Care Caterer Commits to Catering Excellence for Vegans and Vegetarian Residents
The UK’s largest care provider has committed to catering excellence for vegans and vegetarians by taking part in a plant-based cookery day.
HC-One – which owns over 300 care home across the country – has pledged to continue improving the vegetarian and vegan options available to residents and were taught some new recipes to add into their meal plans.
Mac and cheese, beetroot burgers and chocolate avocado cheesecake were just a few of the tasty recipes on show at Demuths Cookery School, in Bath this July.
Plant-based demonstrations were offered to 11 staff from HC-One care homes who took part in the cookery demos and then got to taste the final products.
The training day included practical cooking demonstrations, as well as learning more about the relevant nutritional information and also how to easily adapt meals for vegetarians or vegans. The event was subsidised by V for Life, a charity dedicated to supporting older vegetarians and vegans.
Tracy Sutherland, head of hospitality at HC-One said: “Many residents choose the vegetarian option because that’s what they fancy to eat on the day, irrespective of the fact that the dish does not contain meat. Macaroni cheese, savoury rice or a peppery potato and leek soup are very popular supper dishes for example, they’re not labelled as vegetarian choices. Many older people grew up only eating meat a few times a week , so it’s not a break in tradition or anything new for them to have a meat free meal. We also have a number of Guajarati and other residents who are vegan for religious reasons.”
She added the training days were a great way to learn new recipes and come up with new ways to serve plant-based dishes.
Amanda Woodvine CEO of V for Life said: “The training days are a great way to learn easy new recipes that cater for vegetarians, vegans or meat-reducers.
“We subsidise the training days for members of VfL’s UK List so that delegates are able to leave the day with fresh ideas and recipes for residents at their care homes.
“It was great to see so much enthusiasm during the day and we are looking forward to the next one.”
Rachel Demuth, owner of Demuths, said: “It was a great day, albeit a very hot one. Both the nutritional talks and the cookery demonstrations proved popular with the delegates and there was lots of discussion and idea sharing. Demuths Cookery School demonstrated eight dishes, showing a variety of vegan ingredients and techniques that we hope can easily be translated onto care home menus.”
Training courses are available to members of Vegetarian for Life’s UK List.
Membership is free and benefits include free marketing for your home as well as regular new recipes.
Visit https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/uk-list/join to join.
