Let Me Entertain You

The awkward vegetarian. That's how I've felt for the last 28 years. The one who always has to check the vegetarian options on a menu, in a restaurant, on packaging. The one who needs to remember to book the vegetarian option when attending dinners, weddings or booking airlines. The one who has to remind the host in advance; sorry, I don't eat meat or fish or quorn substitute. The one who is a nightmare for those who are catering.

Just recently I went for a girly evening at a friend's house. She delighted in telling me she had made things easy for herself by cooking a quorn lasagne instead of a meat and a vegetable one. Yikes. I normally find the texture of quorn to be like meat. However, I was hungry and she had gone to a lot of care and effort so I ploughed in. I have to say it was actually very tasty. Yes, it did feel a bit like eating mince but with each mouthful I told myself it wasn't, it was okay to be eating it.

Roll on two weeks and I find myself hosting a dinner party for eight. As I would be working on the day of the event I had to prepare the day before. What to feed everyone? Yes, you guessed it, lasagne. I set to work making meat lasagne for 6, vegetarian lasagne for myself and enough for whoever was curious enough to try it and a single vegetarian lasagne for my gluten free friend.

The starter was goats cheese on toasted ciabatta, caramelised onions and roasted pepper with salad (minus the ciabatta for my gf friend). Desert was a gluten free sunken chocolate amaretto cake with amaretti cream (whoops, make that just plain double cream for gf girl) and a shot of amaretto liqueur.

Needless to say she was very grateful. Certainly it was better for her than a recent party where they'd served pork pie and peas with a vegetarian cheese and onion pasty for the veggies. There was nothing for her and she had to succumb to a bag of crisps to see her through the evening.

Perhaps, after all this time, it's not me that's the awkward one.