Dust off your ‘host/ess with the most/est” cap – the festive season has arrived and it’s time to start preparing for family gatherings, dinner parties and copious amounts of delicious food! With guests ranging from family members to work colleagues, and old friends to a few newbees, catering to everyone’s taste buds and special dietary requirements can get a bit tricky. But an all-inclusive dinner party for vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters is not as hard as you think!
If you have a mixed group of food fanatics attending your dinner party, from vegetarians to meat-lovers, vegans to pescetarians, there are a few simple tricks to appeal to everyone’s tastes and food preferences. Here are our 5 easy tip for preparing meals for Vegans and Vegetarians that are guaranteed to leave them smiling ear to ear!
1) Take the X-factor off the table
The last thing you want to happen when entertaining this festive season is to spend hours preparing a beautiful roast, only to find that out most of your guests don’t eat meat.
Have your guests RSVP to the dinner party with any food allergies or special dietary requirements to avoid any awkward table conversations. THat way, you’ll have all the info on hand when preparing meals for Vegans and Vegetarians!
2) Eggcellent Substitutes
You don’t have to skimp on flavours and textures when entertaining Vegans or Vegetarians. Cooking can be just as exciting and appetising with a few sneaky substitutions – you just need to use the right ingredients! A great place to start is with Egg substitution, which will allow you to tweak your favourite recipes and prepare them for your vegan guests. Ground Flax, Chia Seed, Soy Protein, Afar Agar, Ripe bananas, Applesauce and Peanut butter are all substitutes that you can use for eggs.
3) A Sweet Surprise – Sugar Substitutes
When it comes to Sweet things, substitute sugar with Xylitol, Stevia or Erythritol for your Banting guests. You can also serve diabetic ice-cream in an Eetrite just-white dessert bowl with berries and cherries, which has naturally sweet flavours (and are antioxidant-rich) for your guests with diabetes.
4) Make-your-own Tortilla Wrap or Pizza Evening
When preparing meals for Vegans and Vegetarians, a great meal idea for a variety of guests is to a make-your-own Tortilla Wrap or Pizza evening. For those who don’t eat meat, grilled vegetables, lentil and boiled corn cob are great filler ingredients for the tortilla wraps, and you can go all out on vegetables like olives, peppadews, and arugula- also use shredded vegan cheese and vegan bacon for the pizza toppings. Order pre-made gluten-free or cauliflower pizza dough, or use whole grain flour for your home-made flour tortilla wraps. Use Eetrites Pizza cutter for easy slicing and serve on Eetrites White porcelain serving platter.
5) Vegan Dessert ideas
Dark Chocolate truffles or coconut balls made from raw vegan cashew and dried apricots will certainly leave your vegan guests satisfied.
