Vegetarian Royals

[nascarlucy]

Knowing that a royal is vegetarian and doesn't eat certain things, the chef or those cooking would make dishes that they could eat. It's a lot easier these days to make recipes and foods for those who are vegetarian than it would be 30 or 40 years ago.

I remember a friend of mine who experimented with being a vegetarian in the mid-west said it was a challenge prior to the 1960's to make a dish which wasn't boring or a vegetarian dish that tasted good. It also was very difficult to find a vegetarian cookbook.

 

[Countessmeout]

poor bush - they probably wanted to welcome the spanish royals with the best of texas with some great texan meat (bbq is their signature dish), without realising sofia's eating habits. as this was a semi-private gathering, maybe the word of her not eating meat didn't reach her. however, being the president of the US and most likely having a whole army of chefs even in his private ranch, i am sure they quickly had someone making some alternative food for sofia.

EDIT: i found an article from the visit, and it would appear that the bushes did indeed cater to the queen's vegetarianism, and didn't seem to do a bbq lunch. instead, they did what looks to me to be a thanksgiving themed lunch with 'turkey and fish, mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup and chipotle peppers, pan-roasted root vegetables with walnuts and apples, cornbread stuffing, pecan and pumpkin pie and Blue Bell ice cream, a Texas favorite.'

Spanish Royals Visit Bush at Ranch - latimes




very interesting revelations from a very measured royal figure as is sofia - the always perfect, discrete royal.
i find it odd that the king of morocco would do such thing as to bring his own staff out of distrust. in any case, the spanish and moroccan royals seem very close, so i wonder how true this is, and whether the media 'interpreted' sofia's words...

It was close to Thanksgiving when they were in Texas, so it made sense to serve such a meal. Fortunately Sofia is a pescetarian and eats fish. I have vegetarian friends who complain that all they get are 'sides'. Many hosts think just leaving off the meat is a suitable meal. A plate full of sides is just that. There a lot of fantastic vegetarian main courses out there.

I think she is lucky in Spain/France. Unless a picky piscetarian. There are tons of fabulous egg, vegetable and so dishes in the Iberian countries and Mediterranean as well (likely proximity to many African cultures that have a high level of vegetarians is a good influence). I worked as a nanny for a family in Oxford, and the rare meat they ate was shell fish. I grew up in a meat and potato home so cooking for them was hard. Their Spanish and Med. cook books were my go to, French time to time.

But the Bushes easily could have done a BBQ. There are a lot of great vegetarian recipes for the grill.