My parents don't mix meat and dairy products due to religious belief, and it seems that this might actually help you out. Margarine in mashed potatoes tastes fine. You may need to add more than you would butter and perhaps more salt, but it's definitely not bad. And also, you can by fake chicken stock. It's a powder (or cubed powder), not a liquid, but you boil it into water and voila. I use it often when I make risotto because I like to put cheese in mine, and otherwise, I couldn't.

Honestly, I'd make a really elaborate salad with fruits, nuts, veggies, and a really good vinaigrette and call it a day. If you feel like making another veggie side dish, you could make an avocado, hearts of palm, tomato salad that's really good and super easy to make. It's just those three things, plus mayo (can Vegans eat mayo? I don't think so now that I think about it), and lemon juice. I'm sure the recipe would come up if you googled it.

Or instead of steaming the veggies, why not roast them? Roasted peppers, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, and sauteed roasted portobello mushrooms would be good, too.

Or instead of steaming the veggies, why not roast them?

Why didn't I think of that? Oh, wait... pfft.

^ You should know by now that I skim or skip the majority of what you post. I don't have the time to sit and read your 85 replies per thread.

I don't care whether you look like an idiot or not, and I assume you're already inured to it. So feel free to skip ahead, and repost stuff that's already been posted. It gives me more chances to make fun of you for being completely clueless.

Oh, and most vegans don't eat margarine because it has trans-fat. You can find butter substitutes that are trans-fat-free, but you might as well just stick to extra virgin olive oil since everyone eats that.

If you are making home-made ice cream, I assume you have an ice-cream machine? How about making a fruit sorbet instead or in addition to ice cream? That will be dairy-free. I have a machine and have made several different kinds over the past year, and all have been big hits at parties. If this might be an option (I only skimmed the list of forbidden foods), let me know and I'll share some recipes.

I'm mildly lactose- (or milk-) intolerant (my mom is more severely so); so my fiance got me an ice cream machine for my birthday last year to make fruit sorbets that my mom and I could both enjoy. Best birthday gift ever!

I'll post again if I think of more ideas. Meanwhile, you might find some suitable recipes here:

www.nytimes.com . . .

We made the harvest tart for Thanksgiving and it was awesome, but also a lot of effort (then again, I'm a wimp when it comes to cooking). So considering everything else you're making, that might be a bit too hard. There are some soup recipes that may be easy enough and fit the requirements.

Just reread the list of "forbidden foods"-- I guess the Harvest Tart I mentioned previously is out of the question since it has a flour/ butter based pastry crust. But there are several other recipes in the link I posted that would work. They look a bit ambitious (for me, anyway), but you may find something reasonable. Many of their soups would be OK, as well as the beet recipe. I also found a list of butter substitutes. I haven't tried any of them, but a friend told me that her friend likes the Earth Balance one. Here's the list.

Since white sugar is out of the question, a fruit sorbet might be hard as well, since it starts with a sugar syrup. You might be able to use a sweetener of a different type, or perhaps honey. Here's a list of sugar-free sorbet recipes.

Do let us know what you end up making, I'm really curious to see how you accommodate all these requirements. My mom had to cook for an elderly Jain couple once, and she said that was the hardest dinner she's ever made (in a nutshell, the requirements are: vegetarian (dairy is OK, but no eggs); no root vegetables like potatoes or carrots; no onion, garlic, ginger; and dinner must be served before sunset-- difficult to do during New England winters when the sun sets before 5pm.). I think your dinner requirements rival those for difficulty!

I'd call a local restaurant that has a vegan menu. Order a meal to go that fits her many restrictions and have your best friend pick it up on the way to the party.

Plate it in the kitchen and serve her plate hot and all ready to go... and don't make any excuses about the content. It's hard enough to plan a meal around these restrictions but the no rice on top of everything else makes it really, really hard. Just order hers out and be done with it.

She can have a sliced orange for dessert.

Good luck with your party.

Keep On Dancing*

Y'all really go above and beyond for friends with ridiculous food requests. Allergies I can handle if there's not a ton of them, but vegan AND gluten intolerant? I would personally never alter my entire dinner party menu for one person... But that's only because I'd be annoyed if I went to a dinner party and was served a vegan AND gluten free meal because of one person.

I agree with ^, get a meal to go from a restaurant that has a vegan entree, serve that to your friend, and *maybe* alter one or two of the side dishes, but only if it's easy and won't ruin the meal, such as subbing butter for margarine.

For future reference, they DO make a fake chicken broth that is quite good, but as has been mentioned, most soups don't taste good without cream. Then again, I'm a vegetable broth lover (the nice kind from Whole Foods), and always preferred it even when I did eat meat, so take what I say with a grain of salt Anyhow, it does seem easiest to just get her her own can. Just make sure to read the label, but if you go to Whole Foods you shouldn't have an issue.

I personally wouldn't bother with a gluten-free bread. It's vile, expensive and most have rice in them. Check the pasta section at Whole Foods, they have quinoa and spelt based noodles that are tasty, you could get a sauce to go with it or just toss it in EVOO and some fresh basil. If you want to get creative, try some spinach and onion in it.

Beyond that, everyone else had really good suggestions, I certainly can't top them. These events sound like an enormous headache, so kudos to you for doing it alone and graciously!

I'd give her cream of chicken soup and tell her it was made with almond milk and tofu.

I have decided to make a Tofu/Vegetable "main"dish that I have already experimented with. It is a curry base dish. ( Does curry have gluten in it?). I will make Cauliflower rice to go with this. I personally don't eat much grains either, so this gives me something that I can also personally eat a lot of.

