What dietary requirement would you find it most difficult to cater for?

[LeaveYourHatOn]

I consider myself a good, resourceful cook who is happy to cater for everyone, but admit that a recent request from someone for "practically no carbs" has me a bit stumped. I need to provide 3 meals a day for ten days, and not just for this person - there's a couple of vegans and a vegetarian too, and ideally I'd not have to cook different meals (although I can't see a way round it in this case).

Anyway, got me wondering - what dietary requests/requirements would you find challenging?

(Any suggestions for family friendly v. low carb recipes also gratefully received!)

thing is, I am quite happy with fairly plain food. We eat a lot of meat+spuds+veg meals =
assorted steamed veg
grilled meat
boiled carbs

Thus,
vegetarian & vegan: steamed veg & boiled carbs
low carber: steamed veg & grilled meat
veg gluten free: veg & mostly our carbs are spuds or rice
gluten, sugar and dairy free: as last
soya allergies: mostly fine, check any sausages
allergy to nightshades: any of it except potatoes

done.

low carber can add butter, vegtn can add cheese, vegan can add olive oil -- as 'toppings'

Vegan is a right pain. Gluten free vegan is virtually impossible because most meat substitutes are made from gluten.

When my son was a toddler one of his friends had a diary allergy, I would buy in special dairy free cakes, crisps, treats etc , make him his own sandwiches so they don’t touch the other ones etc. His mum would sit there with a face on her as I refused to make the whole lunch diary free including the birthday cake . In my opinion it was my sons birthday not her sons so my son would have the cake he wanted and party food he wanted.

Any allergies terrify me. I worry so much about making someone ill.

I just ask them to give me their rules themselves. People are usually really helpful. You get to know if it's really serious ("I cannot have a peanut within the same space for a day before" or "no gluten on any of the same plates or cutting boards") orr if it's more something they are trying our for a while and is more flexible.

I have lots of working guests - veggies, no problem but vegans get given a shopping list (to fill in for me to buy) and access to whatever they can use in the kitchen. Just don't expect me to join it!

@LeaveYourHatOn

I consider myself a good, resourceful cook who is happy to cater for everyone, but admit that a recent request from someone for "practically no carbs" has me a bit stumped. I need to provide 3 meals a day for ten days, and not just for this person - there's a couple of vegans and a vegetarian too, and ideally I'd not have to cook different meals (although I can't see a way round it in this case).

Anyway, got me wondering - what dietary requests/requirements would you find challenging?

(Any suggestions for family friendly v. low carb recipes also gratefully received!)

Are you providing these in an employment capacity- I.e its your job to cater to these requests or are people coming to stay with you in your home?

My DD is vegan, whereas my husband primarily eats a FODMAP. It's a nightmare. There are so few meals they can/will both eat.

... eats a FODMAP diet ...

I once had to find a gluten free vegan cake to make to go alongside my friends wedding cake so one guest didn’t feel left out at cake time. Later, said guest came to congratulate me on the beautiful cakes and tell me what a shame it was she couldn’t eat them because she didn’t eat sugar… ffs

Gluten free, anything else I can do. Friends and family are all bloody gluten free now - they don't have coeliac disease - they just reckon its not good for them. What it is is a massive pain in the arse.
They just eat a ton of meat, I'm vegetarian it's intolerable.

@LeaveYourHatOn

I sense that most people seem to have the carbs as a side - I tend to cook things like risotto, paella, biriyani, noodles, lasagne, pasta putanesca/carbonara, macaroni cheese and other pasta bakes, pizza etc The carb is the main part with the other ingredients added to it - there'd not be enough of those bits to make a whole meal! Even with a curry, the rice and naan make up more of the meal than the sauce bit.

I suppose a casserole would work, you could have a bowl of that, or something like chili con carne.

I'm sure it's easier in summer, when we could throw some meat and veg on the bbq and do big side salads.

The more I read about low carb the more I realise how incredibly restricting it would be for us - quite apart from the bread/rice/pasta/potatoes, it also would mean no beans, pulses, legumes, root veg...

Some ideas that might help - I'm not low carb myself but thinking how I might reduce carbs in these types of meals:

• Lentil pasta (I get Tesco's own but there are others). Could use for a macaroni cheese type dish - a good vegan one can be made with a mixture of vegan cream cheese and cheddar like Ilchester vegan (as part of a roux with vegan butter like Flora Plant or Naturli, flour, and soy/almond/oat milk or similar).
• Courgette slices used in place of lasagne sheets (veg or lentil or sunflower mince lasagne filling so it's vegan too).
• I've got tagliatelle made from edamame beans in Asda before, I think. That could add some variety. Maybe look up a vegan carbonara recipe to use with it? Plenty of vegan bacon subs now. The Richmond one is decent.
• Chickpea rice. I've tried Nature's Store before but do follow the instructions to have the water boiling already before adding the rice or it goes all gloopy. I also rinse it in a sieve afterwards if it goes gluey. Sometimes I get it right, though! I'm guessing this is relatively low carb compared to actual rice. You could serve this with a 5 bean chilli, a vegetable curry, a Richmond vegan sausage casserole (these sausages do hold together in a casserole unlike some other veggie ones). Or the casserole could be done on its own and bulked out with beans and chickpeas, etc.
• Otherwise, things like a big tray (actually, multiple trays - can't have too much) of mixed seasoned roast veg served with hummus (I'd include sweet potato, even if this guest might choose not to have it), maybe a "buddha bowl" style meal with roast veg and crispy tofu and salady bits with a peanut or tahini dressing, or just some hearty salads with filling bits like avocado added.
• If you do soup for lunch for example (would red pepper and lentil be quite low carb? Or mushroom?), maybe serve bread with it for everyone else but make clear this person can have a second helping of soup to make up for it?

