More dinner party ideas for group of meat eaters and vegetarian

I can never be arsed with that, i always do a totally meat free main if i have a vegetarian in the group. meat eaters won't die from lack of meat for one meal and i do some great meat free meals.

do you know what the starter and pud will be?

There's a fabulous Nigella recipe that works well to serve to meat and non meat eaters. Not very helpful but I can't recall the name of it's aubergine slices filled with cheese, raisins all sorts of other stuff and rolled. Someone on here will know the name of it. It's quite time consuming but it's fabulous and you won't notice the meat missing.

I did wonder about doing a meat free main but one of the other guests, who is kind of the guest of honour, has cooked me lots of gorgeous meals over the years - she loves her meat so I wanted to repay the favour.

I don't know what the starter will be but pud is choc based.

The other dinner thread has inspired me - maybe I could do beef wellington for some and veggie wellington (with lentils or something in place of the meat?) as well...

Involtini. It's lovely unless you get an aubergine-hating veggie, like wot I did. ?

I haaaaaate aubergine ? Not that I am a veggie, but I am trying to eat veggie meals which don't include quorn!

How about doing a quorn chilli/spag bol, it is slightly cheating, but something which veggies & meat eaters will like ?

Or how about a mushroom risotto?

We cook:

Risotto: mushroom (with porcini), or we do a recipe that's leek, mushroom and lemon.

Veggie lasagne

Veggie moussaka

Nice veggie curry with homemade naan/chapatti

I'll think of some more.

Delia has a great recipe for veggie shepherd's pie - lentils, carrots, split peas etc instead of mince, layers of tomato & topped with goats cheese mash. A hearty dish indeed but rather lovely

or a veg lasagne?

Or tapas style sutff with a mixture of meat & veggie dishes?

I am a veggie, not through choice I miss meat - but I like the family to have a balanced diet, so I oftern cook something that is a meal in itself but can have meat added at the final knockings so I don't have to cook two meals. If you are happy to cook whilst people are round and not pre prepare IYSWIM, I would suggest a Risotto. I cook this a lot as you can do a vegie one and stir in or side searve meat if wanted. I have oftern cook a basic risotto with leeks, pine nuts and bacon so I can add the bacon to serve. Or an asparagus and basil risotto and add pesto chicken for the meat eaters.

Ok well if you change your mind, for a dinner party i would do

leek and provolone canneloni

aubergine charlotte

jewelled pumpkin rice

root vegetable tagine

parsnip and dolcelatte risotto

or a selection of vegetable curries

This is where being a curry fan is handy. You can do a couple of veggie side dishes and a 'main' curry.

Make the base.

Then divvy it up. Meat in one portion, not in the other.

Second what Nick says about the curry. I also often do this: https://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/r/roast_fennel_and_courgette_with_lentils_and_green_sauce.html and H advises me that a pork chop goes exceptionally well with it (he often throws one on for the meat eaters.)

I was going to say exactly the same, do a lentil curry something like split chick pea and halve it adding chicken to the meat eaters half.

? did you miss the bit where she said fajitas weren't special enough and therefore implied she wanted something a bit fancier? ??

having said that i usually do the curry thing...maybe three veggie dishes and one meat

or lasagne for the carnivores and jamies brocoli and cauliflour canneloni. (the meat eaters tend to have a tube of this too as it's fab) so my suggestions are a bit piss poor too. ?

For OH's birthday last year, we invited about 12 friends round for some food before heading to the pub. I made a lamb tagine with pomengranate couscous and it went down really well. For the veggies, I made a seperate vegetarian tagine at the same time by replacing the lamb with butternut squash.

Here's some easy recipes.

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/tools/recipefinder/display_recipe/0,,5418,00.html

http://goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/lamb-tagine-with-lemon-and-pomegranate-couscous

Do you know whether the veggie eats fish? A lovely fish pie might be a possibility - and something you could prepare in advance. I was veggie for 15 years - so am trying to wrack my brains.

- Sausage in red wine casserole or similar everything can be prepared together until sausages are added and you can just do the two dishes in paralell?

