Cooking in a Dairy Pot for a Meat Meal or Vice Versa

We do not have pareve pots, and the question is whether we are allowed to cook pareve foods such as potatoes, legumes, salads in a meat pot, and then use them in a dairy meal. Or is it forbidden to do so?

One who cooks a dish for all holiday meals, both meat and dairy, should ideally not cook it in a dairy or meat pot but in a pareve pot, or cook the dish in two pots: in a meat pot for the meat meal, and in a dairy pot for the dairy meal. If he has no other pot and cannot borrow one from a neighbor, and the pot has not been used that day, leniency can be applied for both Ashkenazim and Sephardim. However, if the pot was used that day (dairy or meat was cooked in it within the last 24 hours), only Sephardim have room for leniency. Post facto, meaning after the dish was cooked in a meat pot and one wants to eat it at a dairy meal, or vice versa, if the pot was not used that day (no dairy or meat was cooked in it within the last 24 hours), it is permitted for both Ashkenazim and Sephardim. If the pot was used that day (dairy or meat was cooked in it within the last 24 hours), Sephardim are permitted post facto to eat from it even with actual milk. Ashkenazim are prohibited from eating it with actual dairy, but may eat from it at a dairy meal without actual dairy products. However, care should be taken not to pour directly from the ladle onto the food.

The opinion of the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De'ah, Siman 95, Paragraph 2) is that it is permissible to eat a pareve dish that is neither meat nor dairy, cooked in a dairy pot that has been thoroughly washed, together with meat, even if it was used that day (dairy was cooked in the pot within the last 24 hours). However, the Kaf HaChaim (Siman 95, Letter 1) ruled that even the Shulchan Aruch holds that it is initially forbidden to cook a pareve dish in a meat pot with the intention of eating it with milk. Although the Beit Yosef in Bedek HaBayit permitted this initially, the Kaf HaChaim clarified that the Shulchan Aruch retracted. (There are Sephardim who are lenient in this matter). The opinion of the Rema is that it is initially forbidden to cook a pareve dish in a dairy pot with the intention of eating it at a meat meal, even if the pot was not used that day (no dairy was cooked in it within the last 24 hours). However, post facto, meaning after the dish was cooked, it is permitted to eat it with meat. However, the Chochmat Adam (Klal 48, Paragraph 2) wrote that a person who wants to cook a pareve dish for a meat meal and does not have a meat or pareve pot to cook the dish, and cannot borrow a pot from a neighbor, even the Rema agrees that it is initially permissible to cook a pareve dish in a pot that was not used that day with the intention of eating it with meat. However, according to the Rema, if it is a pot used that day, meaning meat was cooked in it within the last 24 hours, one should be stringent not to eat the dish with milk or dairy products, but it can be eaten at a dairy meal as a separate dish without eating it with actual milk. It can even be served in a dairy dish, but care should be taken initially not to pour the hot dish directly from the meat pot into the dairy dish, but rather transfer the dish from the pot to a pareve dish or use a pareve ladle or serving spoon, and only then transfer it to the dairy dish.