Easy yet lovely vegetarian dinner party recipe - reentering human race!

[tara277]

I want to invite some friends around for a nice dinner. Several are vegetarian so to keep it simple and only have to do one thing I think I need to stick to veggie. Since having my two dcs and moving house a few years ago I've got really out of the way of this sort of thing and feel pathetically scared! Would love to move slightly back into the adult world and not only playdates etc. when all conversations are punctuated with nose wiping and breastfeeding. Help?

Sounds like you have been busy of late tara277!
For dinner parties, I tend to do a couple of vegetarian curries. If you have all the ingredients (spices etc) then they are pretty simple to do. Hugh Fearnley W has some quick and easy recipes in his Veg book. I have posted a beetroot and yoghurt recipe which is really yummy.

If curry is not your thing, then I would probably make a lentil lasagne or somekind of bake (especially at this time of the year). Sorry, I don't have a link for these as I have old paper versions that I use. I would then make the most of the oven to make something like a crumble or baked apples as these are easy to prepare and can be cooked whilst you are eating the main.

Hope this is helpful- good luck and enjoy!

Mmmm vege Lasagne

I'd do Delia's roasted Mediterranean vegetables with harissa style dressing www.deliaonline.com/recipes/roasted-vegetable-couscous-salad-with-harissa-style-dressing.html so easy but impressive. Good luck!

Are you wanting dinner party or more informal?

For dinner party, I'd do a veggie soup to start and then an asparagus and marscapone tart or a veggie quiche, with new potatoes and steamed vege.

For less formal, I'd do a couple of curries with various sides, or a chickpea and vege tagine with cous cous and salads.

Don't be scared - they are your friends and they will be v happy to see you!

Second mrsvilliers - that goes down well with veggies and non-veggies alike

Thank you all so much for the ideas! Think it has to be informal as I don't think I could bear the stess of anything else! I really appreciate you all taking the time to reply and I plan to look into all ideas as they'll be great for feeding my family too even when we're ourselves as I seem to have lost all inspiration somewhere along the way (think it ran off with my flat stomoch and high heels some years back).

X

Tomato and aubergine casserole

Chop and fry onions, fry slices of aubergine.

Open a tin or chopped tomatoes

Layer aubergine slices and tomatoes. Top with youghurt and breadcrumbs.

Filo parcels

Filo pastry stuffed with

cream cheese (with or without herbs / mushrooms / spring onion)

Brie and mango chutney

Stuffed apricots

Get some dried apricots and soak over night

They have aconvinent pocket you can stuff with cheese, chopped mushroom, garlic, chilli.

I normally wrap with bacon and oven bake.

I also do a few veggie curries and a nice salad which always goes down well:

www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/category/recipes/vegetarian/

I'd go for stuffed aubergines, a few different hummus, tapenades, some home made focaccia, olives, slow roasted garlic.

Mezze style, suitably informal!

Some recipe ideas here, if you like, www.thetrimbody.com - just so I don't have to write it all down!

Coming into this a bit late but my really lazy things to make are as follows:

Get one pack of ready-roll puff pastry. Roll it out, and cut in half to make two rectangles. Score a line around each, around 1-2cm from the outside edge. Fill the middle part with any of the following; sliced mushrooms sprinkled with sage and dotted with olive oil/garlic oil, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with a little sea salt and rosemary, sliced peppers drizzled with olive oil. Brush the edge of the pastry with a beaten egg. Cook for around 25 mins in a medium oven until the pastry is golden and risen.

Potato salad - a huge bowlful

Quiche or pizza - fill or top with things like goats cheese, sundried tomatoes, spinach, sweetcorn, pineapple, mushroom, peppers, chopped garlic, pre-cooked butternut squash.

Big bowl of either salad or green veg - peas, broccoli and broad beans