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?

I'm happy to accomodate MIL as she is coeliac which is a medical condition- plus it's easy to do- because there isn't much gluten in a roast dinner anyway! Vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice

Well you clearly resent catering for them.

I wouldn't want to eat at your house with that attitude

Just be honest how much disdain you have for them and they'll likely put you out of your misery and eat elsewhere

Win-win

@EdenFlower

Surely if you are a vegetarian and you are visiting relatives who you know usually cook a traditional roast on Christmas day then you don't expect the host to provide two options just for you?

I am a veggie, but even when I ate meat growing up we never had potatoes cooked in meat fat/ veg cooked with meat/ yorkshires cooked with meat. It wouldn't cross my mind that I wouldn't be able to eat everything except the meat and gravy- I would usually say to the host not to make a special meal but I would eat whatever was veggie. So maybe warn them in advance how meat-heavy your roasts are, as they may not have realised how different the meal will be for you now, and ask them what they would normally have.

But, as host, if I am catering for people with dietary requirements I do cook two things, or I cook things that everyone can eat. I prepare meat for my DH and kids, I make meat gravy from scratch, I would buy or make vegan alternatives for a vegan friend, and I have bought and cooked halal chicken in the past for muslim friends. Its just polite to me to provide a wide range of options that everyone can enjoy- I wouldn't want to make my guests feel like they are imposing or as though they are unwanted/ too much work to feed.

Also to add I may be biased here but Christmas is the one time of the year when everyone else expects rich, meaty food. It doesn't make sense to change a lot of things for two people who weren't invited in the first place.

I think you could fairly easily drop the meat in some of the sides

Yeah. Sounds a bit meat-heavy to me.

I think adapting the sides to vegetarian is fairly straightforward and then asking them to bring a main course to go alongside the beef you are serving sounds best

I'd buy a prepared nut roast or vegetable wellington or something similar and serve that up with whatever sides are vegetarian friendly. You could buy some frozen roast potatoes that are in vegetable oil and stick them in with the chosen vegetarian main.

It's a bit of extra juggling but not exactly impossible.

It's your house, you can be as accommodating or not as you like. Although I do think it's a bit odd that you'd be more embarrassed to serve bought food than to serve them nothing at all.

@BIWI

It's not compulsory to cook a nut roast for vegetarians!

What about a mushroom wellington? Not difficult, but delicious.

Never heard of it- will look that up! Any other easy ideas I can cook insead?

Sides will be, cauliflower cheese, carrot and swede mash, sprouts in a creamy garlic sauce, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets (which they can just not have as they don't eat pretend meat). I might change the starter to halloumi salad with chilli sauce.

I have been veggie my whole life and never eat nut roast lol, the things are damn awful.

How is EVERYTHING you cook (including the veg) meat... that just seems insanely meat overkill even for the meat-eaters I know.

I would normally just eat the Yorkshire and veg (broccoli, parsnips, carrots... are they all meat too?) I don't really expect anything fancy but then I have never encountered meat cooked Yorkshires and veg before (I do often avoid roasties as its 50/50 to if they are cooked in 'dripping')

Pasta makes a nice main if you want a suggestion and it's pretty easy (nothing fancy something like Mac and Cheese works) and if the Yorkshires you make are 'meaty' why not get the giant frozen Yorkshire from Asda, they're like 60p and only take a few minute in the oven.

Also to add I may be biased here but Christmas is the one time of the year when everyone else expects rich, meaty food

Do they? Even before going veggie we only had the main meat and pigs in blankets. Nothing else was meaty.

People expect a big, delicious dinner. There isn’t one way to do that.

Although I do think it's a bit odd that you'd be more embarrassed to serve bought food than to serve them nothing at all.

🤣

well you can't just tell them to bring a main because that assumes that everything else on the table is suitable, which is not the case. You'd have the make that very clear.

