Cooking Vegetarian Tonight

[C0ffin D0dger]

The chop dodging mother-in-law is staying over and I'm in charge of dinner though this is the preferred option over putting the kids to bed.

Trying a new autumnal recipe, a roasted butternut squash, chickpea and leek casserole with a potato scone top. Sounds nice (ish) on paper, basically the whole lot is combined with onions, garlic and a creamy white wine sauce with some tarragon in, then put in a casserole dish and then 'scones' made with mashed potato and flour are used to top it. Whole lot then goes in the oven to brown. With some chicken in it I'm sure it would be even better.

Luckily I have some sirloin steaks for Friday or Saturday and a pork shoulder in the fridge which I'll be slow roasting for Sunday dinner so that should cure the meat withdrawal

[BoRED S2upid]

Bit of chicken stock in the sauce? she won't notice the difference.

Chop dodger

[mattdaniels]

When you stay at hers, does she cook you meat?

[funkyrobot]

mattdaniels said:

When you stay at hers, does she cook you meat?

From what I have seen, vegetarians rarely cook meat for people who like to eat it. Meat eaters will cook veggie meals, but it hardly ever works the other way around.

[C0ffin D0dger]

mattdaniels said:

When you stay at hers, does she cook you meat?

Nope, although she's not that bad, she's got me ham in for sandwiches and stuff like that but I normally tell her not to worry (so long as there's a beer or three in the fridge). The year we spent Christmas day with them she managed to procure some roast turkey off a neighbour to go with my leek bake or whatever the hell it was we were having

If we have a takeaway curry with them we'll order our own meat dishes and that doesn't bother them.

Buy yeah I agree it is a bit of a one way street. Could be worse, got a friend who is vegan and that is a PITA though fortunately we don't see them that often.

[aizvara]

funkyrobot said:

From what I have seen, vegetarians rarely cook meat for people who like to eat it. Meat eaters will cook veggie meals, but it hardly ever works the other way around.

I'd probably be fairly rubbish at cooking a decent meat-based meal. Not much experience really, so I'd be worried about either food poisoning or creating something akin to charcoal.

[calibrax]

aizvara said:

I'd probably be fairly rubbish at cooking a decent meat-based meal. Not much experience really, so I'd be worried about either food poisoning or creating something akin to charcoal.

We carnivores will try to make veggie meals, but they usually turn out to be rather bland and flavourless. But then that's what we think all veggie meals taste like!

Oh, and this deserves a repost...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NNuG-6-hQ

[condor]

Cauliflower cheese is my choice of veggie meal offering
The meat eaters can have it as a side dish to their meal.

[Mobile Chicane]

condor said:

Cauliflower cheese is my choice of veggie meal offering
The meat eaters can have it as a side dish to their meal.

That's what I'd go for, or macaroni cheese. Meals which just 'happen' to be vegetarian rather than vegetables pretending to be meat.

Although personally when cooking 'veggie' food, I'd go for Indian vegetarian every time. The Indian subcontinent knows a thing or two about vegetarian food, having had a few thousand years in which to perfect it.

[aizvara]

calibrax said:

We carnivores will try to make veggie meals, but they usually turn out to be rather bland and flavourless. But then that's what we think all veggie meals taste like!

Oh, and this deserves a repost...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NNuG-6-hQ

You presumably have some regular experience of cooking vegetables, pasta, rice, and other foods that vegetarians can eat, though, which is more than can be said for me with regards to cooking meat. My own beliefs aside, I'd rather cook something I'm a bit more experienced with.


This subject seems to come up fairly regularly, and I don't really understand it. If you don't want to cater for someone who can't or won't eat certain things, then don't invite them. If you expect to always eat certain things that others can't or won't cook then don't go around to theirs for a meal.


Also, why would "veggie meals" be bland and flavourless?

[calibrax]

aizvara said:

Also, why would "veggie meals" be bland and flavourless?

Because they don't have meat in them. So to a dedicated meat eater, they would be thought of as bland and flavourless.

