I'm cooking for a vegan. What can I make?

The objection

“My son’s bringing his new vegan girlfriend for Christmas and I haven’t a clue what to feed her. Am I meant to cook a whole second dinner alongside the turkey? And what do vegans actually eat, apart from a few vegetables?”

The answer

Far more than a few vegetables, and there’s no need for a second dinner. A vegan eats no meat or fish, no dairy or eggs, no honey and nothing else taken from animals, such as gelatine [1]. Everything else is fair game, so the job comes down to checking a handful of ingredients and then cooking one dish good enough that the whole table wants some of it. It’s the same approach that lets a mixed household cook one meal every night instead of two.

What do I need to check?

Check the fats, the stock and the sauces, because that is where animal products hide in food that otherwise looks vegan. On packaged food sold in the UK, milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans and molluscs are among the 14 allergens that must be emphasised in the ingredients list, for example in bold [2][3], which makes them quick to spot. Honey, gelatine and meat stock aren’t on that list, so for those you have to read the words themselves.

• Dairy under other names. Besides butter, cream and cheese, milk turns up as whey, casein, caseinates, ghee and some margarines [3].
• Egg. It can be in pasta, noodles, cakes, pastries, mayonnaise and glazes [4].
• Fish where you wouldn’t expect it. Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovies, fish sauce is common in Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian cooking, Caesar dressing sometimes contains anchovies, and kimchi is often made with fish sauce [5].
• Stock and gravy. Use vegetable stock, and look at the instant gravies, plenty of which are vegan by accident [1].
• Gelatine. It is made from animal bones and used above all to make jelly [6], so a trifle needs a vegan version, and ready-made ones are sold [1].
• Honey. Vegans don’t eat it [7] (the honey answer explains why), so honey-glazed parsnips and carrots are out, and roasting them with oil and herbs does the job instead [1].
• Wine and beer. Some are cleared with animal proteins during production, while spirits are usually fine, and a vegan label on the bottle settles it [8]. The allergen label won’t always help: a wine fined with egg only has to say “contains egg” when more than 0.25 milligrams per litre remains [4]. There’s more on why wine and beer often aren’t vegan.

A “vegan” label on a pack means no ingredients of animal origin were used on purpose. The same pack can still say “may contain milk”, a warning for people with allergies that the food may have picked up traces in a factory or kitchen that also handles milk [9]. If your guest has a food allergy as well, that is a separate question to ask them.

What can a vegan eat at Christmas dinner?

Nearly everything on the table, once the roasting fat, the butter and the honey are swapped. Roast the potatoes in olive or vegetable oil instead of goose fat or butter, make the stuffing, bread sauce and mash with vegetable stock and a dairy-free spread, and make a vegetable gravy [1]. For the centrepiece, a nut roast, a stuffed butternut squash or a chestnut and mushroom wellington all sit happily with the usual trimmings, and many ready-made pastries are vegan, which makes the wellington easier than it sounds [1]. Plant-based pigs in blankets are widely sold [1].

Pudding takes even less thought, since vegan cream, custard and ice cream are easy to find, and so are ready-made vegan Christmas puddings [1]. If you’re buying a pudding or mince pies, read the label for butter, egg and suet, which is the hard fat from around the kidneys of cows and sheep [10]. The same swaps carry over to Thanksgiving, where the mash, the stuffing and the gravy are again the dishes to watch.

Which dishes are easiest to make vegan?

The easiest are dishes built on beans, lentils, grains and vegetables, where the meat or cheese was only ever an extra. A bean chilli, a chickpea or lentil curry, a tomato pasta with roasted vegetables, a tofu stir-fry and fajitas with peppers and black beans all work as they are, and anyone who wants cheese or soured cream can add it on their own plate. Cook enough of the vegan dish for everyone and make it the main event, so your guest isn’t eating a side plate while everyone else shares the real dinner.

How do I avoid making it awkward?

Ask before the day, and let your guest help. Veganuary’s advice to hosts is to talk about dietary needs in advance, ask whether the guest has a favourite recipe, and offer them the chance to help cook or bring a dish [1]. Don’t take it badly if they bring something anyway, since The Vegan Society tells vegans going to catered events to take a little something of their own in case of a last-minute problem [8]. On the day, cook the vegan main in its own tin rather than under the turkey, give it its own serving spoon, and put it in the middle of the table where everyone can reach it. After that, talk about anything but the food on their plate unless they raise it.