Code of cooking when having guests.

I am happy as a host to cater to different diets because of allergies, vege/vegan, etc.

Where I do draw the line is being told what I can and can't serve in my own home. I had a vegan friend refuse to come when I offered to fully cater for their needs but told them I would be feeding my child and husband with sensory eating issues meat. I was happy to eat vegan, I like vegan food, I just don't think they can force that on someone else when it's not their home.

I wouldn't expect a vegetarian or vegan to provide meat for us though.

As they are guests I would do my best to make them feel welcome and comfortable, including serving food they would enjoy. I’m not veggie but we don’t eat meat with every meal.

Blossoming

As they are guests I would do my best to make them feel welcome and comfortable, including serving food they would enjoy. I’m not veggie but we don’t eat meat with every meal.

What if making them comfortable means not serving meat and expecting everyone else to only eat vegan around them? As in my post above. Curious what you might think about that.

We sat outside Easter Sunday and had Scandi style lentils, roasted potatoes and beets. It's a mindful chef recipe, on the net. Easy to prepare and the meat eaters wanted to take the leftovers home. GC had roasted Richmond vegan sausages with the potatoes and salad. It's not difficult with a little imagination ?. Everybody's happy and most importantly feel welcome. Luckily the sun came out for us too.

DIL doesn't eat meat but eats fish so that makes it easier.
Personally I prefer to go out for a meal which is easier

Unless you eat with a mixed bunch of people every single day, how hard can it be to accommodate those who eat differently from you? Surely you have days in the week when you don't eat meat or fish? Just make it one of those days! As for not liking what vegetarians cook for you, it might just be a matter of their culinary skills - if they cooked you a chicken it might still be barely edible! Just eat what you can and enjoy the company. Here in the UK we can't even have anyone in the house yet, so wherever you are you are very lucky!

I am a vegetarian but if people come to my house I do a meat dish and a vegetarian one. When I go to other people's houses they nearly always have a veggie choice for me but if they don't I am happy to just have vegetables. Some vegetarians don't like to cook meat so I can understand them only doing veggie meals (I don't like cooking it but will do it for other people). It isn't difficult, if everyone is coming to you, to do a meat dish for most people and buy a veggie item for the one vegetarian (Quorn items are very easy to buy and cook).

Vegetarian meals don't have to be boring. Think of it as being Catholic, or Jewish, or Muslim, and having to forsake flesh / fish / fowl for one day. There are loads of dishes you can make - cannelloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta, cooked in tomato sauce - stuffed bell peppers and mashed potato patties - stuffed globe artichokes and accompaniments like rice salad, boiled eggs etc... vegetable lasagna... the list is endless.

I watched Mary Berry make a vegetarian lasagne last week and it was so incredibly easy, none of the faffing around with meat or even with Quorn mince.

It wouldn't be suitable for vegans without some tweaks.

We have a couple of vegetarians in the family and at family barbecues, 2 barbecues are used and as our get togethers start at about 12 and finish later in the evening, having several courses, my sister always makes a vegetarian chilli and the veggie members often bring their own veggie burgers etc as their contribution.
To me, if you invite guest to your home and for whatever reason they choose not to eat meat, you cook either a dish that everyone can eat that is vegetarian, with meaty accompaniments or just do a separate veggie dish - even if it's a shop bought one!
My son is gluten and dairy free, my nephew is dairy free. If they came to your house, would you expect them to eat the same food as you do, with the prospect of making them unwell?

I'm a vegetarian of over 50 years, my husband a carnivore. One daughter is vegetarian, one vegan and the youngest an omnivore (though she was vegetarian for seven years). I cook meat for guests and respect all diets and allergies. If you are a host, it is your pleasure and duty to make sure everyone has a good time, after all. It was going to a vegetarian meal when I was a carnivore that made me change my diet for life, as it was delicious. Of course, if you hate vegetables, then that is a different problem!

Offer the vegetables your cooking with the main meal and do a quick 2 min to make cous cous filled with “stuff” walnuts raisins etc etc

I love vegetarian meals and often cook recipes by Ottolenghi who does the most fantastic flavours, with a middle eastern twist. The only problem is... I often can't get hold of the ingredients. I love vegetables and salads too, of any kind.

I could easily eat a no meat meal for, say, half the week. But can't give up some meats for good because I love them too much!

Tanjamaltija All those dishes are right up my street. I cooked a delicous stuffed conchiglione pasta dish last week (the huge pasta shells) with spinach ricotta etc.

To be honest cooking a vege version is really not difficult! And it sounds like gge vege food you have been given might have been a bit unimaginative

I just do not understand why anyone can think that eating a meal that doesn't include meat is weird.

Baked potataoes with cheese, macaroni cheese, cauiliflower cheese were all part of my mother's main meal repertoire when I was a child and the tomato and cheese risotto we are having for lunch today was added to her repertoire in the mid 1950s. British cokery,ike every other cuisine, has included meals that do not include meat or fish.

Personally with the huge range of wonderful foods now available to us, the last thing I want to do is cut any large sector out, either by not eating meat or fish, or by not considering a meal a meal without a large lump of meat on my plate.

wanting to say something as well even though most have already made such fabulous comments.

I'm a vegetarian for 25 years now.
While at the beginning I would cook meat for my family when visiting, I stopped that a long time ago as now there a so many great alternatives that nobody really minds anymore eating my vegetarian meals.

