Do you have a dinner party to plan, or a crowd to feed? Is it a mixed crowd? Vegetarians, vegans, and inveterate meat-lovers, perhaps? We've had some experience with meal-planning for mixed groups, and we feel like they are a great opportunity to branch out into new kinds of dishes, and to create fun meals for our guests. Here are five flexible menu ideas for vegetarians and omnivores alike.Pasta
This is perhaps the most classic and easy-to-make supper option for a mixed crowd. Make a pot of good pasta and a couple different sauces or toppings.
• 3-Sausage Pasta Sauce or a basic meat ragu should keep the meat-eaters happy, although some might spring for the vegetarian option too!
• 8 Light, Meat-Free Pasta Sauces - Including a rich mushroom sauce, a lighter broccoli and feta pesto, and a basic tomato marinara.
Pizza
This one is easy, right? Make pizzas and everyone can top them just the way they like. Here are a few pizza ideas and recipes.
• Homemade Thin Crust Pizza - Here's your basic crust recipe, and recipes for sauces, too.
• Four interesting ideas for topping pizzas.
Tacos or Tortilla Wraps
See a theme? Give people a base to build their own custom meal, just like with pizza. With tacos or tortillas, it's a lot of fun to build a little bar full of guacamole, salsa, pickled onions, rice, beansand shredded meat and cheese. The omnivores can eat meat; the vegetarians can build a meat-less burrito.
• Taco Bar Fixings - Everything you need to put together a great taco bar.
• How To Cook (and Shred) a Pork Shoulder - The meat for a meal like this is super easy (and cheap) - slow-cook a big pork shoulder in the CrockPot and then shred it.
Beans
Beans are a slightly different alternative, but we like the idea of introducing meat-eaters to delicious heirloom beans. With a little meat on the side, of course. But if they love those beans like we do, they may find that they don't want to eat quite so much meat.
• How To Cook Beans - A basic primer on pot beans. Cook a couple big pots of different heirloom beans, then have a few toppings ready.
• Florida Butter Beans with Caramelized Onions and Bacon - This is an easy topping, and much richer than you might think. You could even make this for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians - one batch with bacon and one without.
Salad
Treat the meat-eaters to lots and lots of vegetables with a giant chopped salad. Have dishes on the side of chopped hard-boiled egg, bacon, fried sausage, cheeses, grilled steak strips, and other salad toppings. We love a big chopped salad with plenty of fresh garden greens, lightly cooked corn, grilled zucchini, and other good vegetables.
• Recipe Roundup: Main Dish Salads - Lots of good ideas here for main course salads.
• Salade Poubelle Paris - On the "garbage" salad, made with all sorts of things from your fridge.
What do you like to make when you cook for a mixed group?
Related: Good Question: Menu for Meat-Lovers and Vegetarians Too - Lots more good ideas in the comments here.
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We used to have lots of dinners with veg and non vege diners. The easiest way we found was to have everything vegetarian except for the meat only dishes. Example, we might have soup, risotto, salad and burgers. Then have the meat patties and vege patties (or portabello mushrooms) separate.
My parties are mixed. I used to make two versions of a dish - for example, a lasagna with meat and a lasagna without meat.
But even among the meat eaters, there are some who won't eat red, or who eat fish only, or who eat chicken but not pork, etc., etc. etc. I find a basic vegetarian pasta dish appeals to all.
My partner and I have an excellent book, The Flexitarian Table, that has menus with meat/vegetarian versions of each dish plus instructions on how to make both simultaneously.
The last time I had a mixed group I made chili and cornbread. Good filling food, and it was easy to put together, brown some hamburger in the bottom of a second pot, and then dump half the chili in it.
I talked to a very heavyset polosh waitress some time ago. She asked me if I liked the falafel, I did. We started talking about vegetarians, vegans and how food has become a problem these days. It seems like everybody has issues and she told me she'd given up. It's allergies, Atikins, chicken, no chicken, vegan, the "I don't eat red pepper, just yellow" people...
"These days I only serve chips and booze. Nobody's allergic to that."
True wisdom. :-)
Ha Bosse, booze are haram. I don't serve it. But Trader Joes has some great alcohol free mojitos. I'm a vegan but I find that when I go to events with vegetarian fare and meat dishes that the vegetarian stuff gets eaten by all of the omnivores. I stick to "ethnic food" that traditionally has no meat.
I'm a pescatarian, and my boyfriend is vegetarian. When I have friends over for dinner, I usually just serve vegetarian meals, making sure there is plenty of food so people don't feel deprived. If anything, I really try to open my friends' eyes to realizing they can be fully satisfied and delighted by a meatless meal. Also I love starting off with wine/cheese/olives/nuts/fruit, while I'm finishing cooking. People can snack, mingle, and not wait around starving before the food hits the table. And I've had no complaints since I started cooking veg for my friends, only compliments. :)
ach, it drives me nuts when I go somewhere and the host has veg and meat foods, and all the omnivores eat all of the vegetarian stuff, and don't leave enough for those of us who aren't eating meat. This always happens when I go somewhere and there's a meat lasagna and a vegetarian lasagna. Meat-eaters, please: can you let the vegetarians have a go at the veggie dishes first?