Christmas dinner option for health conscious vegan guest

[Coffeehouse22]

Hi, hope u can help. My brother is bringing his girlfriend over on Christmas day for the first time. She's vegan and initially I was going to buy a Quorn roast or ready made nut roast from m&s but brother says that she's also very very health conscious and doesn't eat any processed food. So I'm stuck for ideas now. Is Quorn roast processed? What else could I serve? A pie or Wellington might be out of the question because of the pastry. Could I make anything with tofu? Any ideas would be so helpful.
P.s. I'm not a great cook and have small DC including a 10 month old so need something as simple as poss to make. x

Thanks! You've all been so helpful. Not just with the ideas but also I hadn't even thought that DB might be making her seem fussier than she is.

We have been out for lunch together before and there was a whole load of fuss over which restaurant we should go to that caters for her and then when we finally got there she just ordered a soup for her meal which looked lovely but then only had half of it because she was "too full". So I assumed it was just her being fussy but you might be right, DB might be making a bigger fuss than needed.

You certainly shouldn't be given extra stress by your DB but I agree with the PP who said it sounds like she might have a borderline (or actual) eating disorder. In which case she may well not eat regardless of what you make and the best thing you can do as the hostess is to give her a warm welcome and draw minimal attention to her eating.

That aside, the roast cauliflower sounds like a good, simple option.

Could you just serve her the Christmas dinner without the meat? As long as there’s no butter on veg, roasties are cooked in non animal fats? Or am I just being stupid 😂 I know the paxo stuffing is vegan

You could make a vegan curry 😁 who wouldn’t want a curry at Christmas 😁

Yeah does sound like an eating disorder. Have been away with friends and the DH was vegan but he ate loads of chips and bread if he couldn't get anything else that was vegan.
Cauliflower roasted and buy some nuts and she can fill up on those if still hungry.

DS is bringing his vegan boyfriend for dinner. He's very health conscious but also a really decent man, and is chuffed that I've got him a pre-made vegan wellington from Sainsburys and some plant based non-creme that will go with the vegan un-chocolate pudding that DD has made for him. He offered to bring his own food and really doesn't want to be any trouble.

I suspect your brother's girlfriend would be mortified that you're worried about feeding her. (I am assuming she's a half-decent person and not as awkward as he has made out!)

whole load of fuss over which restaurant we should go to that caters for her and then when we finally got there she just ordered a soup for her meal which looked lovely but then only had half of it because she was "too full"

No that sounds like an eating disorder.

You need to check with her- if it is an ED if you don’t it gives her an excuse not to eat, while making it your fault.

If you’ve checked, made her something she’s approved, then if she’s “not hungry” then that’s not your problem.

Cutting out entire food groups- whether vegan, vegetarian, carbs, gluten- is a known technique with ED. Makes it easier to normalise not eating or justify choices.

Has your DB mentioned anything? Half a bowl of soup is not a meal.

@gogohm

A quick cheat way (she won't know) is a packet of stuffing made up, finely chopped onion, can of chestnuts and handful of cranberries with a tsp cinnamon- bake for 25 mins. Alternatively grate stale bread and add herbs then it's truly from scratch but I would ask them to bring her main

Thanks for that! Sounds great!

Please don't assume that a young woman who is vegan, into whole foods and was full at one lunch has an ED as some people are suggesting. You could be describing me, and I get so tired trying to justify my dietary choices, and watch the judgmental side eyes, when I eat the amount I want and no more. Many of us choose vegan whole foods and eat until we are no longer hungry (rather than everything that happens to be in front of us) because its a healthy way to live.

@Lorw

Could you just serve her the Christmas dinner without the meat? As long as there’s no butter on veg, roasties are cooked in non animal fats? Or am I just being stupid 😂 I know the paxo stuffing is vegan

You could make a vegan curry 😁 who wouldn’t want a curry at Christmas 😁

Back in the 1980s when I first became a vegetarian this was considered a perfectly acceptable vegetarian meal. Despite the fact that a plate of vegetables is nutritionally unbalanced and very boring.

Vegetarians were expected not only to enjoy it, but to express our deep gratitude that someone had gone to the trouble of taking the protein off the plate.

These days there are so many non-meat options everywhere, I’d be very surprised if someone still thought this would be ok to serve someone for Christmas.

