To ask what you’d cook for a vegan dinner party?

I make a version of this aubergine curry if they're not allergic to coconut (not really a nut is it? My friend has a nut allergy and is completely fine with coconut milk but happy to be corrected).

Otherwise you could do a lovely vegetable curry, homemade pakoras, salad.

Dessert I've made this chocolate cake for a family gathering before - only one vegan there (not me) and nobody realised it wasn't vegan! I think chocolate cake really works as a vegan recipe.

I’d do a vegetable Thai curry with coconut rice. I make this one and sub butternut squash for the chicken. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/513151/recipe/malaysian-chicken-curry

and this chocolate cake is pretty easy.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/dark-and-sumptuous-chocolate-cake

So much of this is untrue. It is true that many dairy cows are inside year round and their calves are taken away days after birth. However they don’t live in tiny spaces. They are not confined to tiny spaces. They have open stalls and can move around freely. In some systems they can choose when they are milked since they are not dependent on humans to do it.

Some dips are vegan anyway - salsas, guacamole, etc.
Does the allergy extend to sesame? If not look at some of the Middle East dips.
Many Indian dishes, though be very careful of nut contamination with ingredients.

It's quite easy to make vegan food if you follow a vegan cook book. Otherwise the Op can go to a supermarket and buy ready made vegan food and heat it up

I've been vegan for ten years and I have no problem cooking for myself

Why would you include something non vegan if you were cooking from a vegan cook book? There's nothing difficult about cooking vegan food either from scratch or from the supermarket

I don't know if OP is vegan or not, but very brave either way to cook for 6 vegans. I am not vegan myself and there is no way I would make anything as restricted as vegan food. Not because there's anything wrong with it but because I'd be terrified I'd unwittingly include something non vegan!

I'm the same with coeliac family members (2), they bring their own, because even though I would try cook gluten free I would be scared of cross contamination in a group meal setting. And so would they!

Some of these recipes sound fussy for a nervous cook.

I think curry is fine. Yes, vegans do get a lot of them but there’s a huge variety. The big advantage for the host/ess is being able to cook ahead. Tagines are a good and easy alternative. Something with a tray of roasted vegetables on the side is also good. Stay away from having several different elements in the go, keep it simple but plentiful and everyone will be delighted.

That just isn't true at scale. It's a lovely myth that the massive global meat conglomerates want us all to believe.

In fact, almost ALL dairy is industrially produced - it's nothing like the Farmer Ted image that you've had from childhood. In fact with dairy farming it's no longer accurate to talk about 'the farmer' at all - they are 'manufacturers'.

Zero-grazing 'systems' are now much more prevalent, so these creatures, who are emotionally complex like us, and form close bonds with one another, are unable to move, and cannot bond with one another. Can you imagine having to stand in a tiny cell for 22 hours a day for your whole life, and the other two hours being beaten towards the machines in chaos and fear, and then milked? Would you do this to your dog, whom cows resemble in terms of their emotional complexity, capacity for love, and intelligence?

And even if they could walk, they are likely to be physically incapable - vast numbers of them are 'lame', which sounds all romantic-olden-days but actually means crippled and in constant pain from dangerous floors and foot rot. Most of them have constantly recurring mastitis for their whole lives - anyone who has had that will know the pain and how ill it makes you. They are abused by farm workers who have come to see them not as creatures who feel pain but just.. meat I guess. Lots of undercover filming at British dairy farms online if you can bear to look.

And that's before you get to the psychological trauma of having their calves ripped away from them within hours of birth. This happens every year. They are very intelligent and maternal - they know exactly what has happened to them. Those calves never have a mother. The male ones are killed at birth - and in fact, that might be preferable to being a female calf, when you will face the pain and torture of your mother's life as a reproductive unit, without ever having experienced that mother's love.

It's horrific. We should all be ashamed of the world we have created. Please don't allow yourself to pretend this isn't happening, every hour of every day, within an hours' drive of most of us.

You can buy vegan substitutes. Or make one from scratch. Let's not make this a "gotcha".

Yes, obviously.

Vegan Mediterranean Carbonara | BOSH! | BOSH!

The recipes are vegan.

You can also sub cashews in any white sauce with white beans/tofu.

Miguel Barclay has a very good vegan cookbook.

Or you can sub a vegan cheese.. 🙄

Bosh recipes are vegan. It a possible to make a vegan carbonara in the same way it is possible to make a vegan burger!

And tonnes of parmesan...

Carbonara has eggs in though!!

I would go for a pasta dish for the main. Bosh do a great carbonara recipe with portobello mushrooms.

They're not really nuts but neither are peanuts. A lot of pesto recipes have nuts in. I looked up three recipes, 1 had walnuts, 1 had almonds and the 3rd was pine nuts.

Vegan pesto recipe - BBC Food - contains almonds.

True, pine nuts are often ok though, but always worth checking! Obviously if my guest had had a nut allergy I would have swerved alltogether and maybe gone with confit garlic or similar instead.

rocket pesto (with vegan parmesan sub) may contain nuts

I had vegan friends over for dinner last week and made a foccacia with an olive tapanade a roasted red pepper dip and rocket pesto (with vegan parmasan sub) to start, shallot tart tartin with a pea, asparagus and green bean salad and lemon vinegarette, then pavlova using aquafaba for the meringue and whippable coconut cream with mango and passion fruit filling.

All very delicious, no fake meat, and didn't feel deprived as an an omnivore.

I'm a pretty good cook but there's nothing too difficult there, just a fair bit of process.

I'd do a fairly mild chili or refried beans with guacamole, sour (vegan) cream, salsa, wraps, tortilla chips, and have some jalapenos etc. separate for people to be able to be able to choose their own spice levels.

Why don't you just buy something from the supermarket. Aldi and lidl have decent vegan ranges

Marry me oyster mushroom and lentils with tofu scramble rice (I like soya cream for this Dd1 uses oat cream both work equally well)

Dessert

Raspberry and Chocolate torte or Wacky cake decorated with fresh strawberries or cherries