dino. posted:

Honestly, I've found that my friends who eat meat have been extremely accepting of my food, even if they're the sorts who'd usually eat mostly meat. I think the thing that worked for me was to make things that are vegan to begin with, rather than try to imitate things that they've been used to eating all their lives. So if I make up a batch of dosa and the potatoes that go with them, it's a completely new experience and not something that can be dismissed as "not as good as the real thing".

Mind you, I'll make seitan (from vital wheat gluten) for my husband, because I know he enjoys seitan.

I'll put it this way. When my mum was entertaining friends who were clueless Americans (sorry, but that's the only word I can think of), she wouldn't go through the trouble of making specific South Indian dishes that she knew they wouldn't appreciate. The same goes for clueless Indians.

She told me a story about a time she had a friend coming over back when she was in Delhi. She found a recipe for macaroni and cheese in the pressure cooker so that it gets the crispy topping like if you'd baked it in the oven (most Indian homes don't have an oven). It took her the better part of two or three hours to make, because she had to search up and down the shops to find the cheese, and the macaroni, and go through the whole rigamarole of making the thing. The friend came over, and poured rasam over it, and said that the weird rice was lovely.

So that seitan thing that I make for my husband, which takes no time at all to mix up, but has a pressure cooking step and a roasting step, isn't something I'd make for someone who's going to think of it as a fake meat, or a less than thing. I'd sooner make it for my husband, who's going to see it as its own thing, and enjoy it as such. There are bunches of really fun recipes that don't involve Weird Vegan Ingredients™ which will be delicious and filling.

I've found that with groups of people who generally are on those meat-heavy diets, making lots of different varieties, so that there's plenty to try makes it so that everyone gets full before they get a chance to try all the varieties. For example, my friend T------ had a party at her house for her dog. She wanted me to come over and help her make different varieties of noodles (because the dog's name is Noodles). We made pad thai, vegetable and pasta salad of some sort, a stir-fry, tteok guk, a vegan macaroni and cheese thing (it's a recipe I've been making for ages with coconut milk, and comes out lovely), a noodle kugel, and a couple of other dishes that I can't recall. Also, cake in the shape of a bowl, with frosting on top in the shape of noodles. There were so many different kinds of things to try that by the time everyone got to the end of the first round of dishes, they were full regardless of what their diets are. Mind you, T------'s friends run the gamut from picky to adventurous, so we wanted to have enough things that are interesting and appealing looking, so that everyone could have something they can gravitate towards. It was a lot of fun too!

Your mileage will vary. If your friends are assholes, there's not much to be done for it.