Vegetarian dinner party - maybe Chinese?

[TheOtherBennetSister]

4 adults and 5 teens (2 of whom will be starving after a big sports tournament).

Everyone is vegetarian.

I would normally do curry, but I fancy doing something 'Chinesey'. I've been doing spicy peanut noodles and caremelised tofu and beans recently. What would make a good dinner? I've got time to cook.

If you have plenty of time, you could do something more Japanese style of multiple small dishes to share, so you get small amount of lots of different dishes. It would be impressive!

You would serve contrasting dishes, something spicy, something with coconut cream, a quick pickle or kimchi, rice and the peanut noodles if you like, vegetable dishes like the way they prep aubergines to be a bit like eel etc

This book is great:

Vegan Japaneasy

Caramelised tofu sounds so good!

Oooh that book looks good.

both of these dishes are written with meat in, but the meat can be substituted and are still fantastic dishes.

Kung Pao Noodles
Nian Gao (stir fried rice cakes)

I also adore Chinese take-away salt & pepper chips. I have made my own version with shop bough potato waffles which were delicious.

do Korean - make a billion side dishes, some sweet and crunchy tofu and so on, and bibimbap (which is basically huge bowls of rice that you top with all the side dishes).
Maangchi's website has loads of info. It's a fair amount of prep, but really fun, really filling and a bit different from the usual

Does everyone eat eggs? (Assuming free-range and high welfare.)

My recent experience of feeding bottomless-pit teenagers and adults is to make sure that there are big bowls of egg-fried rice available, which is just rice with cooked egg, vegetables (like peas, peppers, grated carrot, nuts and sweetcorn) and spices/seasonings/soy sauce to taste. It's nothing fancy but it bulks everything out and you can play around with seasonings & heat to make it a bit more exciting.

I tend to end up adding ginger and chili to everything, and soy, as I don't eat garlic.

I'd love that. Maybe add some spring rolls and tempura vegetables for sporty ones to fill up on?

Pad Thai is delicious and easy to make veggie.

These Chinese oyster mushroom and plum pancakes always go down well here. You can make the pancakes in advance and just stack them separated by sheets of grease proof paper and reheat when serving.

Okay, how about this:

Dan-dan noodles (spicy peanut noodles)
Eggy aubergine.
Coconut crispy tofu.
Garlic and soy green veg.
Pickled red onion
Big bowl of sesame fried rice for the hungry teens and food refusers.

I feel like something is missing?

Maybe spring rolls for nibbles before?

And a cheesecake for dessert?

Oooooor - do I just give up and do a moussaka?

That sounds absolutely amazing.

I agree something crispy would be good as well.

Do not give up and make moussaka! Make your menu; it sounds immense!

That sounds amazing!

I did it and it was fab. I added Korean glazed baked mushrooms which were easy and so good.
The aubergines were special - I flame roasted those small thin ones on the bbq until they were gooey and then squashed them flat and fried them in soy egg mixture.
Everything was great. Felt like a special meal.
Did pot stickers instead of spring rolls for a starter.
Pudding was crap because I bought it. Oh well.

The only downside was that a lot of it had to be cooked at the same time and there was an absolutely manic 30 minutes that required a second pair of hands to clean up as I cooked because my kitchen is small.

I’m glad it was great!

I'm glad it went well! Sounded so good!

If you ever repeat it, an easy fitting dessert would be something like sticky mango coconut rice, which is made ahead and served cold.

This sounds amazing. Can you share the recipe for the soy egg dish please?

It was really simple. I bought the long, thin auberines (see pic).
Flame roast on the bbq until absolutely gooey inside and a little charred outside.
Whisk some egg, soy, a little ginger, some pepper, sesame oil.
Holding the roasted aubergine by its stalk, use a fork to flatten and squish it into the egg mixture - you want it flat but still in one piece.
Carefully lift out and shallow fry on both sides. Yum.

Sounds amazing, I will definitely try it. Thanks!