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

[Fueoe]

Hosting a vegan dinner party for 6 people. One of them is allergic to all nuts.

I’m not a great cook and stressed. What should I make that seems impressive? Just a main and dessert

Love this - best suggestion so far!

So I was informec upthread, thank you.

I HRTFT but I think the reason that people turn to Asian or Mexican food is because those cuisines tend to be complete without dairy or meat. Most of the other suggestions have required either a meat substitute or a cream/butter substitute. A lot of the flavour and texture in European food comes from the meat or the addition of cream, butter etc because flavour is carried in oil; Thai and Indian food use plenty of oil but then the strong flavours of ginger, garlic, lime, and chilli carry through the whole dish.

Especially for someone who isn’t a confident cook, a good curry recipe is pretty straightforward, and there are also accessible recipes for sides- I’m thinking of Meera Sodha’s Brussels sprouts thoran (I use kale in mine or chard if my chard crop is going mad; this version uses cabbage) and her oven-baked onion bhajis which remove the need for a deep fryer. I do mine in a gas oven but I bet they’d be amazing in an air fryer. Those alongside a nice main like dal, and maybe some home made breads, and a few chutneys (bought- check label- or made) like lime pickle, brinjal chutney, a little salad of finely chopped tomatoes and shallot- would be delicious and look impressive as a spread.

@Fueoe I remember as well a Christmas dinner menu on here that someone listed who was making vegan West Asian food- it sounded lush. May be worth searching for.

Yes good point.
I'd say in Europe, the most vegan-friebdly cuisine is probably Italian.

Recipes | BOSH! Gut-Healthy Big Burrito Cake | BOSH! | BOSH!

@FullCrimp , Do you know why lots of vegetarians and vegans hate mushrooms?
Overexposure. If you go out to dinner and you're faced with a mushroom starter and a mushroom main, it can put you off them.
They have a definite taste and texture and can be slimy.

They are usually offered in the form of mushroom risotto, mushroom stroganoff or mushroom wellington, all of which are very mushroomy.

Beetroot, risotto, mushroom, butternut squash , or goat's cheese.
Look how many replies on here have suggested beetroot, risotto, mushrooms or butternut squash.

@ToomuchtimeagainJust out of interest, what are the wasps dissolved by?

Personally, I'm make a trip to M and S.

Mushroom risotto for main as it’s so tasty and delicious and easy to adapt to vegan. A dark chocolate vegan brownie with a scoop of vegan ice cream.

I am vegan and I love all those things!

It’s only for one evening. Hopefully the OP will find something easy to make, I’m sure her friends will appreciate the efforts.

@Favouritefruits , That sounds dreadful to me. Mushroom risotto is not delicious and I don't like brownies.

@RationalIrrational , many on here don't. There are lots of different squashes that are tastier and less ubiquitous than the butternut squash, mushroom stroganoff depends on the mushrooms, risotto is just slop. Beetroot is ok but is overpowering.

It's so refreshing to see a menu that doesn't have them on it.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/vegan-shepherd-s-pie/

this is a lovely recipe

Most (if not all?) shop bought puff pastry is vegan, so I’d do puff pastry tarts, either individual ones or perhaps two large ones for people to choose from. You could make your own nut free pesto for them if you have time. Served with buttery new potatoes and a salad or spring greens.

Lots of options to choose from for pudding too. You could try a chocolate mousse made with tofu, chocolate tart, brownies, ginger cake?

You sound like a great cook. I am too <preens> but - and obviously this isn't an issue for the odd dinner party - the challenge for me isn't making delicious vegan food, it's making delicious vegan food with enough bloody protein to keep us all alive.

I've been to a few 'gourmet' vegan restaurants where the food has been incredible - but barely any flippin protein! I come away thinking 'it's actually not hard to make delicious and/or really fancy vegetable side dishes, but that doth not a meal maketh mate. It's just several fancy side dishes that came to £150.'

Same with Instagram content - sounds amazing, probably tastes amazing, will kill you in a year unless you're scarfing tofu by the handful off camera.

Since I went vegan a few years ago, I've definitely been cooking less 'Frenchy-European' food and more Japanese, Korean, Chinese, SE Asian and middle eastern food. Partly because I try and avoid the fake meat, cream, and generally very processed vegan 'substitutes', and that makes it hard to do classic french-derived stuff that I miss - especially for eg the very quick 'steak and some kind of reduction/cream sauce' stuff. I have recreated Pommes Dauph though which felt like a massive triumph - with a combo of miso, yeast extract, creamed cashews and vinegar to make the garlic-gruyere-cream ... my kitchen is like a laboratory.

I've been to a few 'gourmet' vegan restaurants where the food has been incredible - but barely any flippin protein!

So often it's a meat veg and two veg meal. Tasty but not satiating. A cauliflower steak is not protein.

This isn’t true. Cruelly treated animals are not productive animals.

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

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

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.

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.

rocket pesto (with vegan parmesan sub) may contain nuts

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.

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.

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

Carbonara has eggs in though!!