Don’t Make These Holiday Recipes For Your Vegetarian Guests

If you’re a meat-eater and you have vegetarian and vegan guests coming over for your holiday feasts this year, you might be worried about feeding them well. Not all of us like the standard offers of stuffed peppers or garlic mushrooms, and not everyone’s down with my usual plan of ‘slam one of those Quorn roasts in the oven with some roughly chopped veg’ (my girlfriend does most of the cooking, if you can’t tell). Many of us are resigned to eating side dishes, which is often fine, especially if you have extra roast potatoes (no goose fat though, please).

If you want to do right by your veggie guests and serve them a good main, there are a lot of really delicious recipes out there for your vegan and vegetarian dinner guests (start here for some tasty ideas). We can be a difficult bunch, although I promise we’re not as difficult as you might think. Don’t be scared. We love you for thinking of us!

Go steady, though. Some of the recipes out there are strange and horrible, mostly designed by meat-eaters who seem to have panicked when asked for suggestions. There seem to be more of them floating around this year. Don’t be tempted by these particular ideas.

Thanksgiving Cabbage

The recipe is here.

Listen, cabbage is yummy. I’m not disputing it. If somebody served this to me as a side dish I’d be happy. There’s just something really mean about serving everyone else at the table a delicious feast and then giving your veggie guests a wedge of stock-soaked leaves.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

The recipe is here.

There seems to be a trend, here – covering a giant vegetable in stuff, popping it in the oven, and hoping for the best. I don’t understand it. At least this one has alcohol in it. I’m not sure why I’d expected better of Jamie Oliver, but I’m somehow still disappointed.

Really Big Beets

The recipe is here.

The worst one yet. This is just a leaking beetroot covered in pepper. Why? Why would anyone do this to people they love?! We have feelings, for God’s sake.

Iceland’s No Turkey Christmas Dinner Meal For One

If you’re in the U.K., you can buy this here.

This isn’t a recipe but I felt it deserved an honourable mention. I was excited to see a proper vegan Christmas dinner at a well-known chain store. Then I found out it’s a bag of little frozen veggie pieces that you have to rehydrate and mix-up to make edible. This is the kind of thing I would have eaten quietly in my room at 11am on my bed when I was single. Probably don’t serve it to your guests.

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