(my post was tongue in cheek, I thought the video would have made that clear!)

[aizvara]

calibrax said:

Because they don't have meat in them. So to a dedicated meat eater, they would be thought of as bland and flavourless.

(my post was tongue in cheek, I thought the video would have made that clear!)

Yeah, it did. I'm just humourless and bad-tempered due to lack of protein in my diet.

[ascayman]

aizvara said:

I'd probably be fairly rubbish at cooking a decent meat-based meal. Not much experience really, so I'd be worried about either food poisoning or creating something akin to charcoal.

That's just an excuse/cop out.

I always go to the extra effort for veggies, its simply bad manners if thats not reciprocated.

[condor]

Agreed
A veggie should be able to cook a shop bought meat pie. Pies have a pastry outer layer to hold the filling in cooking instructions are written on the packaging. Shops do cheese and onion pies and pasties too
Generally, for a single portion chilled pie, you're told to remove the packaging. Place on a baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 25-30 mins.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Well it turned out ok, certainly edible but could do with a bit more punch with regards to flavour. The mother-in-law liked it anyway.

Heres the recipe is anyone is interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickpea_and_but...

Needed a bit of tweaking though, when it says it serves 6 I would have to assume they mean 6 mice and not humans. I put a whole butternut squash in which was well over twice what the recipe suggested. Stuck with the two leeks and can of chickpeas though. I also did quite a bit more potato as the quantity suggested looked very meagre. Upped the amount of sauce to compensate. Ended up with something that would serve 4 hungry adults.

The timings were also way out. Roasted the squash for the 15 minutes suggested and it had hardly started cooking, needed over twice that time though I went for chunky so maybe smaller cubes would have done quicker. Also the final cook in the oven to brown the "scones" was way more than the 15 minutes suggested.

Back to meat eating tonight

[aizvara]

ascayman said:

That's just an excuse/cop out.

I always go to the extra effort for veggies, its simply bad manners if thats not reciprocated.

Does this happen a lot? Perhaps just make it clear that's what you expect before inviting them over. In which case, I'd decline the invite and suggest we all went to a restaurant instead.


Relationships aren't always going to be a completely symmetrical thing; some people's beliefs, situation, tastes (etc...) may preclude them doing some things. I'm happy to alter what I cook/what I do to accommodate friends without having that reciprocated in precisely the same way. I'd certainly not want them to break their beliefs or principles for me. The other way around, I'd hope that friends would respect my principles too.

[campionissimo]

I love meat, and don't often eat vegetarian, but had this last night, and was genuinely blown away by how tasty it was.

http://www.waitrose.com/home/tv/meat-free/roasted-...

[ascayman]

aizvara said:

Does this happen a lot? Perhaps just make it clear that's what you expect before inviting them over. In which case, I'd decline the invite and suggest we all went to a restaurant instead.


Relationships aren't always going to be a completely symmetrical thing; some people's beliefs, situation, tastes (etc...) may preclude them doing some things. I'm happy to alter what I cook/what I do to accommodate friends without having that reciprocated in precisely the same way. I'd certainly not want them to break their beliefs or principles for me. The other way around, I'd hope that friends would respect my principles too.

You didn't say it had anything to do with principles you said you'd be afraid to under cook or burn it so you don't bother which if im honest I think is a cop out.

Half my family are veggies but they aren't selfish and neither am I so when they come to me I make an extra special effort to make them a nice veggie meal and a nice meat or fish meal for the rest of us, likewise when I go to them both veggies and meat eaters are catered for, imo that's what being a host is about its also just basic manners.

If I had some veggie friends over for dinner and catered for them and yet on the away leg they didn't cater for me then I simply wouldn't go round for dinner again.

Edited by ascayman on Friday 31st October 13:00

[Chimune]

Any tt can make a meat dish tasty: Cook meat... put on plate.
Its takes thought and a bit of skill to make a tasty veg dish.
That waitrose one looks very nice - will have to try that !

[johnvthe2nd]

I made that waitrose one last week .. goes very well with a chicken vindaloo