Gluten free vegetarian mains and dessert

[ElectricEels]

I would like some help planning a lunch for friends - one is gluten free and eats meat, one is vegetarian, my household eats meat.

I was considering a melanzane but not sure what to do as sides or a roast but with a vegetarian option, I'm a whizz at gluten free Yorkshire puddings but terrible at thinking of vegetarian foods.

Also any gluten free dessert recipes beyond brownies and meringues?

Why not do shakshuka for everyone? Followed by creme brûlée or fresh fruit pavlova

Frittata
Chickpea or lentil dhal with rice
Mushroom and butterbean ragu with polenta www.rebelrecipes.com/mushroom-butter-bean-ragu-with-cheesy-polenta/
Tuscan bean stew and mash
Stroganoff www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/mushroom-stroganoff/
Satay curry www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/satay-sweet-potato-curry
Lentil shepherds pie
Veggie chilli

Mousse
Semifreddo www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/limoncello-raspberry-semifreddo
Meringue roulade

@Blondie1984 I always have shakshuka as a brunch dish. I probably wouldn't eat it at lunch, not sure why!

@Fivemoreminutes1 those recipes all look like they are lacking meat to me . Seriously though they look good thank you. Not sure any of them scream at me but some decent options there for sure.

I meant to say dessert needs to be dairy free ideally too. I have to go low dairy for a very windy baby! Baked into stuff is fine, fresh cream etc is a no.

What about a mango or lemon mousse as a dessert?

This is one of my favourite dishes, vegan and gluten free.

www.eatyourbooks.com/library/recipes/1755028/goan-butternut-squash-cafreal

@nopoo that looks amazing! My daughter is totally dairy free and I think she would love that.

Do you need a meat option or could you do veggie and gluten free for everyone?

What about something like curry - you could do a veg option and a meat option. Make sure there's lots of the veg option as inevitably the meat eaters will want some. Then your side dishes can all be vegetarian and probably gluten free too? I'd do something like a lamb rogan josh and maybe a vegetable biryani? Or, if you don't mind mixing your flavours, a thai-style vegetarian curry. At least one aubergine side dish, one potatoes and of course rice. You could offer naan bread for the gluten eaters.

Or do some kind of joint for the meat eaters, with a substantial side dish such as cauliflower and broccoli cheese that works as a main course for the vegetarian (the gluten-free person would not have that) then other vegetable side dishes. Of course, that assumes your veggie guest would like that - I have a veggie friend who asks me to make her cauliflower cheese as her main as she loves it but I could see some seeing it as a cop out! If you wanted something flashier for your veggie guest, I'd make a veggie lasagna (again, make enough that if some people want to have it as a side dish with their meat, they can).

Oh, and for dessert, I'd be doing poached pears with mascopone. I used to have an old Gordon Ramsay recipe that went down a treat but annoyingly can't track it down and google is obsessed with a gordon ramsay red mulled wine version. Still sounds delicious, but I want my original one back! But basically, from memory, I poached the pears in dessert wine, then rolled in cinnamon sugar and fried in butter and served with marscopone with the poaching liquid as a sauce! I'm sure there are loads of similar recipes out there. It's very impressive looking.

@SpaceOP good idea to do a curry, I think that might be best as like you say the sides are easily gluten free.

Those pears sound amazing- I'm going to try and track down the recipe!

Risotto?

@FenellaMaxwell ooh risotto is a great idea!

Lol I just came on to say I eat ‘Amy’s Kitchen’ ready-made stuff. It’s veggie and gluten free.

Looking at the above, I should really take up cooking!

@JoJoSM2

I make a great risotto with butternut squash, blue cheese and tarragon in, that’s my vegan go to. Chocolate mousse for pudding? Crumble with a gluten free top?

Veggie go to even, it’s not vegan!

That risotto sounds amazing! I make an excellent gluten free crumble actually so that's a good option.

Start with leeks, loads of tarragon and butter in the pan and stir until the leeks are soft then chuck in the rice, and do as you normally would for a risotto. Roast the squash with loads of garlic whilst making the risotto then add it and the blue cheese at the end. YUM.

veggie cataplana
choc mouse made from avocado

@FenellaMaxwell oh I'm definitely making that- sounds amazing! Thank you.

@purpleleotard I had to google cataplana, sounds lovely! Chocolate mousse made with avocado is a good idea- I've never tried that.

@FenellaMaxwell I do a more traditional roasted butternut risotto but that sounds very interesting and I might give it a go. Thanks for the tip.

@SpaceOP it’s the sweet/salty combo. It works brilliantly. Obviously I still also add at least a ton of Parmesan as well.....

@ElectricEels SUCCESS!!

I had originally torn the pear recipe out of a magazine. Then lost it at some point but had found online. But now can't find online. However, it turns out... I am more organised than I thought because at some point, I wrote it down and stuck it in my recipe box!! So here it is - a really lovely poached pears recipe that is also surprisingly easy (just a bit time consuming) and where the bulk of the cooking is done in advance. When making for a dinner party (back in the distant past when I hosted such things), I'd just nip into the kitchen for 10 minutes to do the final prep....

375ml white dessert wine
100g light brown sugar +2 tbsp
2 cinnamon sticks +1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 vanilla pod, split OR drop vanilla essence
4 ripe pears
30 g unsalted butter (not sure I've bought unsalted butter in my life, so assume I've always used salted! :) )
Marscopone cheese, to serve (I usually also buy some fancy wafer style biscuit to stick in too but clearly that's not gluten free).

Place wine, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon sticks in a pan with 225ml water. Bring to the boil, stirring, to dissolve the sugar.

Peal the pears, trimming the base so that they stand upright. Add to the pan, lower the heat and simmer until the pears are tender (stirring occasionally), about 30 minutes.

Remove pears and set aside. Boil the syrup in the pan until thick - about 20 minutes.

Mix 2tbsp sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon. Melt butter until foaming and stir in the sugar/cinnamon mix. Roll the pears in the pan with the butter/sugar/cinnamon until caramelised - about 5 minutes.

Serve with the cheese and syrup.

I'm pretty excited to have tracked this down again. DH and DS getting a far more elaborate dessert than usual in the near future (we don't actually do dessert usually so this really will be out of the box!).

@FenellaMaxwell yes, I can totally see that as a good combination. I'd be tempted to put a bit of honey on the butternut for the final 10 minutes of cooking too! Or go fancy and serve with a few honey drizzled figs on the side.

Do you use fresh or dried tarragon? It's not a herb I've used often (I usually use rosemary with butternut or cinnamon, depending on what i'm doing).

@SpaceOP oh my goodness thank you so much! I'm definitely making them

Honey drizzled figs would be heavenly with that risotto