Need Vegetarian Buffet/Party Food

lauracusack

H2B and I are having a house party on Saturday and there'll be about 15 people there (all about our age, early 20s, all pretty open to anything food wise). Im vegetarian and he radely eats meet, so I want to do a veggie buffet/dinner. I cook everything from scratch and always have so I dont mind something challenging. Main problem - I only have about £15! Any ideas?

ifonlyitwaseasier

*cheese and marmite twists - ready rolled puff pastry spread with marmite and a sprinkling of grated cheese
*gazpacho soup shots (google for easy recipes)
*guacamole and nachos

.... sorry brain freeze, i'll be back if i think of more

coastdk

Hi there,

This is my first post but I have been reading this board for quite a while now and love all the tips.

A good idea which works well, rather than doing lots of different buffet foods, is to make a big bowl of chilli.

You could easily and cheaply make a good veggie chilli, and people can help themselves to it with rice, homemade salsa, guacomole, sour cream, some nachos/tortilla chips and perhaps some grated cheese and salad bits (cucumber, tomato, onion). You could also do curry instead and serve with rice, perhaps a lentil dahl, chutneys, chapatis etc.

If it is a really informal party, you could also make the main dish yourself, tell your guests it will be a Mexican theme and ask them each to bring an an accomanying dish.

Hope the party goes well :beer:

CH27

You could make a large mushroom curry or a vegetable chilli.
They are quick & cheap.

katkins78

Is it an evening thing? What about a themed buffet? So for italian maybe bruschetta, boccacini mozarella, parmaham, panzanella, olives etc. Spanish tapas, a greek mezze?

Just a thought but are your cupboards bulging, perhaps if you could raid the stockpile a little you could stretch that £15 a little further?

lauracusack

coastdk wrote: »

Hi there,

This is my first post but I have been reading this board for quite a while now and love all the tips.

A good idea which works well, rather than doing lots of different buffet foods, is to make a big bowl of chilli.

You could easily and cheaply make a good veggie chilli, and people can help themselves to it with rice, homemade salsa, guacomole, sour cream, some nachos/tortilla chips and perhaps some grated cheese and salad bits (cucumber, tomato, onion). You could also do curry instead and serve with rice, perhaps a lentil dahl, chutneys, chapatis etc.

If it is a really informal party, you could also make the main dish yourself, tell your guests it will be a Mexican theme and ask them each to bring an an accomanying dish.

Hope the party goes well :beer:

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually love the idea of a big punch bowl full of chili or curry. That's the sort of stuff I cook a lot and I think it'd go down well. Plus it's sooo cheap to do a veggie one, as I have spices already. 33p smart price chopped toms!

lauracusack

katkins78 wrote: »

Is it an evening thing? What about a themed buffet? So for italian maybe bruschetta, boccacini mozarella, parmaham, panzanella, olives etc. Spanish tapas, a greek mezze?

Just a thought but are your cupboards bulging, perhaps if you could raid the stockpile a little you could stretch that £15 a little further?

Yeah, it starts at 7. I definitely wouldn't say they're bulging. I don't even have any tinned toms in at the moment. We're pretty skint. I have pasta, rice and a pretty big spice rack that's kept well-stocked. that's about it really... I love tapas but don't know if there's many veggie options. Oh, what's mezze??

coastdk

Yep and tinned beans are nice and cheap too. You can use a variety of different types. Add some onions, peppers and courgettes and you have a very tasty meal.

And with something like a chilli, if there are any leftovers you can freeze them. You can't do that with buffet sandwiches!

katkins78

Mezze is like tapas only lots of small greek dishes:D
Houmous, baba ganoush
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mezeplatter_84086
Dolmas-stuffed vine leaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2VvRcTJ-0k
Halloumi, tomato bread
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mezze-platter
erm, olives, feta, pitta, griddledveg with skordalia http://greekfood.about.com/od/syrupssauces/r/skordalia.htm

I have to say Lidls do some quite nice qreek mezze type things and I think their houmous is very good too. I once did a greek themed dinner and bought their bog standard large tub of houmous, I diligently decanted into separate bowls and added a sprinkle of cayenne to one, chopped sundried tomates to another (also good and cheap from lidls- I promise I am not affiliated:o) and some caramelised onions to the third bowl, andjust a fresh spritz of lemon in the foruth. A little swirl of olive oil on top, served with some toasted shards of pitta.....and pretended I had done it all from scratch:o. It was a work of 10 minutes or so and yet I got heaps of praise- people had to be prised away from it! My main which I spent hours labouring away on practically passed unnoticed and when I returned to the kitchen later in the evening I caught my mother scooping up the remants with a packet of crisps! Most unfair!

katkins78

There are some veggie tapas recipes here-http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/tag-5597/vegetarian-tapas-recipes.aspx But you are right they are quite hard to find without fish or chorizo in them.

katkins78

coastdk wrote: »

Yep and tinned beans are nice and cheap too. You can use a variety of different types. Add some onions, peppers and courgettes and you have a very tasty meal.

And with something like a chilli, if there are any leftovers you can freeze them. You can't do that with buffet sandwiches!

Easily do-able with £15 and if you have a slow cooker I would be inclined to equip it with a ladle and leave it on the table for folks to help themselves - the chilli would stay lovely and warm.