In the middle of this Venn diagram is a single lemon

August 1, 2011 1:23 PM

Help me plan a meal for a group of people with a rich array of dietary restrictions, please!

My partner and I have volunteered to cook dinner for ~20 people at his upcoming family reunion. This seemed like a fine idea before we realized the extent and variety of the attendees' dietary restrictions. Please help me brainstorm some ideas before I just put them all in a canoe with the fox and the sheep and the grain and push them out into the river together to be done with it.

Restrictions include:
- No dairy
- No eggs (or "not too much egg" -- ???)
- No wheat

To a lesser extent, some people cannot eat or avoid:
- tomatoes
- potatoes
- legumes
- nuts
- chocolate
- barley, wild rice, spelt



- And I don't eat meat. (Somehow I'm the only one.) At this point I am more than happy to prepare a meat-based dish if that's what it takes, and make myself something on the side, though.

At this point it seems inevitable that there will be some sort of assemble-your-own component to the dinner. Beyond that: ?? Any suggestions are welcome and much appreciated!

posted by little cow make small moo to Food & Drink (16 answers total)

Best answer: I would do a taco bar. You can have multiple meats and beans, both corn and wheat tortillas, and people can do toppings according to their own restrictions. You're never going to find one entree that works for all these things.
posted by something something at 1:26 PM on August 1, 2011 [10 favorites]

Best answer: Along the lines of "assemble your own" - you could just do a bunch of kabobs. Different meats, different veggies - make each kabob only have one ingredient, and then people can mix and match. Make the kabobs "half size" in order to facilitate said mixing and matching. (Eg break/cut the wooden skewers and half, and put 4 pieces of each "ingredient" on each stick).

So the vegetarian-tomato-hater has her mushrooms, zucchini, and bell peppers, and the red-meat avoider with a distaste for mushrooms has his chicken, onions, and cherry tomatoes.

You can supplement with a variety of sides - salad, rice, potato salad - that people can equally avoid the parts they don't want.
posted by CharlieSue at 1:32 PM on August 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Taco bar using traditional corn torillas which usually have no gluten. Heck, most Mexican cuisine relies not on gluten and you can dodge tomatoes too.
posted by jadepearl at 1:32 PM on August 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

What about a coconut milk-based Indian, Malaysian, or Thai curry, with lots of vegetables? You could cook chicken or another animal protein separately, take out your portion, and add the meat in at the end. Serve with regular rice, which doesn't appear on your list of banned foods.

Alternatively, will you have a grill handy? Grilled vegetables (whatever you like best — as a vegetarian I'm partial to a mix of zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, and onions), grilled meats for those who eat them (preferably something that doesn't traditionally come with a bun — BBQ chicken? steak? fish?), corn and other salads, watermelon, and maybe one or two other sides would make for a nice family reunion-style meal.
posted by rebekah at 1:33 PM on August 1, 2011

Best answer: Yeah, came in to suggest Taco Bar too. We have done parties with vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free, meat eaters, etc etc. and the taco bar was perfect. Grill up different kinds of marinated meats, portabello mushrooms, includes lots of different kinds of sides and tortillas (incl gluten free if you have people like that in your crowd--or you can ask them to bring their own if there's only one or two). For chicken, I will do a chile and lime (and sometimes tequila) marinade; for steak, a chimichurri marinade; for mushrooms, Ill do a garlic and balsamic marinade. Then I go crazy with the sides--different kinds of beans and cheese and veggies. It has always been a huge hit.
posted by Kimberly at 1:41 PM on August 1, 2011

Best answer: Thirding the taco bar. That's what we did when we hosted a big group with vegetarians, pescetarians, people on Atkins, people with sensitivities to onions/garlic/dairy/gluten, people who claim to love Mexican food but yet cannot tolerate anything remotely spicy (!?), people who LOVE cilantro and people for whom it tastes like soap, etc etc etc. Every person gets to choose exactly what goes on their plate. Make sure to have a big supply of lettuce for folks who just want to make a salad instead of tacos.

Bonus: the leftovers will make you some kick-ass nachos the next day.
posted by ambrosia at 1:52 PM on August 1, 2011

Fresh spring rolls are another variation on the "taco bar" idea.

