What is your favourite buffet dish?

[cosmobrown]

Doing a family and friends 18th birthday party, which will include buffet food for up to 40 guests.
I am getting a large joint of beef to slow cook and serve cold, plus vegan sausage rolls as the main dish.
I'm thinking salads and bread to go with this, as well as crudities and dips, and obviously a copious amount of crisps and snack type things.
SO, my question is, what is your favourite salad type dish? Or can you suggest a dish to go with the beef/sausage rolls?
Thank you.

I just catered for a buffet yesterday.
The most popular thing was cold roast broccoli. I roasted it in a bit of olive oil and soy sauce.

I love quiche, cheese and pineapple on sticks and tabbouleh with masses of herbs and pomegranate seeds.

Pork pies

Cocktail sausages are always good, especially if there are kids.

I'm always happy if there's some good bread and cheese.

Nice samosa too but they perhaps don't go with what you've got so far.

18 year old boys have hearty appetites. Pizza. Lots of French stick.

Things I make regularly for buffets

homemade quiche,
goats cheese and roasted vegetable couscous salad ,
Bang bang chicken salad
Piedmont roasted peppers
Lovely crusty bread
New potatoes with chives,spring onions and butter
Green salad with walnuts,goats cheese and dried cranberries in vinaigrette
Tricolour salad
Lentil salad
Coleslaw with apple and dried cranberries

Rare roast beef
Tabouleh
Tomato and mozzarella salad
Homemade sausage rolls

Are you sold on the beef? I am wondering if pork is easier because then you can do rolls with apple sauce a bit like a hog roast. I don’t eat pork or beef though so honestly not sure why I’m even suggesting this! Personally love a fancy salad with crusty bread. It’s not the sort of thing I make at home or order in restaurants so it’s always a treat to see at a buffet. Some of the ones PPs have said sound great.

Spanish potato omelette. Served cold cut into large cubes and eaten with cocktail sticks. Naturally gluten free, vegetarian and easier than quiche!
Retro skewers with cheese, pineapple and pickled onions.

Sausage rolls-the 300p for 99p from Iceland type 😳

Are vegan sausage rolls really a main dish??? I'm not vegan- but would consider this a side option surely? Will they be served cold also? Maybe a vegan can comment.

Is the whole buffet cold? I eat anything, so some of these may not suit everyones taste, but some of my favourites:

• Watermelon salad. Watermelon, green beans, grilled halloumi all chopped into similar sizes cubes/pieces and toasted pinenuts - thats it but utterly delicious
• Vietnamese summer rolls. I actually prefer making them vegan and serving with a simple, satay sauce. They are gluten free also, and lots of you tube videos on how to roll them
• Pumpkin, spinach, feta, balsamic glaze and toasted pine nuts
• Broccoli salad- finely chop raw broccoli, red onion, add either sultanas, dates or prunes, add nuts (I generally use almond slices). You can dress with a basic vinaigrette or mayonnaise. Some people add crunchy bacon on top, but its optional.

Birthday child has requested the beef, so it is a must have. Also a cheese board.

Absolutely happy for vegans to comment what might be a 'main' dish.

I would do a fillet of beef really the only type that will taste nice cold but it is expensive.

This beetroot, apple and horseradish salad would make a nice side to your beef.
I'd also do a big platter of beef of sliced beef tomatoes, with mozzarella, basil, and sprinkle of finely diced red onion, balsamic vinegar, black pepper and rock salt.
For summer parties a watermelon and feta salad always goes down well.
A Moroccan roasted veg cous cous salad, plenty of fresh herbs and and pomegranate seeds.
A good homemade coleslaw and potato salad.
Maybe a colourful Mexican salad with sweetcorn, peppers, beans, red onion, coriander and plenty of lime juice

Really interesting salads with things like feta and pomegranate and fennel and herbs & seeds - all the good stuff I don't normally both with.

Maybe a pasta or cous-cous based salad too. Check out #saladsofinstagram or similar - lots of inspiration there.

Although I make a really really good green salad, I've learnt it's too fiddly and difficult for buffet style eating. Salads that are a bit chunkier and easier to eat work best I find and I'm not surprised by the OP who said the roasted broccoli went down a treat - I find chargrilled greens with a dressing of any sort are always popular - I do a sort of honey/garlic/lemon or a tahini/lemon/yoghurt with chilli dressing that work well.

Salads I've made that go down well at these sort of events include:

Watermelon, cucumber and feta with a lime chilli dressing
Spanish-style tomato and onion salad
A really good roasted veg with couscous salad - it needs to look pretty I find!

I recently have been adapting a roasted carrot and rice/grains warm salad and I plan to make that next time I'm asked to bring something. My most recent one, which was great, used a mix of wild and regular rice and lentils and I added chickpeas too.

I like a simple tomato, cucumber and feta cheese salad with a French dressing

Based on another thread I'd avoid any pasta salad but couscous salad is always good.

You can just add cous cous to the cherry tomato, cucumber and feta cheese salad but add some spring onions

Tomato and mozzarella salad drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with torn basil leaves

any vegans want to suggest a main dish?

18 Yr olds demolish a buffet!
Alongside the beef I'd do pizza, chicken drumsticks, pigs in blankets, pork pies.
(Can you tell I'm not veggie??)
I'm a salad dodger so no help there but I'd keep it simple.
The tomato/mozzarella one pp suggested sounds good! Crusty bread rolls/butter to go with the cheese board.

I'm not a vegan but one of my daughters is.

I'd do a wellington using ready-made vegan puff pastry. Put in whatever you fancy: perhaps something like butternut squash, leeks, mushrooms, pine-nuts and spinach.

Don’t stress over the vegan thing. I’m vegetarian with a milk allergy and I’m quite happy with a nice selection of bread and salads. Just make sure you’re not putting cheese in all the salads. Crudites is always a winner, too. I hate it when non-vegans come up with weird concoctions that I feel obliged to eat out of politeness!

A lot of puff pastry is vegan. I do a nice plait with a mushroom and pine nut filling, sort of like a vegan wellington. It is nice served at room temperature. Its based on a BBC good food recipe. For a buffet I would do that and some vegan sausages rather than vegan sausage rolls, which are not as filling