Cider-braised pork belly? Check. Crispy chicken with pancetta? Taste and check. A beautifully marbled fillet of wagyu beef, ready to embrace the sizzling pan? Check again.

You’ve been planning your dinner party for a week. It’s just a gathering of friends, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to impress them. Which explains why you really went out of your way to source the best ingredients, spent hours trawling the internet for great recipes, and metaphorically quarantined the kitchen so that no other member of the family (cats included) dare set a foot in.

Then your best friend calls up to tell you that her plus one is, ahem, vegetarian.

“Is that a problem?” she asks.

You huff and puff in a futile attempt to blow away the moment.

“No, not really,” you mumble. Then you hang up, look around you, and scream.

Last May, a study supported by Genius Gluten Free in support of Coeliac UK Awareness Week found that a fifth of British people avoid inviting vegans and vegetarians to dinner parties. The reasons given varied: some hosts feared causing their vegan and vegetarian guests health problems, others said that they lacked the culinary knowledge, while the rest said that they saw it as an inconvenience.

The study, which involved 2,000 adults, also found that 40 per cent would struggle cooking for a vegetarian. Respondents were also asked to name the most irritating food choice. In first place came veganism, closely followed by vegetarianism.

When, consciously or not, you invite a vegetarian to dinner, you have a choice: you either refuse to accommodate them or else you make sure that there are enough vegetarian dishes to make the guest feel a member of the dinner party. Each choice has its repercussions. The former will certainly not enhance your dinner host qualities. The latter, however, will involve additional hours of research, shopping and cooking – more effort than you really need or want.

But is it really more effort?

First of all, it depends on whether your guest is vegetarian or vegan. While a vegetarian wouldn’t mind eating lasagna with ricotta, a vegan does not eat meat, eggs, dairy products, animal-derived ingredients and foods that are processed using animal products, including white sugar and some wines.

There is also the matter of how intensely vegetarians and vegans stick to their menu. Other guests will probably not mind sharing a meal with a vegetarian or a vegan. They might also want to try some of the vegetarian dishes that you prepared. Yet the vegetarian or vegan guest also has to be accommodating and allow the other guests to enjoy their meat dishes at the same table. The dinner table should be a democratic space and diets shouldn’t be imposed on others.

It also depends on your cooking knowledge and skills. The fact that you are hosting a dinner party means that you can stand a bit of heat in the kitchen. But even if you’re not really familiar with vegetarian and vegan tastes, there are various cookbooks you can buy and websites you can consult.

What matters most is, of course, taste. Can vegetarian or vegan dishes taste good?

The answer is short and sweet: yes. You don’t need to cook a vegetarian or vegan dish using meat substitutes because that is exactly what they are: substitutes. Instead, use fresh vegetables, ingredients such as pasta, rice, grains and cheese, and plenty of herbs and spices for added zing.

As for inspiration, there are various sources. Soups make for great starters: from simple yet delicious pumpkin soup to a chickpea, kale and sweet potato soup, they are tasty, hearty and versatile. For mains, pasta is the obvious choice: perfect for showcasing beautifully fresh vegetables. But you can also be adventurous and cook something exotic. For this, look no further than North India, where vegetarian curries will convince you that a vegetable-based diet is not boring at all: from anjeeri matar, which is a fig and peas curry, to gramflour curry with fried vegetable pakoras, cooking vegetarian curries will be a tasty learning curve for you. For dessert, you have an open larder full of fresh fruit, flour and ground almonds.

It doesn’t take much to accommodate a vegetarian or vegan guest. Do a bit of research, plan ahead, follow the recipe and make sure that there is enough food to go around because the guests will be queuing up for second helpings.

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