Thanks for all the ideas and inspiration. I am now torn between the roast fennel (with added pork chops), risotto (with added bacon), sausage casserole with something in place of the sausages (I do a lovely sausage and lentil thing, maybe I could chuck some spinach in) or the tagines.

I'd go for the curry option - lentil daal, bombay potatoes and some tandoori chicken or lamb. I'd serve it with naans, rice, lovely pickles and chutneys and a big herby salad.

I wouldn't do fennel, it's quite a common thing for people not to like.

How about something with pastry? Always feels a bits special. I'm thinking chestnuts, mushrooms and leeks with brandy and cream, or similar.

Oooh, that just reminded me, the Hitched Chestnut Bourignon pie is fab (I can't remember who gave me the recipe - maybe it was Alleroo, but it was definitely someone on Hitched. You could easily make a beef bourgignon pie alongside it.

I can vouch for the Chestnut one - its fab!

Chestnut Bourgignon pie
Preparation time 30 mins to 1 hour

Cooking time 1 to 2 hours

Ingredients
125g/4oz dried chestnuts, soaked for 6-8 hours
2 bay leaves
1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1 tsp/5ml dried rosemary
210ml/7fl oz red wine
300ml/10fl oz vegetable stock or water
25g/1oz butter or soya margarine
8 small pickling onions or shallots, peeled
125g/4oz chestnut mushrooms, wiped
125g/4oz button mushrooms, wiped
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2-3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper
fresh parsley, finely chopped
225g/8oz puff pastry, thawed if frozen

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Place the soaked chestnuts, herbs and 150ml/5fl oz of wine in a saucepan with vegetable stock to cover and cook until just tender - approximately 50-60 minutes. Drain the chestnuts, reserving the liquid.
3.Melt the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions until slightly browned.
4. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 4-5 minutes.
5. Add the chestnuts, the remaining red wine and sufficient chestnut cooking liquor to cover.
6. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes to reduce the liquid a little.
7. Stir in the mustard, tamari and black pepper to taste. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
8. Check seasoning and adjust as necessary.
9. Spoon the mixture into a pie dish. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and place on top of filling.
10. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden

You may need to adjust the liquid & cooking very slightly if using fresh chestnuts

Chestnut pastry thing sounds lovely, have added to my file. Am doing this on a work day though so will finish at 6pm and need to get home, changed etc, guests arriving from 7.30pm and will hopefully eat around 8pm - do you think I could do to the end of step 5 and then put it in the fridge overnight then carry on with it the next day? Or would it become mush?

Am otherwise veering towards the sausage /lentil/ spinach casserole, as I know I can make a lot of that the day before. Am very tempted to do the curry thing but will save that for a different group of friends and a night when my husband is joining us - he is off to work halfway through this particular evening and he would be very sad indeed to leave a houseful of curry behind!

The Vegetarian Society have a good selection of gormet veggi food - https://vegsoc.org/cordonvert/recipes/gourmet.html

I've been a veggie all my life and always serve my meat eatting guests veggie or vegan food and have had no complaints yet.

You can do everything the day before - all you need to do on the day is roll out the pastry, stick on top and bung in the oven. You might even be able to do all but cook ahead of time but I'd be too nervous of the pastry going soggy!

Brilliant! BTW any idea how many it serves? Oh and what size pie dish did you use? [Fimble realises she does not own a pie dish and must buy one before Sunday ?

I could do this plus a beef bourgignon in slow cooker, then serve all with dauph pots and green beans. Yum yum.

Thanks. Normally I would, but as the 'guest of honour' likes meat, and has always been a wonderful host to me, I want to spoile her and make sure that I do something that all guests like - I don't see why the meat eaters should have a veggie meal when I can do two without much more hassle.

Like you say, making two meals wouldn't be a problem anyway - I love the sound of chesnut thingy.

We just don't 'do' meat in our house ?

I did mine in a square dish about 9" x 9". It did H & I 2 days, so 4 portions.

?Thanks v much

Oh, and it wasn't a pie dish- more like a pyrex shallow dish - maybe 2 or 2.5" high - the one I usually use for apple crumble or mac'n'cheese. Not quite as deep as my lasagne dish, but more that depth than a pie tin.