What is the best tasting dish to impress a meat eater?!
Answers: I am having my boy friend's parents over and they do not like the fact that I am a vegan. I would like to cook then something really good that would impress then and maybe educate then at the same time. Any ideas?
I am a former chef and a vegetarian now, and your question was to impress them with a non-meat dish to make them see the virtues of vegetarian cooking, and you get answers from morons about meat, some people cannot read very well, I am with those who gave you constructive answers, a veggie lasagna, eggplant parmesan with soya cheese, I love to use portabello mushrooms known for the meat like texture and flavour.
I would make a complete meal with salad and dessert, so they feel it is not an ambush, even a soup is nice for a pre-dinner starter. I am a lacto-ovo-pescatarian veggie, I like to use abit of tuna here and there or artifical crabmeat, nothing else.
Make it look appetizing and do not say, anything about the contents, "let them say boy this good what is your secret", then say, "well I live a healthy lifestyle and want to show you how easy it is to eat with out including meat in the meals".
steak and a baked potato.
Vegetable lasagna? Lots of mushrooms, zip it up a
little with some feta cheese.
Something rich and chocolate-y for desert.
a nice piece of topside of beef,pot roasted slowly with sauteed french beans(with a hint of Garlic) and roast potato's, Magic!!
If you do braised tofu right, with a nice brown caramelized "gravy", they would swear it was chicken. Disgusting sounding maybe, but the first time I had tofu prepared this way at a vietnamese restaurant, I would have sworn they accidentally brought me a meat dish by mistake.
Don't compromise your principles for old rednecks.
Stay strong. Peace
Kudos to you for being a vegan!!! But a great meal would be something like Filet Mignon with a side salad....you can actually but filet mignon already seasoned at your local grocery store. If you dont wanna do the steak, try making chicken breast with orange slices for flavor. (Try this recipe: http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/martha-ste...
a meat eater such as i , i still like cheif salads. make your own, spreed out some lunch meat with it.
Very noble of you to go out of the way to please them. Much to be said about that.
Instead of preaching, just cook a tasty veg. dish. You have plenty of suggestions above, so I won't repeat what to cook.
I have had many meat eaters and I am a Veg'tran. Not a vegan. And, they walked away after being amazed at the variety and the taste they can get and meat is not the be all end all. I am talking about rednecks of the steak and potato variety. They swore up and down in our earlier get togethers at their homes how they cannot "live" without meat.
So, try it. You do not have to compromise. But should you do it, kudos to you. Hope your bf appreciates the effort you are put in into this.
Beef, Potatoes, & maybe Carrots, fixed in a pressure cooker is easy & good to reduce fat. Other suggestions are listed below.
beef lasagna....mmmmmm you can't go wrong
serve both meat + veg only dishes , give them the opportunity to make an educated decision not a forced one , a forced one will be negative .
I have been in your shoes with my x-in-laws and tried to impress them with dinners. No matter what you serve meat eaters they will probably find it lacking. Its a mind set. I was an ova-lacto vegetarian and used eggs and cheese. I agree with the suggestion of lasagna if you use cheese. Mine has lots of cheese and veggies in it. I still make it this way today even though I have gone back to eating meat.
In it I make a killer red sauce with herbs and wine and lots of garlic. I put a layer of spinach over the ricotta/ cottage cheese layer which is on the red sauce on the noodles. Be sure and butter your dish first to prevent the noodles from sticking. In the red sauce I used mushrooms, onions, green pepper. black olives and grated carrots. I top the first layer with Monterrey jack cheese/ mozzarella. Then repeat.
Spinach cheese balls are another appetizer that is a winner. Again eggs and cheese are in this. The salad should be a big deal and very interesting. Most meat eaters are used to the salad being a bowl of lettuce. I also suggest a fruit tray that contains a large variety of fruits. It can be a work of art arranged on a platter. I like to slice the strawberries leaving the stems on them and spread them like a flower. ( Everyone likes fruit). Make it very visually stimulating. People eat with their eyes. I would not even mention the fact that it is a vegetarian dinner. No one likes to be preached to. Just make it a festive and enjoyable dinner.
A big pan of money lasagna, using $100 bills for noodles.
As you are vegan, I assume you would not want to prepare a meat dish. Ahem.
I would also recommend a lasagna dish made with veg meat crumbles (Morningstar Farms makes great griller crumbles) and soy cheese - they won't know the difference!
Also, you can make a nice seitan stroganoff type dish. Simmer seitan in mushroom gravy with mushroom slices and onions. Serve over kasha, or noodles. Egg noodles would work best, but since you are a vegan, try to fina another noodle that is similar.
Or, how about a veg chili (if you want to go 'casual')? You can either use the crumbles, or TVP, or do a beans only chili. Serve over rice or spaghetti with tofutti sour cream, soy cheese, scallions, etc.
The possibilities are endless...