cooking for friends incl. a vegetarian

amayzingamanda

I'm going out of town to visit friends this weekend and I will be making dinner for everyone Friday night. I just found out that one of the people coming is now vegetarian (I haven't seen him in almost a year so it's recent within the year). I asked him what all he follows and what all he can have becasue I don't want to leave him out. He said no meat whatsoever (beef, poultry, pork, or fish) but he does eat dairy.

I'm slightly at a loss. Any vegetarians or people that commonly dine with/cook for vegetarians have any suggestions of things I can make so as not to leave anyone out?

auctoritas

Eggplant moussaka is really good - just leave out the meat.

drog2323

make a few dishes, rice, maybe a salad, etc..then you can have meat (if you wanted) and have him with tofu or whatever.

lots of good veggie dishes out there too.

lottycat

Vegetable lasange, Or a big veggie chilli, or I would have suggested moussaka too. Or a lentil Daal curry? Loads of stuff. Look on www.skinnytaste.com under the vegetarian section. Lots of nice stuff to try

Good luck

aaleigha1

do a veggie pasta bake for everyone

rml_16

I'm vegetarian and do my best not to put people out. I've never yet been to a party or dinner where there wasn't something I could eat, even if it wasn't the main course.

Pasta is always a good choice, though. I add tofu to my sauce for the protein instead of meat.

kristilovescake

My favorite easy meal when I was a vegetarian was red beans and rice in the crock pot. It made my non-veggie family happy and was filling and pretty nutritious.

melsinct

Indian or Thai food is very vegetarian friendly
A vegetable soup (minestrone, lentil, cream of broccoli, etc.) and a nice crusty loaf of bread
Eggplant parm
Vegetable lasagna
Stuffed acorn squash

Eatingwell.com is my favorite food website and has tons of vegetarian recipes that will appeal to meat eaters too.

az82

These are two vegetarian food blogs that I like to follow and they may give you some ideas. Everything I've ever made from either of them have been great.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html

http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/

Also, some other suggestions would be:
vegetable lasagna
eggplant parmesan
baked ziti
mexican food like enchilada or tacos - just use black beans or refried beans (or a combo of both!) in place of meat for your vegetarian friend

or just make whatever you would normally make and make sure to have plenty of vegetarian sides - e.g. mashed potato, roasted vegetables, rice, etc.

melelana

Some of my favorite meatless dishes that everyone seems to enjoy:

-As stated, vegetarian pasta bake. Rigatoni in tomato sauce and a little cheese on the top... Salad with balsamic goes well with it.
-Tofu soft tacos. My boyfriends friends actually love these (males in college... trust me, their demographic normally LOVES meat.) Just drain and crumble the tofu, saute with onions and garlic, season heavily with taco seasoning (or make your own just using ground cumin, black pepper, and a little chili powder,) and go about making tacos like you normally do. Also a cheap way to feed a lot of people
-"Pizza Party!" premake a meatless tomato sauce and have some whole wheat naan available (tastes a LOT like pizza crust.) If you have an adventurous group, have some toppings and have everyone make their own pizza. If it's more of a "let's eat before we leave" sort of thing, just make a few very different pizzas that you think your friends will like and slice them up to serve.

Other suggestions:
- Break out the grill, start grilling veggies: zucchini, asparagus... buy a little pack of vegetarian burgers and everyone else can have meat.

Biggest tip in serving for a mixed group:
-If you have meatless options vs. non meatless options, make sure your veggie friend gets first dibs, or make twice as much of the veggie option. I can't count how many times (when I was veggie) that my meat-eating friends would eat all the meatless options and I would be left with one little slice of cheese pizza. They don't mean to do it... it's just that when you eat meat, you don't think about how many vegetarian options there are on the table.

amayzingamanda

So many amazing options!
I can't believe I didn't think of eggplant parm since I LOVE IT!

And the blogs/sites will be really helpful.
Thanks everyone!!!!!