2 Make a Home

Archive for the ‘Dinner Party’ Category

If you are a died-in-the wool carnivore and enjoy cooking the numerous gorgeous red meat recipes that Schwartz offer online, it can be pretty intimidating learning that you have a vegetarian coming to dinner. Don’t panic; with a little planning all will be well!

First of all, establish whether your guest is a true vegetarian or whether they eat fish. For some reason (and much to the annoyance of the real vegetarian) some people who claim to be vegetarian seem to eat fish. If they do, then you are on safe ground as long, of course, that your culinary repertoire extends to fish (and if it doesn’t, why not learn how to cook fish like a pro with the Schwartz Cooking Club)!

The next problem is finding out whether your vegetarian guest objects to others eating meat or poultry in their presence. If they do, then you are all going to have to do without and you may of course end up as a result deciding that veggie food is not so bad after all! Vegetarian food is not all about nut cutlets and nut roasts.

For a starter, you can’t go far wrong with a vegetable soup (don’t sneak in any chicken stock though). If you want something a little more sophisticated, why not try a chargrilled vegetable salad with mozzarella. Obviously if your guest is vegan then you will have to omit the mozzarella. Bruschetta topped with mushrooms and melted cheese is another winner. It doesn’t quite work without the cheese so, if you have a vegan in your midst, think again.

For a main course you might like to think Indian. If you are serving non-vegetarian food for some of your guests then this is an easy choice. Serve a chicken or meat curry with various vegetable dishes and rice and your vegetarian guest can just ignore the offending meat or chicken. There are lots of delicious Indian vegetable dishes such as aubergines, okra, green beans, and chickpeas, all of which are easy to prepare.

As far as puddings go, you should be home and dry unless your guest is a vegan, in which case cream will be unacceptable. If in doubt (or exhausted from all your cooking) a big fruit salad is both healthy and tasty.