Vegan Visitors

[hereandnowtoday]

DH's relations are visiting in a couple of weeks for a few nights - they're vegan, which we know very little about. Any tips on what foods to stock up on? We have suggested they bring some things themselves as we live rurally and our local supermarket barely stocks anything non mainstream.

I read somewhere about bread not being vegan - is that right (we have a fabulous local bakery we normally buy from)? It's been interesting looking at ingredients on store cupboard essentials you just assume are vegan but aren't. We have our own hens, would they be offended if we eat eggs for breakfast as normal?

So excuse my ignorance but any tips for dinner ideas etc would be appreciated! We want to have nice dinners planned and make them feel welcome.

Loads of recipes on line. Any bread containing milk will not be suitable for them.

bread can be vegan, often milk is added to make it softer. ask at the bakery, they have to know the ingredients.
wait for them to come back to you, but lots of 'mainstream' stuff is vegan, so you should be fine.

Stock up on vegetables and pulses and make normal meals like curry or stew. You shouldn't need them to bring anything special, as long as you're a decent enough cook.

They won't be offended of you eat eggs , unless they're arseholes!

Things to have in:

Dried pasta
Tins of toms
FIRM tofu is a good one (most big supermarkets sell it)
Peanut butter
Marmite
Bread that doesn't have milk in
Soya milk
Hummus
Vitalite

Snacks like crisps that don't contain milk or whey powder, Bombay mix

Mushrooms / Linda Mac sausages / beans if you want to do a breakfast

Veg and fruit you'll prob have anyway !

Any wine listed vegetarian is vegan

Many frozen fruit crumbles and fruit pies are vegan, a lot of sorbet is vegan

I can keep going!!

Hob nobs are vegan....Oreos too . Many other biscuits. Crumpets too xx

How do you usually eat, OP?

I have a vegan daughter. Most bread is vegan. There are plenty of vegan margarine spreads i.e there's a Flora Plant one. Biscuits can be tricky - posher biscuits tend to contain butter but most bourbons, rich teas and standard Oreos are vegan. When checking labels remember that because milk and eggs are allergens they will always be shown in bold type. However, watch out for honey as some vegans wont eat it and this is often in biscuits etc and isn't in bold type (I've been caught out by this before). Most plain chocolate i.e Bournville is vegan, as are Bendick's after dinner mints. When my daughter's here I tend to stock up on avocados and hummus as they are quite protein dense and therefore filling. I can't imagine they'd be offended if you wanted eggs for breakfast but if you wanted them to have a nice breakfast too then try avocados mashed with a little lemon juice, salt and black pepper and some chilli flakes. Spread on toast (try a sourdough loaf) and serve with vine tomatoes that you've baked for a few mins in the oven. It really is yummy. I've cooked a large vat of vegan chilli before now which seems to be appreciated by both vegans and non vegans - you can always put sour cream or cheese in separate bowls if you want to garnish it a bit. Or make leek and potato soup - fry leeks in a little oil, add potatos and vegetable stock, blend when cooked. It tastes quite rich and creamy. Hope that helps!

Meal ideas-

Tomato and veg pasta
Lentil based curry with rice and popadums
Mixed bean chilli
Soups
Fries chunks of tofu with veg, Chinese jar of sauce and rice

Those would be a few easy ones but there are loads more x

Check what milk alternative they drink. I can’t drink soya milk so have pat or almond

Cheaper brands of garlic bread such as Tesco value are often vegan too

Wine! Hadn't thought of that! Thanks for the suggestions, good to know about Hobnobs and Oreos. Will take a closer look at ingredients in the supermarket. Unlikely to find tofu anywhere near us though.

We eat a lot of meat (bought direct from local farmers), and have young kids who like macaroni cheese, pesto, fish, lentil soup made with ham hough etc.

Have a look at Jack Monroe's blog, Cooking on a bootstrap, her recipes are all vegan these days and she uses cheap every day ingredients. Her recent lasagna recipe is amazing.

