Vegan picnic - what's on the menu?

[PoodlesRUs]

Surprising a friend with a picnic - she likes surprises and likes picnics I promise - but what do I buy or make so that it's a well thought out picnic rather than a picnic with vegan add-on? I want to avoid the gingham-blanket sunshine equivalent of the Christmas dinner nutloaf!

Anything here you fancy?

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegan-picnic-recipes

My fave vegan sandwich filling:
https://www.theppk.com/2013/07/chickpea-salad-sammiches/

Some ideas - samosa, hummus and dips with nachos, falafel burgers, vegan coleslaw, fruit jellies. All of this is available in most supermarkets and is no extra effort.

Think about the dips - hummus, guacamole, salsa, all naturally vegan as are Nice Crisps and crudites.

Add an elevated drink, whether boozy or not. That makes a difference.

Thanks for the ideas!

Coronation jackfruit sandwiches are amazing. I’m not a vegan but they were so good. Any old vegan mayo, a spoon of mango chutney, mild curry powder, pulled tinned jackfruit, sultanas.

A lot of ready made puff pastry is vegan, you could do a pastry tart with vegan pesto and veg and vegan cheese or whatever. Easy and tasty.

Jus rol definitely is, good idea. I'd do a tomato and olive one too.

Samosas might be nice.

I never do a mayo potato salad as Dp finds it claggy, I do olive oil, garlic, grain mustard, lemon juice and black pepper, could that work?

Vegan veg samosas
Felafel
Sandwiches with grated carrot and hummus / mushroom pate and radish / peanut butter and celery
Vegan flapjack and easy to eat cakes / cookies

Roast veg and couscous salad
White bean dip

IME a lot of vegans are fed up to the back teeth of falafel. I think because it was 'the'option for so long. Of course your friend may like them! Just thought worth a mention.

Ottolenghi is your friend!

Paxo stuffing mad in to balls as a change from falafel.

Yes to making tarts with ready made pastry. I do cheese straws (yes I know they are not vegan but bear with me) a ready rolled puff pastry, 'butter' it with Dijon mustard. I would cover in parmesan and score with a knife, then bake for 20 mins and when cooled 'snap' the straws. You could perhaps do mustard and smoked paprika.

If you soak dried apricots over night you get something that resembles an egg yolk with a handy split for stuffing with, well use your imagination. Finely chopped mushrooms and nuts would work.

Pakoras and onion bhajis.

Onion bhaji
Olives, or tapenade
Not Gregg's vegan sausage roll, they are not nice cold.

I’m vegan and my dream picnic would be:

Tofu wieners (you can get them in Waitrose)
really good fallafel
crudités and good quality dips
olives
fruit
nuts
chocolate

what a lovely surprise!

You can use vegan cheese for the cheese straws. It's improved a lot the last few years.

Sainsbury's sweet potato onion bhajis are vegan.

Vegan also! I would like,
Sandwiches with hummus, salad and grated carrot and vegan cheese and salad
Vegan cheese cubes and nice olives
Some sort of bhaji or other 'savoury ball'.
Mini vegan rolls of some sort
Crisps and hummus, salsa and/or guac

Salted Macadamias or other nuts
Dark chocolate
Some nice (pink) fizz (alcoholic or not depending on what the rest of my day looks like)!

I guess the bottom line is vegans are different in their tastes, if you know what sorts of things your friend usually likes this will help with what sort of picnic she'd like.

Or coronation chickpea instead of jackfruit. Absolutely gorgeous.

Baguettes spread with vegan pesto (available from Asda), sliced avocado (with a bit of lemon juice in so it doesn’t go bad), sliced olives, rocket and chopped capers.

Avocado vinaigrette
Asparagus vinaigrette

Chickpea and beetroot salad
Puy lentils, radishes, celery and spinach salad
Puff pastry open tart with roasted Mediterranean vegetables

Tropical fruit salad with fresh raspberry sauce
Vegan biscuits

Hopefully not too late but I was at a lunch buffet this week which included a pressed red lentil and onion loaf. It had all the flavour of onion bhaji but as a baked lentil bread about 1cm thick. Like a cold, pressed daal. It worked really well at the finger buffet, albeit with some yellow turmeric finger stains. Scrumptious!

Do you have a link to a recipe please?

You'd have to find vegetarian/vegan alcohol tho'!