Place out chopped bok choi, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, mint, peanut sauce, soy sauce, thai basil, spring onions, sauteed tofu, tempeh, rice noodles, etc. into separate bowls.

People can then sample from various bowls and fill up a moistened rice wrapper, which they fold up into a rice wrap.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:58 PM on August 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd say go with the taco bar idea or other assemble your own and label everything they can all pick and choose their approved food items. I have dietary restrictions and love it when I can make my own weird plate plus or minus sauces or dressings.
posted by oneear at 2:07 PM on August 1, 2011

I like Blazecock Pileon's idea, and I would suggest a curry bar instead of wraps. You can have a big pot of rice and one with rice noodles then have them pick and choose among various ingredients (that he listed) along with pots of Thai red curry, Thai green/yellow curry, and some sort of Indian curry. A lot of Indian curries use milk or cream, but you can substitute that with a cashew sauce (soak cashews for a few hours, use a food processor to liquefy).
posted by spiderskull at 2:09 PM on August 1, 2011

This doesn't seem very restrictive to me. You'd be fine with most typical barbecue foods.
- Marinated grilled chicken
- Grilled vegetables
- Grilled shrimp if you eat seafood
- Even hamburgers and hotdogs will work - people can avoid the bun if necessary
- Chips for those who eat potatoes
- Green salad
- Quinoa salad (instead of pasta salad - quinoa is gluten/wheat-free)
posted by valeries at 2:23 PM on August 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

What about a coconut milk-based Indian, Malaysian, or Thai curry, with lots of vegetables?

I came in to recommend some kind of vegetable-filled curry, too. It seems like the biggest challenge is finding a protein that everyone can eat, since meat, eggs, dairy, legumes, and nuts are all limited. I'd make a big curry with coconut milk, currants or raisins, vegetables like zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, carrots, squash, and sweet potato. Serve it over quinoa for some protein, and maybe include some options on the side like toasted almonds, tofu, yogurt, and chickpeas, and some kind of meat if you're so inclined, all of which would mix in well.

Or, you could make stuffed peppers, though they wouldn't really be a full meal. Or eggplant with some kind of tahini sauce - you could make a dairy and non-dairy versions if the sauce has yogurt.
posted by one little who at 2:51 PM on August 1, 2011

Yup, some incarnation of taco bar is what we usually do (balancing gluten-free, vegetarian, no corn, etc.)

The other consideration is that people living with dietary restrictions are used to not being able to eat anything at a spread. Just clearly label each dish and be prepared to answer any questions. With our crew, we usually have a lentil salad, rice pasta salad and deviled eggs to cover the bases for the people with restrictions.
posted by wallaby at 3:01 PM on August 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Side dish ideas: a fresh fruit salad with a balsamic vinegar and brown sugar dressing, baked or fried sweet potatoes (which are not in the same family at all as potatoes), dairy-free vinegar cole slaw, corn chips with a non-tomato salsa (you can make corn salsa or cucumber salsa instead), rice crackers with sunflower seed butter.
posted by BlueJae at 3:46 PM on August 1, 2011

If you can navigate the snarky replies, you may find some helpful suggestions in my earlier post here.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 4:08 PM on August 1, 2011

Labeling things is key, and as someone who must avoid many of those things married to someone who must avoid the things I needn't avoid, I love the taco bar idea.

Other things you could include are a quinoa salad with tropical fruit (scallions, mangos, cilantro, put nuts on the side?), guacamole without tomatoes, and perhaps a rice pudding for dessert, but I'd suggest rice milk for the liquid rather than a nut- or soy-based option.
posted by metarkest at 6:04 PM on August 1, 2011

Response by poster: Cool, I think we're going to go with maybe a taco/burrito bar + grilled things on kabobs combo -- so people can choose what they want on their kabobs and then stuff them into the wheat- or corn-based sleeve of their choice. Plus some kind of side salads with approved veggies. And quinoa, that's a good thought, too.

I thought about rice noodly curry stuff, but I am afraid that given how much I make a globby mess of rice noodles for 2, rice noodles for 20 would be a disaster.
posted by little cow make small moo at 7:03 AM on August 2, 2011