You could also make a Nice stir fry with veg and cashew nuts . Lentil soup with veg stock and without the ham ! Vegan pesto easy to make with fresh basil, olive oil and pine or cashew nuts. Sacla make a vegan pesto often found in the free from section in larger supermarkets . X

Great suggestions thanks all!

Breakfast - warburton crumpets, most supermarket sliced loaves, dairy free spread such as vitalite, oats, dairy free milk, weetabix, fruit, jam, peanut butter, marmite

Lunches - pitta bread, hummus, tinned or fresh veg soup is usually ok (or homemade even easier) jacket potatoes - tinned veg chilli or fresh, beans, hummus salad sandwiches

Dinners - pasta tomato sauce with veg and tinned green lentils, veg curry, vegetable fajitas with Heinz Mexican beans and avo, roast vegetables, potatoes and Linda maccartney sausages or country pies, veggie stir fry with rice or rice noodles

Snacks - hobnobs, Oreos, bourbons, walkers ready salted, prawn cocktail, roast chicken and Worcester sauce flavours, hummus, olives, veggies, oatcakes, fruits - bananas are a staple ;)

Takeaways - Pizza Hut do fully vegan pizzas with vegan cheese, most curry houses no longer use ghee so can easily accommodate for Vegan curries, Chinese takeaway also pretty good if they serve rice noodles :) most vegans comfortable enough with chippy dinner with mushy peas or beans - as long as not fried in dripping (some not pleased with fried in veg oil if fish is fried in same container x contamination)

Also in the ingredient list any actual milk / whey / egg will be in bold. Some labels (is Oreo) state 'may contain milk, eggs, nuts etc' all vegans I know take that as the legal allergy warning and will happily eat it so don't fear that nearly all labels may say 'may contain'

Good luck hosting and I'm very sure they won't mind you eating completely as normal - I wouldn't mind and I'd be chuffed at the comfort you're planning on going to!

A friend has just become vegan so this information is excellent thank you

cookingonabootstrap.com/category/vegan-recipes/

There was a really good thread on veganuary which had lots of recipes. That’s on the vegan board.

Jus rol puff pastry is vegan.you could do a really nice tart or pie based around that.

My lunch today was vegan-Linda McCartney sausages with mash, peas, balsamic onions and bistro original gravy.

My bil is vegan and comes to us to eat quite often. One of his favourite things I made was a Mediterranean tart he didn't realise that the jusroll ready made pastry was vegan.
When he stayed at Christmas I made a really lovely breakfast (modest) we had the jusroll pan au chocolate and cinnamon wheels. I made a homemade granola with oats,lots of different nuts, dried figs all mixed together with maple syrup and put it in the oven for 20 min it kept for ages and the kids loved it. I served it with soya vanilla yogurt and warm cranberry compote.
There are some delicious vegan brownie recipes around that substitute butter for oil delicious with dairy free ice cream they always go down well.

If I ever went vegan (which won't happen anyway, ok) I would refuse all "meat" and "dairy" substitutes. If being vegan is so great, why do you need fake cheese & sausages? That baffles me.

You do know the reason why most people go vegan is animal welfare and the environmental impact of the meat industry don’t you lljkk?!

Is it really hard to see people might enjoy the taste of meat and dairy without wanting to eat it?

That's what puzzles me, Purple. If eating animal-based products is BAD, then why perpetuate that as the dietary "norm" by eating fake versions? It's an utterly bizarre way to make a statement against eating animal products.

I like a lot of genuine vegan food, actually. Genuine = stuff that doesn't pretend to be an animal-based substitute.

@lljkk - sausage isn’t an animal, it’s a shape of food, and the reason most people give up eating animals is because they don’t want animals to die and/or they care about the environment, not because they don’t like the taste of the food. It’s really very simple, I don’t know why people struggle with it.