I am planning on keeping the Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Soup the way they are. I am pretty confident on these dishes, and I don't want to screw them up.
I am just going to boil her a potato.

As for dessert, I am serving a pretty elaborate fruit salad and I am just going to put hers in a bowl before I put the fruit sugar sauce on top.

Mendel in one of my later posts I mentioned that she also can't have white sugar. I don't think I am going to try the fruit shorbet without any sugar in it. That sounds like it would be super sour.

I will make Cauliflower rice to go with this.

You said she can't have rice.

panic wrote:

I'd give her cream of chicken soup and tell her it was made with almond milk and tofu.

That would be extremely rude.

Oh it is rice made of cauliflower. It isn't "real" rice but it has the same texture when you pour curry over it. Basically you shred up the cauliflower real fine, then pan fry it with seasoning.

I think I will serve it as a smaller side dish to everyone else, and just make it her main dish. I have actually gotten compliments on it from heavy meat eaters, so I don't think I can go wrong with this.

^^ Sense of humour?

I personally like Christine's suggestion. Least effort, and it will still be good food for her.

^^^I know! Rude AND hilarious.

Yeah, no, not really hilarious at all. Just plain rude. People have their beliefs for a reason. You don't have to agree with them, but you do need to respect them.

And THIS is why everyone hates vegans. They have the humor of a sour old dishrag. I'd probably rub her potato with raw beef too. And I'd sweeten the fruit with honey. And I'd fill a soy milk carton with half-and-half.

^^ Oh lighten up.

Call me a bad hostess but there is no way I would go out of my way for one person. Making vegan potatoes, a separate bunch of broccoli and a salad is reasonable but if you make a lovely curry for her or any other special dish she might just tell you she doesn't eat that either.

I second the idea of getting her input on what she'd like to eat or getting a separate vegan meal from somewhere. You have enough to worry about without making a whole other meal. It is a dinner party, not room service.

Hopefully her husband doesn't turn up with his own set of dietary restrictions!

You can use coconut or almond milk to replace cream or regular cow's milk

EarthBalance vegan buttery spread and/or buttery sticks in place of butter

If she can't have rice GF pasta might be difficult as it's usually made from rice. There is on made with quinoa that is pretty decent.

I agree with the suggestion of making something different for her or ordering out. It's going to be really hard to alter your whole menu and there are several things you really can't alter to suit her anyway.

I have celiac disease and am currently dairy free because my newborn has a dairy intolerance (which she'll eventually grow out of, thank god) so I know well the challenges of cooking with restrictions. Your friend is pretty inconsiderate and kind of dumb to wait this long to tell you about her restrictions. For future reference I'm a fairly decent cook so if you ever need gluten free, dairy free recipes I'm your gal. I cook and bake for people all the time and no one can tell everything I make is GF/DF.

I have a recipe that I used to use to make a veggie hot pot you could prob turn it into vegan if you have space in the oven.
Kidney Beans
Bolloti Beans (Actually you can use whatever kind of beans)
Butter Beans
Potatoes
Carrot
Leek
Onion
Mushrooms
We used to put in mushroom soup to make the sauce you might be able to find a vegan one or you could just use water. Season with oregano and pepper.

I did make a vegan chocolate cake once i'm not vegan but someone else had allergies to milk so quantities up to you. It doesn't matter.
Soy Milk I used half a cartoon
Cocoa Powder Three Tablespoons
Sugar
Flour

You could use egg substitute but I didn't and put it in the oven for half an hour. It comes out quite flattish but tastes ok. I have no other ideas i'm sorry I can't be more help.

Tunie wrote:

panic wrote:

I'd give her cream of chicken soup and tell her it was made with almond milk and tofu.

That would be extremely rude.

HELLO...do you understand the word JOKING???? Please don't take yourself or other people's causes so seriously. It's just not necessary or an attractive quality. How could you read that and even think it was remotely serious?

My question is why would you send out dinner invitations 8 weeks early? You only have to send out WEDDING invitations 6 weeks early.

There has to be a place you can just buy some gluten free bread, some kind of gluten free soup (at a posh soup/sandwhich shop), and love the baked potato idea. Keep this simple for you and don't get crazy altering the menu so everyone else (including you) has to suffer.

My nephew is gluten-free and dairy free to help with his autism and I swear we never ever have drama over his food issues.

I am Vegetarian, gluten intolerant and I have a pretty healthy sense of humour. I chose to be vego, but I don't choose the gluten stuff. Gluten poisoning is pretty gross business. I’m not sure why you’d want to be faking it? I am also not sure that you could. Gluten is everywhere, if someone was faking intolerance, I’d say they’d get over it mighty quick.

I honestly think if you sub butter for olive oil, grab a can of vegan soup to heat up and maybe just pile her plate high with fruit for dessert, you’ll pass with flying colours. I’d give you an A plus for even going to that much effort if I was your guest.

Then again, if I was your guest not only would I have told you I was vegetarian when I RSVP’d, but I would have offered to bring my own main dish with a serving for one that could be slid onto my plate in the kitchen, no dramas. I’ve done it before and I’ll continue to do it when I am invited to eat with my carnivore friends. Usually they refuse , but I still think you need to offer. Especially if it’s the first time you’ve gone to their house for dinner.

I noticed the no-sugar thing, which is why I linked to a list of sugar-free sorbet recipes in my second post.

The cauliflower rice sounds awesome. Could you post a recipe?