How to look after your vegan and vegetarian guests in a mixed gathering
From ArticleWorld
To look after your vegan and vegetarian guests in a mixed gathering is fairly simple if you plan the menu well in advance. With vegetarianism becoming a fad especially in the Western countries of the world, more and more people are turning vegans or vegetarians. Then again with some it is a religious or a moral issue and such people are even stricter with their food and diet. If you are calling people over for a meal and the group is a mixed one you need to make sure to not neglect the vegetarians. Here are some simple rules that you may follow.
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A few suggestions
- Presume the worst. Do not suppose that the guests will only skip meat and eat fish or egg based food. Some vegetarians do eat eggs and fish but many don’t eat any animal products, even cheese and milk, so be prepared. Even jelly that is made with gelatin, an animal product, is shunned by vegetarians.
- Find out how many vegetarians you have invited and what kind of vegetarians they are. Some of them may also be vegans. Think of a separate menu for such people.
- In some recipes you can easily substitute animal product with other ingredients for example milk can be replaced with soy milk and soy granules may take place of meat in hamburgers.
- If you are buying some of the food precooked, then make sure of the ingredients that go into each. Even when you lay out the table see that the vegetarian meal is marked clearly and placed separately.
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Do’s
- Make a special effort for the vegetarian guests by looking up vegetarian recipes on the internet or in recipe books.
- Make lots of vegetables for them but make sure that they take some sort of protein also in their meal.
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Don’ts
- Don’t think that they will make do with eating green salad and dip. If you have called them then it becomes your duty to look after them.
- Don’t invite them or warn them in advance if you think that you cannot cope with cooking vegetarian food.