What to Feed a Vegetarian Guest (A Guide for Non-Vegetarians)

Your vegetarian friend just RSVP’d yes, and you’re frozen in the meat aisle like someone unplugged your brain.

I’ve been there.

You’ve grilled burgers since you were old enough to hold tongs, and now somebody’s showing up who won’t touch the one thing you’ve built your entire cooking personality around.

Here’s what nobody tells you, though: feeding a vegetarian is absurdly simple. You’re catastrophizing.

I’ve watched hosts spiral over this for years, and the fix is almost always identical. Quit trying to swap out the meat. Cook meals that never needed it in the first place.

Here are 8 rules that’ll turn you into the host every vegetarian wishes they had.

1. Fish Is Not a Vegetable

Shouldn’t need to spell this out, but I’ve witnessed it at least a dozen times with my own eyes. Someone hears “vegetarian,” nods like they understand, and then plates a hunk of salmon. Fish is meat. Poultry is meat. “But it’s not red meat” is not a loophole. Pescatarians eat fish. Vegetarians don’t. Completely separate categories.

Goes deeper than the obvious stuff, too. That Caesar dressing sitting on your counter? Anchovies. The Worcestershire sauce in your marinade? Also anchovies. That risotto you simmered in chicken broth for 45 minutes? Dead on arrival. If you cooked anything in a liquid that once had a pulse, the whole plate is disqualified.

2. A Side Salad Is Not a Meal

The quickest route to making your vegetarian guest feel like a footnote is handing them a plate of romaine and steamed broccoli while the rest of the table gets an actual dinner. A pile of leaves with some ranch on top isn’t a meal. That’s a garnish pretending to be an entree.

Vegetarians need protein, carbs, and fat in the same way you do. Yank the meat off a plate and replace it with nothing, and you’ve handed someone half a dinner. Think chickpeas, black beans, lentils, tofu, eggs, aged cheddar. Something with weight behind it.

3. Quit Building a Separate “Vegetarian Option”

Here’s the play that rewires the whole evening: cook one meal for the table, and make it vegetarian. No sad little side dish tucked in the corner. No apologetic “and this one’s for you.” One dinner. One table. Zero spotlights on anyone.

A creamy mushroom risotto with good parmesan (check the label for microbial rennet, not calf rennet) will make the steak crowd forget there’s no steak. A Thai green curry packed with coconut milk, roasted vegetables, and crispy tofu is a complete meal nobody pushes back on. Eggplant parm. Lentil shepherd’s pie with a golden mashed potato crust. Stuffed peppers loaded with rice and black beans. These aren’t “vegetarian alternatives.” They’re just dinner.

Inclusion > accommodation. Every single time.

4. Your Grocery Store Is a Minefield (Here’s the Map)

This is where hosts blow it. You’re tossing tortillas, refried beans, and pie crust into the cart without flipping a single package over. Congratulations. You just served your guest lard three different ways.

Refried beans? Tons of brands pack them with lard. Pie crust? Built with animal fat more often than you’d guess. Marshmallows? Gelatin rendered from cow and pig bones. That shiny red candy on the cheese board? Possibly tinted with pulverized beetles (carmine, look it up). Even certain yogurts smuggle gelatin in as a thickener.

I can’t vouch for every brand on the shelf, but here’s a rule that won’t steer you wrong: flip anything processed and scan the ingredients. Gelatin, lard, suet, rennet, or vague “natural flavors” you can’t pin down? Grab a different brand. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods tend to label things well. When in doubt, buy whole ingredients. A sweet potato doesn’t have a hidden agenda.

5. You Already Own Vegetarian Food

This stumps people because they assume vegetarian cooking demands a pilgrimage to some specialty health food store. It doesn’t. Open your own pantry.

Pasta tossed with garlic, olive oil, and red pepper flakes. Rice and beans with hot sauce. Grilled cheese on sourdough. Quesadillas stuffed with peppers and onions. Baked potatoes buried under cheese, sour cream, and chives. Peanut butter on toast at 11pm. You’ve been eating vegetarian meals your entire life without realizing it. You just never gave them that label.

6. Your Appetizer Game Is Already Vegetarian

Hummus. Guac. Salsa and tortilla chips. Bruschetta on toasted bread. Caprese skewers. Deviled eggs. Warm bread with olive oil. A cheese plate (with the right cheeses, which means checking for that rennet situation from earlier).

Fritos contain three ingredients: corn, oil, salt. Original Pringles are vegetarian. Oreos are somehow vegan. Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos, too. Not gonna lie, the snack spread is the lowest-effort part of this whole production.

7. The Grill Doesn’t Belong to Meat Alone

A few summers ago, I threw halloumi on the grill at a backyard BBQ, and two confirmed carnivores almost got into a fistfight over the last slab. Halloumi won’t melt on you. It turns golden, salty, and crispy on the outside while staying dense and squeaky in the middle. It’s the cheat code for vegetarian grilling that nobody talks about enough.

Portobello mushroom caps soaked in balsamic and soy sauce taste like steak’s cooler, weirder cousin. Fat slices of zucchini and bell peppers threaded onto skewers handle high heat without falling through the grates. One thing, though. Keep a dedicated set of tongs. Don’t press the tofu with the same spatula that touched the burgers five minutes ago. That’s not being fussy. That’s baseline respect.

8. Don’t Make It Weird

This one matters more than all the cooking advice combined. Don’t stand up at the table and announce, “We have a VEGETARIAN tonight, so I whipped up something special!” Don’t grill them about why they’re vegetarian while everyone watches. Don’t crack jokes about bacon. They’ve absorbed every single one of those jokes already. A thousand times over.

Ask about dietary needs when you send the invite. Not at the front door. Not once everyone’s seated. At the invite. Cook accordingly, and then say absolutely nothing about it. The best hosts I know handle a vegetarian guest the same way they’d handle someone who hates cilantro. Just a preference. No speech required.

And if you’re genuinely in over your head, there’s zero shame in being direct: “I want to make sure you eat well tonight. Want to bring a dish you love?” That’s not lazy hosting. That’s honest hosting. Most vegetarians will respect the hell out of it.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need culinary school. You don’t need a detour to a specialty store. You don’t need to renounce meat forever. You just need to stop treating “vegetarian” like a puzzle to crack and start treating it like a constraint that forces you to cook smarter.

The best meals I’ve had in my life contained zero meat. Not because meat is the enemy. Because the person cooking knew what they were doing.

Feed people well.