WOW my dinner guests with vegan menu

[multipoodles]

This will be my first vegan menu for some friends this coming weekend, they have requested I cook vegan for them as I was happy to cook something they'd like but they are embracing my lifestyle and want to try it.

Any suggestions for a starter & a main course, I was going to do soup & homemade vegan wheaten bread, dessert my be sorted as I have a vegan dessert recipe book that has some lovely ideas.

Something a bit difference and off course naice :)

The biggest 'wow' I ever got for a vegetarian dish was when I created a colurful, layered, raised vegetable pie for Christmas guests. It wouldn't be difficult to vegan it up. You need a 20cm/8" round spring or clip-sided cake tin and hot water pastry made with 1lb flour, about 10oz solid vegetable fat and egg substitute if you have it.

Once you've lined the tin with the pastry, choose your contents. I alternated layers of spinach, finely shredded red cabbage, sliced potato, chestnuts, crumbly cheese... well-seasoned and sprinkled with nutmeg and herbs. Cover with pastry and leave a hole in the top to allow steam to escape. (Find a recipe for 'raised pork pie' to get the bake temp and timings.) Finally, make a simple jelly with wine and vegetarian gelatine. Once the pie is cooked and allowed to cool carefully pour this in through the hole and around the contents.

What about a thai curry? It's the only way my DH will eat tofu. If you make the curry paste in advance (lots of recipes online) then on the night all you need to do is fry it in coconut cream, add coconut milk and tofu and any veggies you like. Rice and wheat flour noodles are both vegan.

Starter - either soup, or hummus, baba ganouj and fresh bread.

Either a veg curry - I do one with butternut, coconut milk and other vegetables which is lovely or there's a pasta dish I do (need to be careful that it's egg free pasta) which is lovely. For that, you need sundried tomatoes, courgettes and avocado. Could also add in pine nuts. You finely chop the sundried tomatoes, and chop the courgettes into small pieces. Fry in the oil from the sundried tomatoes until soft, and then when the pasta is ready mix everything (including chopped avocado) all together and season. The avocado goes creamy and it's delish.

I once did the butternut curry as a soup instead, for the starter, and then the pasta as a main with green salad. Fresh strawberries and kiwi fruit for dessert.

another soup starter just substitute the cream for a vegan alternative. It's a delicious and light soup.

I've made this a few times, it's easy and really nice.

Coconut rice on the side.

A vegan place near me makes tofu tempura with peanut sauce which is delicious.

Individual pies or stuffed vegetables can look fab, as well as tasting good. We do risottos sometimes but they do require you to spend time in he kitchen at the time, a big advantage of baked dishes. I do a porcini and tomato risotto from the river cafe green book, which is far from ordinary.

There's a recipe for wild mushroom and potato parcels with Pernod in ottolenghi's 'plenty', you can use vegan cream, the individual parcels look special and taste good.

Have a look on the ppk website or ideas, they're very inventive. I've done their chickpea piccata for lots of guests, always goes own well but looks more family supper than dinner party.

For meat eaters savoury flavours and texture can be important to impress. Wild mushroom, aubergine and olives can do a good job one way or another.

Yes tempura and sushi look and taste very impressive. You need a few special ingredients and a practice though.

Abs I am definitely going to steal that pasta idea, sounds like a brill easy supper for after work and I have an avo ripening in my fruit bowl as I type!

Oh thank you, loving these recipes, going to have a go at the chickpea soup and the curry during the week, then make a decision on Friday night. Think maybe I will able to WOW them now :)

My mum has this cookbook www.amazon.co.uk/Cornucopia-at-Home-Eleanor-Heffernan/dp/0955226147 the recipes she has cooked all look v impressive and taste great (I am a meat eater BTW!) You might find some by googling?