This is a tough one. You want your dinner to be special, and you've perfected the menu. Switching it all up (bar the beef) would make you unhappy and still require them - or you - to provide a main.

I'm veggie, and would be so very sad not to be able to eat any of the sides. The sides are the best bits - I'm happy to skip a 'main event' dish as long as I get to eat all the sides.

I'm the only veggie in the family, when I go to one of the other family members houses for Christmas I just have what I can and leave what I cant, although that said our families don't tend to have roast potatoes done in dripping etc which does make it easier (although I am sure less tasty from your perspective!), I also don't eat gravy which helps

I certainly wouldn't want someone faffing around with a nut roast for me, in fact I've never even eaten a nut roast! If it ends up that I have to fill up on Christmas cake afterwards then I have no issues with that

That said I am not a veggie on principle, so I am not going to fuss about cross contamination or finding a bit of bacon in my sprouts etc. I am veggie because of textural issues.

I would just be blunt, tell them what bits of the meal are suitable, which bits aren't and ask if they want to bring anything with them to fill in the gaps. I think you should be able to adapt to serve the veg in a way that's suitable for veggies? So in which case they can bring potatoes and whatever they want instead of meat with them?

To be fair I find being veggie less of an issue than my chilli allergy, one year my in laws provided a buffet where only 1 item hadnt got chilli in it, and my Father in law specifically went into the dining room early to help himself to most of this so I ended up with the tiniest amount of food

My sister brings her own vegetarian main course and she is invited. If they have invited themselves I would ask them to do similar. They have asked to.join in after you have given time and energy to your Christmas dinner, so yes, let them being their own alternatives. Can I come?!

Just seen your post before mine, that all sounds lovely

Pasta makes a nice main if you want a suggestion and it's pretty easy (nothing fancy something like Mac and Cheese works)

This is the weirdest thing I think I’ve read.

Pasta has no place on a Christmas dinner!

Jeez. I'm vegetarian, and like many previous commenters I'd have no issue bringing something preprepared or eating one of the many supermarket packet options. You may have culinary standards you like to keep to, but the stress and rage you'll be radiating on the day if you change everything will make it a terrible day for everyone. Far better to either relax your standards or rescind the invitation.

I hate it when guests bring extra food. What if they bring some enormous lump that needs cooking at 140 while everything else you have planned cooks evenly in the oven at 200?

If you don't want to say no, could you pick up individual pastry type parcels from somewhere fancy that you could just chuck in the oven? You could use vegetable oil instead of dripping for roasts, steam veg etc.

It would piss me off too though.

Pigs in blankets with roast beef????

@PurpleDaisies

OP if you have cooked them vegetarian food before they might not realise how much of faff it is I get it

Veggies probably have some idea of how much faff cooking veggie is…

Cooking the veggie meal is not the part that’s a faff. It’s cooking different things for different people. Vegetarians may well not get how much of a faff that is. I’ve never encountered vegetarians who cook a special meat option for their meat-eating guests.

www.bosh.tv/recipes/portobello-mushroom-wellington

This is an excellent mushroom wellington.

Your new menu sounds lovely.

They probably don’t realise that nearly everything you’re making involves meat and that its likely to put you out so much. I’m veggie and while I I’d ask if I can bring my own roast potatoes if you were planning on cooking them in animal/bird fat, it wouldn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t be able to eat most of a normal roast dinner. Especially at Christmas when there’s usually more veggies than normal.

@EdenFlower

Surely if you are a vegetarian and you are visiting relatives who you know usually cook a traditional roast on Christmas day then you don't expect the host to provide two options just for you?

Honestly you are over thinking it. Go to M and S and buy some veggie stuff. It's not a drama and pretty standard to be a veggie these days.

I wouldn't ask them to bring their own unless you have no money then everyone should be contributing

If people learnt to say ‘no’, 75% of MN threads wouldn’t exist

I’ve never encountered vegetarians who cook a special meat option for their meat-eating guests.

Well... Of course you haven't