Meals for Practicing Hospitality
When my wife and I first got married, we started reading an insightful book called “The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World” by Rosaria Butterfield. I highly recommend it if you have not read it yet. “Hospitality” is simply having people over your house to get to know them, talk with them, and hopefully have opportunities to speak into their lives. In my experience, practicing hospitality almost always includes gathering around a meal.
So the question is: what are some good meals to make when practicing hospitality? When I was in college, my good friend and mentor had students over his house every Sunday night for a meal. Far from being boring, these meals were delicious (especially compared with college cafeteria food) and provided a context to hang out and talk after Sunday evening service.
In this post, I want discuss how to choose a meal when practicing hospitality and recommend a few meals that are ideal for having a medium to large group over for dinner. Use them at small groups, pot lucks, and any time the Church gathers for a meal or you open up your home.
What makes a good meal for having lots of people over?
Not every meal works for hosting large groups. You might have a dozen favorite recipes, but in my experience, there are three general characteristics of good meals to serve to large groups. Use these principles to narrow down what you plan to serve.
1. Easily scalable
This one is fairly obvious. If your recipe cannot serve 12 or more people, it probably isn’t a candidate for hosting larger Church groups. You don’t want to invite a group over having only made a small amount of food. Now, some recipes naturally are designed for large groups. These are perfect candidates for practicing hospitality. Other recipes might be originally for 4-5 people, but can be doubled or tripled for a larger group.
The key question to ask here is “Can I easily scale up this recipe for a large group?” If the answer is no, cook something different this time around. For example, I personally love steak. But cooking steak for a large group of people would be crazy to attempt; it just isn’t scalable. On the other hand, you can double or triple most pasta dishes without too much difficulty or extra work.
2. Cheap ingredients
When practicing hospitality, especially with a large group, the goal is to feed your guests and provide them with a context to fellowship with one another. Your goal should not be impressing them with your most expensive ingredients. Leave the truffle salt and caviar for a smaller meal. Cheap, filling ingredients like rice, pasta, and beans should be staples of larger meals. Look for recipes with basic, cheap ingredients and make sure any recipe you find does not require hundred rare seasonings.
Now, just because you should look for cheap ingredients and readily available spices does not mean your food should be bland. Part of the fun of cooking comes down to constraints and trade offs: given a certain amount of time to cook with a certain amount of ingredients, what is the most delicious meal you can make? It is a wonderful and fun challenge to limit yourself to essential ingredients and to still make a delicious meal.
3. Broad appeal
Hospitality is not the time to pull out that exotic meal you aren’t sure you will like or not. Don’t use your guests as tests for a new recipe. Stick with those meals and cuisines which has the broadest appeal. Most people have different tastes in food, different spice tolerance, and so on. Aim for recipes that most people, ages, and backgrounds would like. Ask yourself as you choose a recipe “is this something that the people coming would cook and eat on their own?”
As a side note, if your Church is like mine, you no doubt have members with food allergies or dietary restrictions. It is important to show love to these members by making meals which meet their dietary needs whenever possible. Every time you find or try a nut-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, or gluten-free recipe that you enjoy, save it for future hosting. It is always easier to make a single meal which everyone can eat instead of two different meals, one for someone with a dietary need and another for everyone else.
Some suggested meals for practicing hospitality
Armed with the principles above, I have full faith you can discern what to cook when having Church members over. However, to get you inspired, here are 6 general recipes or categories of recipes I have seen succeed when made for large groups of people. Each of these meet the criteria I gave above: scalable, cheap ingredients, and broad appeal. I have provided a couple “example recipes” for you to test drive for yourself under each category.
1. Tacos
This is a classic and it couldn’t get simpler. Brown the meat, season it, and then serve with as many toppings as you care to use. As long as you don’t make the tacos too spicy, it should be an easy to cook, easy to enjoy meal. Tacos are great because you can make them as simple or as fancy as you like. Making homemade guacamole is a great way to elevate a simple taco dinner.
2. Spaghetti Bake
I can’t tell you how many different forms of spaghetti bake I have had over the years. And you know what? Most of the time, it is a tasty, filling, crowd-pleasing meal. Italian food in general is ideal for hospitality since you can make it “in bulk” with cheap ingredients, and most people like it. As with tacos, you can make spaghetti bake as fancy as you desire; you have lots of choices. For example, you can use sausage or ground beef and you can either use homemade tomato sauce or opt for the store bought sauce.
Easy and delicious homemade pasta sauce
3. Poppy-seed Chicken
This is another recipe I have had in a couple forms of over the years. Most of the time I have had it with rice which makes it “go further” and guarantees guests leave the table full. You must remember to cook the chicken ahead of time but besides that it is a simple recipe with few ingredients.
4. Pulled Pork Sandwiches
I have had pulled pork in many forms at many small group meals. There is simply no easier way to feed a large group than slow cook a pork shoulder, shred it with some barbecue sauce, and serve it with buns, coleslaw, and some chips. An added benefit of pulled pork is it is most of the time dairy free. There are dozens of recipes to choose from, some easy some complicated.
Basic, easy, delicious pulled pork
5. Zuppa Toscana
In the winter, a hearty soup is welcome at any table. Of all the soups I have had at different Church members’ houses, this is the most common. The combination of sausage and potatoes makes for a filling and tasty meal. If you want to mix things up, try using sweet potatoes instead of normal potatoes (I personally prefer it).
Similar soup but with sweet potatoes
6. Chili (Red or White)
Chili is filling and often cheap due to its use of beans. By browning meat with some seasonings and adding a couple cans of beans, you can cheaply feed a crowd. Serve the chili over rice and the meal will stretch even further. Another great characteristic of chili is you can cook it in a crock-pot. If you want to get even fancier, try making a white chicken chili. It is lighter, and has a more complex flavor in my opinion, but it will take a bit more work.
Conclusion: Don’t let the meal keep you from hospitality
For those who don’t enjoy cooking, the meal aspect of having people over can become burdensome. I find that having a small list of “go-to” recipes can help alleviate this. Remember: the goal of having people over for dinner, especially a large group, is not to impress or draw attention to your skills as a cook. You simply want to provide a warm, welcoming context for spiritual conversation, friendship, and closeness.
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