Vegetarian dinner party ideas

[foodiemama26]

I've got a couple coming for dinner soon and one of them is vegetarian. Looking for some ideas of really nice veggie starter and main meal ideas. I don't think my veggie fajitas or cheesey jacket potatoes are special enough!

What sort of things do they like, do you know? The recipes in Salma Hage's The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook are really tasty, look good and, generally pretty easy to make.

I can have a look through my copy shortly, if you think dishes from that region might work? Can't at the moment as there is a small kitten completely flaked on my lap!

Dinner party or kitchen table tea? If the latter, a couple of veggie curries with the trimmings always goes down well.

Or, if he/she will eat Stilton, I have a magnificent and really easy mushroom & Stilton pie recipe, if you want it.

Or Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu is gorgeous.

Or yes to Middle Eastern. Lots of mezze stuff would be gorgeous.

How about this spicy aubergine and chickpea stew, make in advance and serve with jewelled couscous.

meze sounds like a great idea! I like the idea of that stew served as a salad as part of it too. If you've any 'go to' ideas for meze i'd love to hear them.

Muhammara (related to baba ghanoush/hummus) and spinach fattoush are both good. Can't find her recipe online though, so:

1. link to the Ottolenghi version of muhammara

1. Spinach fattoush (serves 4)

Ingredients 1 Arabic Flatbread 200g baby spinach, washed 2 spring onions cut into thin strips 1 tsp Lebanese 7 spice seasoning 1 crushed garlic clove Juice of 1 lemon 4 tbs olive oil salt & pepper

Toast the flatbread under the grill until golden and crisp. Once cool, break into bite-size pieces
Put the spinach and spring onions into a large bowl
Mix the 7-spice with the crushed garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Pour over the spinach salad.
Season with salt and pepper and toss.
Finally add the crisp, toasted bread just before serving.

Also, it's worth doing a search for Sabrina Ghayour's recipes. There's a fair few online and, again, they are straightforward to do. Her kuku sabzi is really good if you wanted something relatively substantial to throw into the mezze.

This sounds incredible, thanks for the ideas. I'll let you know how i get on!

We did grilled aubergine rolls stuffed with spiced nuts and roast veg and topped with pomegranite seeds, then all the rest - salads, breads, wild rice and couscous salads etc were the same as the meat eaters were having.

Also, I've had or made gorgeous Jamaican yam vegan curries or Thai coconut, peanut and ginger vegan curries before at dinner parties.

Fattoush is the best salad in the world, particularly if it has some feta crumbled over it.

Maybe some tsatziki, hoummus and falafel? You could buy the latter two in, if you want to save yourself some work, but bought tsatziki is horrible.

Baklava for pud?

As a veggie I get bored of curries.... meme yum....
My fail safe veggie dinner is I think nigellas wuick mushroom Wellington... 4 large mushrooms, spinach, Boursin ( of Stilton and s pack of puff pastry.

Cut pastry into 4 big squares... place one mushroom stalk up on each square of pastry, stuff with cheese, spinach and cheese... wrap up in pastry and seal and paint with milk.... yum

Caramelised shallot tart tatin?
Vegetable lasagne?
Risotto Verdi?
Stuffed pepper?
Root vegetable crumble?
Soufflé?

Crumbs if I was at a dinner party and the veggie was given caramelised shallot tarte tatin I'd be very envious. Sounds gorgeous.

And easy

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1771/shallot-tarte-tatin

HFW's Everday Veg is packed with lovely ideas for vegetarian meals.

You could go all Italian with a tomato olive and burrata salad, asparagus pea and broad bean risotto, baked peaches stuffed with almonds.