Even the most basic of cooks can take something out of a packet and heat it up in the oven.

@5128gap - oh god sorry I didn't mean to be judgemental at all. DB has mentioned before that she struggles to finish her meals when at friends places for dinner so I just want to handle this appropriately and not make her uncomfortable on the day. You can be healthy without being vegan though but that's another thread altogether. Anyway...I think one of the previous suggestions to just get some premade protein like bit roast and not draw any attention to what she does/doesn't eat will be the way to go.
Sorry if I caused any offence x

*nut

[quote Coffeehouse22]@5128gap - oh god sorry I didn't mean to be judgemental at all. DB has mentioned before that she struggles to finish her meals when at friends places for dinner so I just want to handle this appropriately and not make her uncomfortable on the day. You can be healthy without being vegan though but that's another thread altogether. Anyway...I think one of the previous suggestions to just get some premade protein like bit roast and not draw any attention to what she does/doesn't eat will be the way to go.
Sorry if I caused any offence x[/quote]
Not at all. It was a reference to a couple of people who did jump to the conclusion. Absolutely you can be healthy and not vegan, but people seem to struggle sometimes to see you can also be healthy and vegan. Tbh the soup thing could have been that after all the faff of finding her a restaurant she didn't like the food and didn't want to say after the trouble you went to. You sound absolutely lovely OP and hopefully she will appreciate that you are so keen to accommodate her x

I’m veggie - I wouldn’t make requests/demands/lists of requirements like that - I’d bring my own!

@5128gap - thanks! Yes I have some good ideas from here now so hopefully all will go well on the day.
Always good to get another perspective and agree you can be healthy and vegan too so so called friends shouldn't be judgemental x

We're vegans but we eat some processed food.

People might make their own bread but nobody makes their own baked beans do they?

My DH's family still give us the veg and stuffing routine and there's ructions if I try to hog any oven time for a jewelled nut roast or similar, so we just go with it. It's one meal. I have vegan crisps, chocs biscuits, sweets etc in the car so if non vegan ones come out my lot don't have to watch their cousins scoffing and be sad. Vegan mince pies and puds are easy to find these days.

I am having Linda McCartney pies and plant kitchen m & s vegan beetroot tart for Christmas! I dislike quorn products
I - won’t touch them

Do your sprouts with chestnuts and mYbe some nutty parsnips, like this www.taste.com.au/recipes/roasted-maple-parsnips-hazelnuts/daf848b0-9ba5-4f35-aa06-1d4968b0ce25

The artisan nut roasts previously mentioned are a good bet. My DH will be having one on Christmas Day and he’s a meat eater: he just really likes that nut roast!

Sprouts, cooked in a h2o jus.

This is another example of women running around like headless chickens to please everyone else at Christmas.

Tell your brother to sort it out himself.

Oo these sound nicer than turkey tbh.
I think I’d ask her and him to bring a dish - personally I think that makes it interesting and if I was her, I’d like to contribute. It makes it all more friendly and casual somehow.

If you are thinking of the roast cauliflower, this is a delicious recipe, looks great and the beauty of it is that you can prep a day before the all it needs is an hour in the over to cook.
www.bosh.tv/recipes/curry-crusted-cauliflower

Honestly, the polite thing to do if you're a guest at someone else's Christmas and won't eat anything they are making and are extremely bloody fussy about what you will eat from your already restricted diet is bring your own food.

You have small children, including a baby. Please tell your brother to tell her to bring something she wants to eat and you'll heat it up. You have far too much other stuff to be thinking about than pandering to some woman you've never even met!

If you're shopping there, M&S have a good range of plant-based ready meals, many of which look like the vegetables they are made of, which to my mind is as unprocessed as I think it's reasonable to expect at this kind of notice. And if she genuinely is that fussed about food fuckery, she'll be a complete stranger to such things and be none the wiser, wherever you get it from.
I do enjoy roast cauliflower myself, but it's still just cauliflower, so if that's what you go with, make sure there are lots of side dishes she can eat. I have a newly-converted vegan in the house myself, and the side dishes are more of a pain than anything else. So much extra washing up.

Slow cook simple roasted beetroot and orange salad. Looks festive. Can be made in advance.

www.notquitenigella.com/2018/11/23/roasted-beet-salad-orange/