I sometimes see, or hear, vegetables and other non-meat foods referred to as vegetarian foods. I don’t know, but I don’t think of the side dishes at turkey dinner as vegetatian. Let’s leave dairy products out of this for the sake of clarity, okay?
I think of vegetatian foods as those prepared and served by/for vegetarians.
BTW; I was vegetarian for a couple years, but i got lonesome.
Peace,
mangeorge
Not entirely sure how to respond to this, because in some way, veggies are by definition vegetarian. Are you looking to make the distinction between things commonly prepared as side dishes to meat vs otherwise?
Anyway, just popped in here to say that there’s nothing like a thick hunk of meaty, juicy, oozing shiitake mushroom. Could eat those things all damn day.
A raw vegetable is vegetarian/vegetation, but a cooked one isn’t neccessarily.
Cracker Barrel notes on the menu that some of their veggie sides contain meat–green beans, for example, are often cooked with bacon or pork.
I think by calling it a vegetarian (ro vegan) dish would mean it’s safe for a vegetarian (or vegan) to eat without violating their dietary rules. If those vegetables were made with any animal products, such as chicken broth I couldn’t see how it could be called vegetarian.
I think what the OP is asking, is “Do the side-dishes prepared as part of a meal suffice as a vegetarian meal, or should the vegetarians be provided a specific main course?”*
I’d say that they don’t suffice, but that’s just my take, after years of watching my vegetarian friend have to make do with mashed potatoes and green beans as a “meal.”
*If that’s not what you meant, mangeorge, I apologize.
I think of vegetarian foods as foods that vegetarians can eat. I’m not sure why you’d make an additional distinction.
I’m not certain what the OP is asking, but I do have a vegetarian related comment. I like many of the foods that vegetarians eat. For instance, I prefer good tofu burgers to cheap ground meat. I also love tofu.
When I order a tofu dish in a Chinese restaurant, then order (for instance) a shrimp egg roll, my server will often point out that the shrimp egg roll contains meat. WTF?
I tihnk the question is if it is safe to assume that mashed potatoes and green bean cacerole at the TG dinner are safe for a vegetarian. The answers is that most likely, they are not. They will have some dairy and pork fat added to them that will make them not good for a vegetarian. Ask the cook.
That’s 'cause he’s had to take back about four billion perfectly good shrimp egg rolls because previous customers were idiots. Don’t take it personally. The idiots walk among us, and look just like you and me.
I’m having some trouble parsing the OP as well. But I agree that a vegetable side dish is not always vegetarian - especially in German cuisine or Southern US food. Lots of meat and meat products are used in cooking or flavoring seemingly innocuous vegetable dishes.
And I also agree that leaving a vegetarian to fend for him/herself to create a nutritionally complete meal from the side dishes is rude. But that doesn’t mean they need a whole separate meal, either. For Thanksgiving, I make some baked marinated tofu for the vegetarians to eat instead of turkey, I whip up a fake bird flavored gravy out of a packet and I label any side dishes that were cooked with meat or meat broth, but make sure there are at least four or five that are truly vegetarian.
Vegans? You’re kind of on your own. I’ll do what I can, but cooking without dairy is way beyond my comfort zone, so if the food sucks, I’m sorry. You’re welcome to bring a dish of what you like to eat, though.
I always think of vegetarian food as something being prepared for the express purpose of not having any meat in it. In other words, what kanicbird said.
And, as already noted, not all vegetable sides are vegetarian. I’m having some vegetarians over for Thanksgiving, too, and there are a few dishes I’ve had to adjust to make truly vegetarian like a risotto I’m making, which uses chicken broth, but I’m using vegetable stock instead.
[hijack]Wow! Sounds like you have a LOT of food at your Thanksgiving. Can I come? 
[/hijack]
Those of us who specifically request vegetarian food (I keep kosher and will eat vegetarian or kosher fish dishes in non-kosher restaurants) have seen the other side of this. We’ve asked what vegetarian dishes a restaurant has, only to be told that the Indian chicken salad is vegetarian, because “Indians do lots of vegetarian stuff” (Really- this happened once to Mr. Neville). There’s cluelessness everywhere.
It’s also possible that when they point out that the “shrimp eggroll contains meat” the server isn’t pointing out that “shrimp is meat”, but is pointing out that the shrimp eggroll contains say cabbage cooked in chicken broth or chopped pork bits in addition to the shrimp. Which isn’t a problem if you are eating tofu and shrimp because you like tofu and shrimp, but can be a problem if you are eating the tofu and shrimp because you don’t eat pork, beef, etc.
You have no idea. My mother is an overacheiver and collects recipes like emo kids collect scars. And since we both love to cook, she and I spend at least two days cooking 15 or more dishes for…about a dozen people. We use three ovens and her range and my camping stove. Small family; big, big, big meal. I give leftovers away to my neighbors, we have so much. 
If this is in fact what the OP is asking, my answer to this is that the side-dishes CAN suffice as a meal, but I really love it when they don’t HAVE to.
clap clap clap
I will work on translating this into Latin and get back to you when this motto is suitable for framing.
That is great, and you have your mother to be thankful for!
Vegetables which have been cooked as an accompaniment to meat do not in themselves necessarily constitute a balanced vegetarian meal, if that’s what you’re asking? If I were vegetarian and were presented with turkey dinner accompaniments for my meal, I’d be a bit piqued!
Please do, robardin. I think it’d look great in cross-stitch.
Yeah, it’s surprising how often the baked beans have ham in them or the salad has anchovies (a proper caesar salad apparently does) or the secret to momma’s greens is a mess of hogfat. And that’s not taking dairy into account – there’s butter and sour cream on a lot of things.
Any sane vegetarian or vegan should be approachable on this topic without taking offense, and you ought to be able to just chat with them and work it out.
I would add, just in case it’s not obvious, that deliberately concealing animal ingredients from a vegan/vegetarian is pretty sophomoric and rude, and might conceivably be medically unwise too.
Enjoy your feasting!
Sailboat