter if they prefer.

Do they eat fish? Lots of people call themselves vegetarian but actually eat fish. We've had 'vegetarians' over for Christmas several times and they've enjoyed salmon some years or mushroom Wellington. Some sort of vegetarian tart might also work. M&S or Waitrose then for the extras.

Ps. Your Christmas dinner sounds amazing.

@Pumperthepumper Stop being annoying! You know most people won't be having raw broccoli with soy sauce on with the traditional Christmas dinner so you know to most people that would seem an odd choice! Stop trying to make out that traditional recipes are odd, it's yours that are unusual.

[quote EdenFlower]@Pumperthepumper Stop being annoying! You know most people won't be having raw broccoli with soy sauce on with the traditional Christmas dinner so you know to most people that would seem an odd choice! Stop trying to make out that traditional recipes are odd, it's yours that are unusual.[/quote]
Who are ‘most people’?

I’d say ‘most people’ in 2021 aren’t making sure everything they eat is laced with meat flavouring because they can’t think of any other flavour.

We’re leaning ever-closer to ‘that foreign muck’ here with this talk, and it’s making me uncomfortable.

No we are not. I am giving you a dose of your own medicine to see how you like it, being told that your food is weird or unpleasant and that your preferred flavours are 'bizarre.'

Personally I would not want to eat what you eat ON CHRISTMAS DAY which is the point of the thread. CHRISTMAS DAY. We have Christmas food traditions in this country that involve meat and meaty flavours and particular side dishes that have been the same for a few generations. I refuse to see them as' lesser' or in some way boring or inferior to anyone else's idea of 'good' food. I am delighted to explore and embrace all different food cultures represented in Britain today - just not on Christmas Day.

I've already told you that I cook and eat non-British recipes on a very regular basis. In fact as we speak I have a homemade naan dough proving and we are having a Pakistani chicken handi tonight. Tomorrow we are having a meat free lasagne with leeks and fennel and three cheeses. In the last week I have made Sardinian slow cooked courgettes in almonds, chilli, mint and olive oil, an Ethiopian Doro Wat, a Turkish olive, walnut and pomegranate salad with homemade Turkish Pide, and a Keralan fish and prawn curry in coconut.

Stop trying to suggest I am being xenophobic and making you 'uncomfortable.' You are being ridiculous.

@YouJustFoldItIn

We’re leaning ever-closer to ‘that foreign muck’ here with this talk, and it’s making me uncomfortable.

No we are not. I am giving you a dose of your own medicine to see how you like it, being told that your food is weird or unpleasant and that your preferred flavours are 'bizarre.'

Personally I would not want to eat what you eat ON CHRISTMAS DAY which is the point of the thread. CHRISTMAS DAY. We have Christmas food traditions in this country that involve meat and meaty flavours and particular side dishes that have been the same for a few generations. I refuse to see them as' lesser' or in some way boring or inferior to anyone else's idea of 'good' food. I am delighted to explore and embrace all different food cultures represented in Britain today - just not on Christmas Day.

I've already told you that I cook and eat non-British recipes on a very regular basis. In fact as we speak I have a homemade naan dough proving and we are having a Pakistani chicken handi tonight. Tomorrow we are having a meat free lasagne with leeks and fennel and three cheeses. In the last week I have made Sardinian slow cooked courgettes in almonds, chilli, mint and olive oil, an Ethiopian Doro Wat, a Turkish olive, walnut and pomegranate salad with homemade Turkish Pide, and a Keralan fish and prawn curry in coconut.

Stop trying to suggest I am being xenophobic and making you 'uncomfortable.' You are being ridiculous.

You said ‘can you imagine if we said THIS?!’ when you’d said exactly that to me.

You have your own food traditions in your house, it’s bold of you to speak for an entire country.

You have your own food traditions in your house, it’s bold of you to speak for an entire country.

I am willing to stake my morning coffee on the fact that only a handful (at most) will be having soy broccoli as part of their traditional Christmas dinner in this country.

There’s a reason the Christmas food catalogues from M&S, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s etc etc don’t contain a hard broccoli and soy sauce option, and it isn’t “that foreign muck” but simply it is non-traditional for the meal in question.

@PurpleDaisies

You have your own food traditions in your house, it’s bold of you to speak for an entire country.

I am willing to stake my morning coffee on the fact that only a handful (at most) will be having soy broccoli as part of their traditional Christmas dinner in this country.

So the entire country will not be eating only meat-based sides?

Hang on I have soy brocolli every year for Christmas - actually Tamari with fresh ginger also is great with generous redcurrent jelly. So I am definitely in the ‘handful’. To us it’s more essential then anything other than roast tats, mashed tats, roasted sprouts (with tahini). The ‘centrepiece’ I can always take or leave largely.

Wouldn't really bother me.
According to my vegetarian SIL, the Waitrose nut roast is lovely.
I buy readymade gravy for him and season it up with a bit of thyme, mustard and wine. Small bowl of roasties just for him.
I usually do a non meat starter anyway to cut down on the meat we all eat.

People make too much of the 'hassle' of vegetarians.

