Can any vegetarians help me out please?

[ImNotReallyHere]

Having my mum over next weekend for a big birthday. Planning to make a one pot chicken which is cooked with veg and cream. Need to make a similar veggie alternative for my veggie DB. Any suggestions? Not sure where to start ….

Pasta and sauce
Lasagne
Five bean chilli
Curry
Vegetable stew
Vegetable pie with vegetables

You can make a similar thing with quorn chicken but put the cooked quorn chicken, veg and cream sauce in a pie and serve with potatoes on the idea or something, if you want it to be comparable to the meat dish.

Do similar with some lovely unusual mushrooms and flageolet beans and wine

As above, same with mixed mushrooms, some nice flavourful ones and big texturey ones, and veg, lovely. Brandy or white wine and herbs for flavour.

Creamy greens and beans stew realfood.tesco.com/recipes/creamy-greens-pesto-and-butter-bean-stew.html

Mushrooms (a few different varieties) fried well in butter, then add finely chopped garlic for a couple of minutes. Then paprika, mustard, parsley, dash of white wine then add a little vegetable stock and cook for a few minutes before adding cream and at the very end, stir in some parmesan. We like this served on rice or pasta but you could put it in a pie and serve with veg.

What are you serving with it? Is it just the chicken and veg in a creamy sauce?

If so, I’d do a similar traybake or pie with butternut squash, peppers and feta, with a puff pastry top if it’s that sort of pie, with extra green veg with garlic on the side.

Could you make the sauce element of it separately and roast some chicken pieces to serve with the sauce and keep some sauce back and put some mushrooms in it for the vegetarian?

Does your brother eat cream or would you need to have a separate sauce

As a vegetarian, this sounds nice! But can you get vegetarian parmesan?

If it's called Parmesan it's not vegetarian. If it's called Italian hard cheese then it's likely vegetarian. Parmesan contains rennet which is an animal product.

Do you know if your DB likes mushrooms? I'm an awkward vegetarian because I can't stand mushrooms.

I'd hate quorn as an alternative - do you know for sure that your DB eats it? It really hurts my stomach so best to check first.

Mushrooms (ideally flat mushrooms or wild mushrooms) and a can of cannellini beans plus fresh tarragon makes a lovely equivalent

If it's called Parmesan it's not vegetarian. If it's called Italian hard cheese then it's likely vegetarian. Parmesan contains rennet which is an animal product.

Tesco do a really lovely vegetarian Pecorino.

Good point - I shouldn't have called it parmesan but there is vegetarian hard Italian cheese in any big supermarket

This sounds nice. See comments above about vegetarian versions of Parmesan.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/15/nigel-slater-aubergine-ragu-with-cream-and-parmesan-lentils-recipe

Keep it simple and use the same base with chickpeas and root veg if it needs bulking up . I’ve been vegetarian 35 years and wouldn’t expect you to go over the top on extra effort

That sounds nice - although I'd do it with mashed potato or rice.

As other posters have said - mushrooms would also work, perhaps in place of the beans.

You may need to check whether he eats dairy - but if not there are non dairy cream substitutes.

I would do something with halloumi, chick peas

perhaps butternut squash.

Thanks all. Sorry for the slow reply.

The meal we (well my DH) is making is apparently whole chicken cooked in stock in a big pan with root veg (potatoes, carrots, leeks and turnips I think) and cream added at the end so isn’t served with anything else.

I know my brother will say to go to no bother for him but want to do similar for him so think going down the route of either quorn chicken or mushrooms might work best. I know he eats both and that he eats cream.

Obviously a whole chicken is going to take hours to cook, how is best to cook quorn chicken? And I presume mushrooms I fry at the last minute to add? I don’t eat mushrooms myself so when people say unusual mushrooms, can you buy them in large supermarkets and what are they?

Thanks again everyone for their help and suggestions

I'd recommend Ottolenghi's confit chickpeas. Can be done in the slow cooker too

Check about the quorn, my DD is a vegetarian and is allergic to it.
Also quite a few people prefer not to eat meat substitutes, and to be honest there really isn't any need. You can use vegetables or pulses instead.