ON THE COUCH WITH JASMINDA: Coeliac vegan the least troublesome of guests

DEAR Jasminda,

I AM organising a cocktail party and the partner of one of the guests has just informed me she is a coeliac vegan.

Now I am in a quandary as to what to prepare for her and how it will fit into the overall menu.

Any suggestions?

Gordon W.

DEAR Gordon,

THE first thing I’d say is that the person who is a coeliac vegan possibly doesn’t get invited to many parties, so I bet she is absolutely thrilled she is attending your get-together.

People with certain dietary needs are used to fitting in with others and quite often they are happy to bring something along to help ease the burden on the host.

If you don’t want her to do this, I would ask your guest to provide a few options that you can whip up to accommodate her.

Often vegan meals are enjoyed by other people too.

All of us should eat more veggies and pulses, so a couple of these dishes thrown in will no doubt be greatly appreciated by all your guests.

Some ideas include Mediterranean grazing plates with gluten free biscuits, rice paper rolls, or vegetable and grain salads.

Perhaps you could plan the meals around these ideas and then just add some meat options for the carnivores (on a separate table) to ensure everyone is well catered for?

If it’s a cocktail party, I can almost guarantee the coeliac vegan will be the least of your worries.

That will more likely be the person who throws back Pina Coladas and White Russians like there’s no tomorrow, and then starts embarking on lengthy arguments with your coeliac vegan guest along the lines of: ‘why do we have canine teeth if we’re not supposed to eat meat?’ and ‘how do you know you’re not hurting plants?’.

I’m confident she will have answers planned for these inane questions.

Carpe diem,

Jasminda.