Boxing Day ideas for meaties coming to a veggie house

[Heruka]

Having a load of family on Boxing Day. First year we have a big enough house to accommodate them all but some made clear they couldn’t do a non meaty Xmas dinner which i do understand, so we are all going to a different family member on Xmas day then us on Boxing Day.

I want to make something lovely and show them that veggie life is not as appalling as they think, but possibly I am putting too much pressure on myself and it’s not my job to teach them that?!! I’ve offered to bring our veggie main on Xmas so will bring a butternut squash/feta/nut wellington that we’ve done before.

Anyway, what should I make for them coming to us. I’m also conscious that the Boxing Day vibes are different and folk may not want a massive meal, so planning to have lots of lovely snacks and drinks while we lounge about, but I’m a bit stuck for the meal. I thought of doing really fancy cheese platter, soups and croissants kinda thing, and make a sticky toffee pudding, or I could do a more elaborate main meal to impress - any ideas?

Especially would like to hear from any meat eaters who would feel similar to my relatives who are fairly horrified by being separated from meat for 8 hours or so

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/nut-loaf

Be sure to cover it in tin foil for the first 25 minutes and don't chop everything too fine, we don't use a food processor or it goes too solid and dries out. Just crush up the nuts by hand x honestly between that and a beet Wellington my Christmas is about as tasty as any meatie Christmas I had.

I'm a meat eater with a veggie husband so am used to crossing the divide.

For boxing day I would do a buffet with a soup as a hot starter.

Hot options - pizza, veg chilli, veg curry
Cold - sandwiches, falafel, salads including couscous, potato salad, rice salad, nice bread, cheeses, crudités and hummus and other dips, veggie sausage rolls, pakora, bhajis, spring rolls.

I find the most ardent meat eaters are usually satisfied is there is pizza on offer.

I would do two curries - one chickpeas one spinach and potato, with onion bhajis, flatbreads and raita etc.

A take on the ‘traditional’ Boxing Day curry.

This is the nicest vegetarian main course dish I've made, even my devoted meat-eater DH loved it

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli

It would be nice with rice, nachos, guacamole etc?

Otherwise a lovely buffet with some fresh salads, a quiche, olives, devilled eggs, cheeseboard, nice bread etc would be amazing.

I’m always craving veg and pulses in the days after Christmas. My ideal would be something like curried lentils and brown rice- I often do lentils and freeze them so no cooking involved.

Or the Anna Jones veggie chilli which is completely delicious and much lighter than some more bean-based chillis.

If you are going to serve soup, can I suggest this one: cookieandkate.com/creamy-roasted-cauliflower-soup-recipe/
It really is the loveliest soup ever. It tastes rich and creamy, despite me never bothering to add the butter which you are supposed to put in at the end.

For Boxing Day don’t do elaborate I just do buffet with left overs. For meat eaters order in a ham joint then you haven’t got to touch it or prepare just slide out of packet onto to a plate. It will be a statement to the non veggies and they can hardly complain about a whole joint!

If it's a simple meal, then French onion soup, baguette & good cheeses

If more substantial, middle eastern style buffet is colourful, a bit different and easy for people to have as much / little as they want. Spanokopita, tabbouleh, moutabel (aubergine dip), ottolenghi have a recipe for green bean & hazelnut salad