Vegan dinner party

lofty_cherrytree

Hi to all you veggies, my sister and husband are coming for dinner tomorrow night and they are vegans (we are not) Was thinking of doing fried halloumi cheese with lime and coriander vinaigrette (a la Delia) followed by roasted veg with cous cous and a crumble for pud. Any other more inspired recipes, other than the obvious, only other thing to avoid is mushroom.

Nicki

Can you get vegan halloumi cheese? I thought it was made from the milk of a variety of different animals. Otherwise your menu sounds great - and I'm not even a vegetarian never mind a vegan!

wigginsmum

Vegan means no animal products whatsoever so ordinary cheese is out, and vegan cheese is absolutely vile. You could try marinading firm tofu instead.

comping_cat

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/C/come_dine/1nikki.html
Watched come dine with me on Wednesday, and the girl was a vegan, and this is what she served, and not a mushroom in sight!!!! HTH.

SnowyOwl_2

Here is a link to the veggie section of the mega indexed collection:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=480423&postcount=11

I haven't looked through it at all, but I am sure with some imagination you could makes substitutes as required.

If you are going to serve wine or beer be careful...it may not actually be a vegan product:

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/drink/

They have some recipes too...

http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/recipes/

and here's some more:

http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/kitchen.html

It's a bit of a minefield for the uninitiated, but I am sure you'll find something you can easily manage. Hope it goes well.

dolly_day_dream

Better check about the tofu though cos it can be an acquired taste. I am vegan but never touch the stuff and a vegetarian friend of mine though that she would rather eat washing up liquid than tofu again!! Same with vegan cheese some of it is just awful. Just because we don't eat animal products doesn't mean that we like everything else - just like omnivores we have our likes and dislikes. The roasted veg and cous cous sound lovely as does the crumble - you could use Alpro Dream - a soya cream with it. How about a simple salad for starter? You could also go with some h/m hoummus and strips of baked pitta bread. Can recommend the Vegan family recipes - realistic servings. If you are into things Delia I often make her vegetarian mousakka using 2 types of lentils but adapt the topping to a white sauce made with soya milk and vegan marg. Everyone including confirmed meat eaters love it and it is on her website but I don't know how to link - sorry.

Coveredinbees!!!!

cows eat grass so they are vegitarian so give them beef, easy.

Gingham_Ribbon

Sounds lovely, although the other posters are right about the cheese not being vegan. Your main course and pudding sound delicious. If you're making the crumble, check your margerine to make sure it's not got dairy or fish oils in it.

An alternative starter could be stuffed field mushrooms (with chopped olives, capers, basil and olive oil)

Ooh, just had a thought. Delia does a mean stuffed red pepper with fennel. I'll see if I can find it.

Gingham_Ribbon

Delia's roasted red peppers I don't know if it will be too similar to what you planned for the main course, but it would work well with the couscous as a main course.

I love deep fried tofu, but it's nicest with chinese flavourings imo, so I probably wouldn't use it for this meal.

Sarahsaver

Definitely no halloumi!

What about onion bhajis? I was a vegan from the age of 14 until well into my 20s.

You can make vegan cauliflower 'cheese', make a white sauce with breadcrumbs, soya milk and a tsp of marmite, and bake in the usual way. I have LOADS of vegan recipes, the most challenging was a meal for a coeliac, a diabetic, myself a vegan, and someone who was allergic to onions, nuts and tomatoes:) Will post the whole menu later when i remember what it all was!

melancholly

any chance you could run the menu past them before the come? when people do have very restricted diets it seems fair enough.... i had a vegetarian friend who didn't eat pasta or tomatoes......... it was difficult to find lots of different things that i ended up checking everything with them!
and there's a great soya cream you can get that's about the consistency of single cream that goes really well with desserts.