I have a vegan gluten free guest coming to visit soon. I am going to point her in the direction of M&S. The last time I nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to feed the 3 of them

My children have coeliac disease. Having separate prep area, oven, dishes etc is a pain. DC1 becomes very ill if any cross contamination.

@LeaveYourHatOn

I sense that most people seem to have the carbs as a side - I tend to cook things like risotto, paella, biriyani, noodles, lasagne, pasta putanesca/carbonara, macaroni cheese and other pasta bakes, pizza etc The carb is the main part with the other ingredients added to it - there'd not be enough of those bits to make a whole meal! Even with a curry, the rice and naan make up more of the meal than the sauce bit.

I suppose a casserole would work, you could have a bowl of that, or something like chili con carne.

I'm sure it's easier in summer, when we could throw some meat and veg on the bbq and do big side salads.

The more I read about low carb the more I realise how incredibly restricting it would be for us - quite apart from the bread/rice/pasta/potatoes, it also would mean no beans, pulses, legumes, root veg...

Have you even bothered to look at the Low Carb Bootcamp recipe thread? There are lots of lovely recipes there.

But if you just want to diss low carb …

@elrider sadly none of those suggestions (bar courgettes) would count as low carb for a low carber. Edemame pasta, for example, is over 20% carbs. (I stay below 5%.)

@OnceAgainWithFeeling oh, rubbish. Well, maybe I contributed one vaguely helpful thing then!

20% carbs for a pasta sounds low to my uneducated ears. 5% is a bit far off.

Low carb is actually easy, some kind of meat and a load of green veg. I think the problem is you don’t want to cook two meals, but is it fair to make everyone eat vegan who have not chosen to be vegan? Are these paying guests? But to answer the question of who I think the hardest group to cater for I would say gluten free vegan. I know this as I once had a vegan boyfriend and I don’t eat gluten (for bone fide medical reasons not a fad!) and it was tough to put together a meal, or even go out for one.

@TabithaHazel

Low carb is actually easy, some kind of meat and a load of green veg. I think the problem is you don’t want to cook two meals, but is it fair to make everyone eat vegan who have not chosen to be vegan? Are these paying guests? But to answer the question of who I think the hardest group to cater for I would say gluten free vegan. I know this as I once had a vegan boyfriend and I don’t eat gluten (for bone fide medical reasons not a fad!) and it was tough to put together a meal, or even go out for one.

I’m veggie, not vegan and find it increasingly hard to find veggie food on restaurant menus because it’s all bloody vegan. I don’t want plastic cheese and no eggs or butter or cream.

Cannibalism.

I’m veggie, not vegan and find it increasingly hard to find veggie food on restaurant menus because it’s all bloody vegan. I don’t want plastic cheese and no eggs or butter or cream

My brother says the same! He is actually pescatarian but eats mostly veggie when we are out and is sick of having highly processed vegan copies of dairy/meat as the only choice instead of real cheese/eggs/butter etc!

@TabithaHazel

I’m veggie, not vegan and find it increasingly hard to find veggie food on restaurant menus because it’s all bloody vegan. I don’t want plastic cheese and no eggs or butter or cream

My brother says the same! He is actually pescatarian but eats mostly veggie when we are out and is sick of having highly processed vegan copies of dairy/meat as the only choice instead of real cheese/eggs/butter etc!

Particularly as the reason I don’t eat meat is because I don’t like it. So I also don’t want something that looks/tastes like meat!

I also struggle massively when my mother in law comes to stay. She says that she'll just eat what we eat, but won't eat onion, garlic, anything spicy, not too much salt. As I said above, we're a vegetarian, gluten free household and we eat a lot of Indian, Asian, Mexican food. She probably thinks at this point that we only eat omelettes, baked potatoes and egg fried rice.

I feel like the only vegetarian on Mumsnet who is happy to eat vegan food. I don't like vegan cheese, but I don't like fake meat options in vegetarian food either. And to be honest, if I see fake meat and cheese on a menu, I'd probably avoid the whole restaurant because it's probably not the kind of restaurant I'd want to eat in. And for me, the kind of place whose only vegetarian/vegan option contains animal product substitutes probably was only replacing a bland risotto or goats cheese tart anyway - hardly a culinary loss. But dals, dosas, berenjenas fritas, avocado maki, miso glazed aubergine, samosa chaat, black bean taquitos, breaded tofu bibimbap are examples of food that I've eaten in restaurants recently that are delicious, full of flavour and naturally vegan. And all of those restaurants also had plenty of other vegetarian but not vegan options.

Anyone that wants meat has me stumped 😁

Try catering for someone with pku, that’s an almost protein free diet. That makes all of these look like a piece of (vegan, low carb, gluten-free, dairy free, formal free) cake!

Low carb AND vegan/veggie is hard I think