I’d say ‘most people’ in 2021 aren’t making sure everything they eat is laced with meat flavouring because they can’t think of any other flavour

You are tiresome! I don't really understand your point. It's got nothing to do with being unable to think of a flavour- I cook my roasties in beef fat because they need a fat to cook them in and it's a traditional method, which produces great results, especially when serving with roast beef- what do you cook yours in that is such a revolutionary flavour? I can 'think' of lots of other things I could cook with but on this occasion choose not to!

I love roast potatoes with garlic and rosemary done in olive oil at other times- but don't choose this way for Christmas dinner, that's all.

So the entire country will not be eating only meat-based sides?

You are either deliberately misunderstanding what people are saying or you can’t read.

People have taken issue with broccoli cooked in soy on a traditional Christmas dinner. Virtually nobody will be cooking that. I’m sure plenty will be having broccoli cooked in some other non meaty way.

And nobody here has said they will be eating only meat-based side dishes! Only you said that! Many people seem to have sprouts with pancetta or bacon, roasties in animal fat, but then there's lots of veg that doesn't have meat- parsnips, cauliflower cheese, carrot and swede mash, cranberry sauce, mashed potato, chestnut stuffing which are just of the few mentioned here.

And as a Tamari brocolli eater I fully accept it is not traditional.

I'm glad you've been happy to adapt your sides, OP- and I can understand it is a compromise/sacrifice on your part! Half my family are veggie and in similar circumstances we wouldn't be offended if asked to bring a vegetarian main- or if we were presented with a shop bought thing. We tend to do nut roast as it sort of feels like the traditional vegetarian thing now and my mum is still happy to make it every year! But due to Covid I tried a vegetable Wellington from Abel and Cole last year and it was very nice. Hope you have a lovely Christmas meal!

@Pumperthepumper I’m foreign so I suppose I can say this in a completely PC manner - @YouJustFoldItIn Christmas dinner sounds lovely and I don’t know why you keep having a go at her. Soy sauce is one of my native ingredients and as much as I love it I would not want to see it at at a traditional Christmas dinner. You have a habit of being goady towards other posters (e.g a refugee/asylum seeker thread a few months ago) and have been told off even by the OP so if you have nothing constructive to contribute don’t bother posting.

[quote TractorAndHeadphones]**@Pumperthepumper* I’m foreign so I suppose I can say this in a completely PC manner - @YouJustFoldItIn* Christmas dinner sounds lovely and I don’t know why you keep having a go at her. Soy sauce is one of my native ingredients and as much as I love it I would not want to see it at at a traditional Christmas dinner. You have a habit of being goady towards other posters (e.g a refugee/asylum seeker thread a few months ago) and have been told off even by the OP so if you have nothing constructive to contribute don’t bother posting.[/quote]
Can you link that thread? I don’t think that was me.

@EdenFlower

And nobody here has said they will be eating only meat-based side dishes! Only you said that! Many people seem to have sprouts with pancetta or bacon, roasties in animal fat, but then there's lots of veg that doesn't have meat- parsnips, cauliflower cheese, carrot and swede mash, cranberry sauce, mashed potato, chestnut stuffing which are just of the few mentioned here.

No, Folditin said they only have three meat-free dishes on their entire Christmas table, and one of them is cranberry sauce. That’s how this discussion started.

Me too Purple

I agree it would be bold of me to speak for an 'entire' country, which is why I didn't. However, I don't think it's particularly bold of me to believe I speak for most of the country, when I say that how I cook our Christmas meal more closely represents what they hope to eat on the biggest religious/cultural feast day of the year in the UK than yours does.

If you insist on finding a xenophobia angle in that then I think that says more about you than it does about me.

Obviously there will be a few variations on a Christmas theme according to people's cultural heritage, for example some in a Caribbean heritage households there will probably be rice dishes, curry goat, rum cake etc, but most people in this country will be eating what I eat at Christmas and cooking it in a roughly similar way. They just will. And it's not 'weird' or 'bizarre' for them to do so.

@YouJustFoldItIn

Me too Purple

I agree it would be bold of me to speak for an 'entire' country, which is why I didn't. However, I don't think it's particularly bold of me to believe I speak for most of the country, when I say that how I cook our Christmas meal more closely represents what they hope to eat on the biggest religious/cultural feast day of the year in the UK than yours does.

If you insist on finding a xenophobia angle in that then I think that says more about you than it does about me.

Obviously there will be a few variations on a Christmas theme according to people's cultural heritage, for example some in a Caribbean heritage households there will probably be rice dishes, curry goat, rum cake etc, but most people in this country will be eating what I eat at Christmas and cooking it in a roughly similar way. They just will. And it's not 'weird' or 'bizarre' for them to do so.

Exactly @Pumperthepumper I’m not going to trawl through threads just to prove a point - it doesn’t matter if @YouJustFoldItIn has no vegetables at the table it’s not weird or bizarre. Suggest you go and look up how traditional roast dinners are made. Nothing wrong with people wanting to stick to that

@TractorAndHeadphones you’ve twice accused me of poor behaviour on threads, and now are implying I was on a thread I categorically wasn’t on. If you’re going to bandy accusations about, don’t be a coward - post your evidence.