When I go visit others, I don't expect them to make a meat free dish or an alternative for me.
But I do expect that there is something that I can eat.
I am fine with just tatties and some veg or salad.
But it would be difficult if you made a stew as there would be nothing not coated in meat juices.

If you don't want to make an effort, just heat up a veggie quiche for your friend, or even serve it cold, or have a veggie ready microwave meal or somthing. You don't really have to "work" to provide that.

What confused me a bit was, that you stated that you used to be vegetarian but would eat meat when it was served to you when visiting others. Then you were not a vegetarian, you just choose to eat no meat when you cooked for yourself - great difference. But surely that would mean that you know how to cook vegetarian and would have more sympathy for your friend.

Just to add to everyones knowledge a few facts
If someone follows a vegetarian/vegan diet, their body is no longer used to some animal fat/proteins. If they would eat it, they would become very sick.
Be aware if you cook for a vegetarian that you do not accidently use animal products often hidden in ingrediances just as lard (on roast potatoes for example) or animal stock cubes (often used for soup) or gravy granules.

As a vegetarian I really don't want to be fussed over when eating at a friends, it's really embarrasing. I don't mind if someone does not want to cook vegetarian but let me know beforehand, never had an issue to bring my own meal with me.

Is it such a big deal to very occasionally cook a vegetarian/vegan meal? Oh and your comment about her not cooking meat shows that you have no understanding of why someone is veggie/vegan. I could not cook meat/fish for someone....it would really upset me.

If people are our guests, we provide what they would relish. If they live with us, they would have to pitch in. And if I go somewhere I expect to be offered something I am likely to like, but I would not expect a vegetarian (who may be revolted by dead animals!) to cook meat for me just because I am a carnivore!

Sorry veggies am going to tread on a lot of toes here, but I have never yet tasted a home cooked veggie dish that is tasty enough, sometimes I reflect that veggies and vegans are really masking they are not into food. Perhaps Indian good cooks can pull it off, why not just buy a dish from one of them? As my daughter has got the latest Ottolenghi (sp) book am prepared to be amazed. I do like all the range of vegetables too, and am fortunate to have eaten all over the world. Channa dhal if seasoned enough may suffice?

I think you are ignorant of the huge variety of vegan and vegetarian foods and perfectly good meat substitutes that are available now. Even meat eaters often enjoy these, or can't even tell the difference. For instance, Quorn mince cooked in a spag bol or a chilli or tacos etc is very good and hardly distinguishable from meat. Vegetarians and vegans aren't stuck with eating nothing but salads these days. While a meat eater can eat lovely veggie meals, it doesn't work the other way, and most vegetarians/vegans (myself included) would not want to handle or cook meat at all and it's not fair to expect it. Buy a good veggie cookbook or look online for recipes and be adventurous. Cook a lovely meal for everyone without meat!

Vegetarian food can be delicious so you could use this to show off your cooking skills. Do you take it in turn, if so then 'your turn' shouldn't come around very often. i have a vegetarian friend and I usually cook a 'one pot' that we can all enjoy.

Cook for the meat-eaters and then get one of those ready-made veggie meals that just need heating through. I'm vegan but I always just take my own food. I don't expect people to make concessions for me.

I am vegetarian and I would be very happy for you to give me a frozen supermarket nut roast or mushroom wellington that you can just whip out of your freezer and heat in the oven along with your main course for all the meat eaters. Some of the supermarkets have really tasty vegan and vegetarian ready meals now.
I would be even more delighted if you prepared something vegetarian yourself, but I would not expect you to put yourself out.

As a long-term vegetarian I don't want people who are kind enough to invite me for a meal to go to unnecessary trouble. If they were out-and-out "only meat" people I'd probably check what I could bring to make things easier. I actually don't know anyone who has meat all the time now though. Or even fish for that matter. What I don't do is insist on only organic dairy (which is how I buy dairy at home) because I realise this is not my home and a cheesy dish created with love is ok.

Most of my friends don't "do" formal dining anymore but if we had (say) a big birthday or other celebration we may want to push the boat out a bit and for some this may mean meat.
Usually a friend will cook something meaty (if required) and bring it as you might bring wine, chocolates or a treat if some sort. Mostly this is unnecessary as I like to make lots of different dishes so there is normally something for everyone.

I do occasionally cook meat. I try to avoid it because frankly the smell of it cooking makes me feel sick - I loathe barbecues for this reason - but if my mother-in-law is looking forward to a roast at Christmas I'll do it.

Eating together involves give and take. My vegan daughter forgives me if I accidentally loosen the batter for her pudding with milk instead of the oat milk next to it in the fridge. I have eaten cheese without knowing what the rennet is (admittedly this is not nice) at a friend's house and my meat-eating friends are usually happy to skip meat for one day.

Sometimes I'll serve prosciutto or smoked salmon alongside vegetarian treats but at least I get to buy organic meats or wild salmon if I'm doing the shopping.

Not all vegetarians are as intractable as some people above. It's hard for us too - but true friends are rare, and their company is precious. This pandemic has surely taught us that.

If one guest is a vegetarian, we would probably have a vegetarian meal for everyone. With close family, maybe not. Because surface manners are less important with them though in a deeper way I do more of course. My step brother in law, always a vegetarian is now a vegan. But he didn’t say and I had the wrong food which annoyed me but it is a spiritual matter with him and I would always try to give him something he could eat and not distress him by eating meat in front of him. I try to ask people if there are things they eat or don’t eat. I have many medical reasons why I can’t eat lots of things myself.