Vegan family meals when not everyone is vegan

The objection

“I can’t cook two separate dinners every night. My partner won’t go vegan, the kids are fussy, it’s just not workable in one kitchen.”

The answer

Many people are held back from cooking more plant-based food by the tastes of those closest to them, women with children most of all. A national survey of 5,390 Finnish adults, carried out in 2022 and 2023 and published in 2026 by researchers at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, asked what kept people from eating more plant-based food, and told those already vegetarian or vegan to skip the question. Overall, 17% of the women and 3% of the men said the preferences of people close to them stopped them making vegetarian food [1]. Among women living with children the figure was 29%, and 35% of those women said they didn’t know how to make tasty vegetarian food [1]. Both problems have a practical answer: cook one dinner vegan, starting from dishes the family already likes, and let the meat-eaters add to it.

How do you cook one meal for vegans and meat-eaters?

Cook the dish vegan up to the point of serving, then let the meat-eaters add meat or cheese to their own plates. Spaghetti gets a tomato and lentil sauce, and anyone who wants cheese grates it over theirs. Fajitas use the same peppers, beans and rice for everyone, with chicken cooked in a second pan for those who want it. A curry, chilli or stir-fry splits the same way: the sauce, vegetables and beans or tofu make the meal, and any meat can be cooked on the side and added to their portions at the end. The Vegan Society, a UK vegan charity, says many of the foods people already enjoy can be made vegan “with just a few small tweaks” [2]. Dietitians of Canada’s general advice on family meals (2020) points the same way: make one supper for the whole family, of food most of them will enjoy, and avoid becoming a short-order cook [3]. You end up cooking two dinners only if you make their meat-centred dish and a separate vegan one beside it.

What if your partner or children won’t eat vegan?

They don’t have to, because whatever they add goes on their own plates, and some give and take is normal in households cutting down on meat. In a 2025 study of 30 people from such households by researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, partners’ and children’s preferences shaped how often meat was eaten and which meals were cooked, and the households settled on compromises (Groen et al., 2025) [4].

A teenager who has given up meat can also pull shared meals towards plants. In a 2025 German study, 57 parents and their teenage children each said how much meat they wanted in a family meal, then agreed on the meal in a filmed discussion. On average the teenagers neither wanted less meat nor had more say than their parents, but the 14% who were vegetarian or vegan had more influence, and the meals their pairs agreed on contained less meat (Mata et al., 2025) [5].

Is a vegan family dinner all right for children?

Children can share a plant-based dinner like everyone else, and the extra planning matters when a child eats no animal products at all. Canada’s food guide, from Health Canada, recommends choosing protein foods that come from plants more often [6], and the British Dietetic Association notes that people who eat eggs and dairy are unlikely to run short of vitamin B12, since those foods contain it, while for vegans “the only reliable sources of vitamin B12 are fortified foods and supplements” [7].

On fully vegan diets for children, expert bodies disagree, and paediatric societies are split among themselves. Dietitians’ bodies in the UK, Ireland and Canada say a well-planned vegan or plant-based diet can suit people of any age [7][8][9], though the British fact sheet dates from 2021 and is under review [7]. The Canadian Paediatric Society took the same view in 2009, while Germany’s paediatric society recommends an omnivorous diet for children and Spain’s prefers an omnivorous or at least lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet for babies and young children [10]. Europe’s paediatric gastroenterology and nutrition society, ESPGHAN, notes that many paediatricians in Europe consider a purely vegan diet unsuitable for children, and in 2025 its nutrition committee concluded that a vegan diet supporting normal growth is “potentially achievable but cannot be confirmed with the available evidence” [10]. It recommends that vegan children have regular counselling from a qualified dietitian, monitoring by a paediatrician and a daily B12 supplement [10]. If a child is to be raised fully vegan, make the plan with a doctor or dietitian, with the evidence on how vegan children grow and what they need in mind.