Gluten free, dairy free and meat free party food ideas please!

[xsquared]

BIL can no longer eat dairy or gluten, and I'd like to give him some exciting options during the larger family gatherings we are doing over next week.

I will be doing chilli con carne amd vegetarian chilli as the main, there will be tortilla chips, salad leaves, salsa, sour cream, cheese and vegan cheese.

Dessert will be a spread of Christmas's things like stollen, panettone and I will be making a banoffee pie. I realise none of these are gluten or dairynfree, so apart from fruit salad with soy cream, what would be a good dessert?

We are hosting another party for another set of relatives, and I'd like to do something different to the firstbut BIL will still be here. It will be around tea time, and I would prefer a fork buffet as there won't be enough space on the dining table for knife and fork type meal.

Thank you in advance.

Pavlova with a oat or coconut whipped cream ?

Perhaps a fruit crumble ( with gluten free flour ) and an oat milk based custard ?

Flapjack with raisins and nuts mixed in.

Fruit.

Hmm, saw an advert for something...hang on...

If he eats eggs (which I believe aren't official dairy), a flourless honey & almond cake is lovely.

Oh, we've got stewed apple in the freezer from the glut of apples earlier this year, so crumble would be a good shout. Thanks.

Also you can make a nice mousse with coconut milk and dark chocolate - you could do it in individual little glasses so you don't have to buy tons.

Just to warn you that some brands of tortilla chips are not gluten free, you will need to read the packaging. Otherwise you can cook rice or buy Gf pitta breads or flat breads in most large supermarkets.

Thanks. Those look good. A bit pricey, but I think O could make the lemon tattoo at least!

I made this recipe using GF flour and Flora last Christmas. Subbed a bit of the GF flour for ground almonds. Everyone demolished it… including those without allergies! It was also brilliant warmed up the next day.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/upside-down-mincemeat-apple-pudding

Don’t forget you can get a non dairy whipping cream. Can’t remember who makes it.

Orange and almond cake has eggs but not dairy or gluten
banana icecream (blitz frozen bananas and a bit of sugar and lemon juice)
Crustless pumpkin pie, with maple pecan

I've just googled a recipe, amd it is literally just cocoa powder, icing sugar and whipped coconut cream.

Have you tried this? Potentially it sounds good, but worried that it might not work.

Yes, similar but I used to do it with melted dark chocolate, M&S gelatin and coconut milk - no cocoa powder. Poured into little glasses and set in the fridge, then I just put a few pomegranate seeds or something decorative on the top. It was actually really delicious and restaurant-y. It's been a while, I will try to find the recipe.

I've done a chocolate pot that is just dark chocolate melted into coconut milk, with a layer of fruit compote (I did raspberry, but if doing it again would probably try cherry).

Cranachan with oat cream

Trifle. Make the sponge using Doves Farm flour (just as easy as making an ordinary Victoria sponge). Use vegetarian jelly, Alpro custard and soya whipping cream (Soyatoo squirty is easy but won't hold its shape, just like any dairy squirty cream, so has to be added to the served portion, but there are non-dairy 'creams' that can be whipped up just like whipping cream and are stable).

Lemon meringue pie can be made non-dairy by setting sweetened fresh lemon juice with cornflour or potato starch, instead of using lemon curd. Can also be made in individual portions. TBH I would skip the GF pastry for an individual portion and either put a nice GF shortbread in the bottom of each ramekin as a base, or do just the lemon custard and soft meringue. It's a tangy and refreshing dessert.

For a savoury, how about devilled eggs?

Only if the oats are gluten free. Can you get gluten free oat cream?

Some coeliacs cannot eat gluten free oats.

Sorry, I couldn't find the blog that contained the coconut/choc recipe - it's several years since I was trying a dairy-free health thing. I do plenty see under the search term 'vegan chocolate pot' including ones by Nigella and Jamie.

Nigella's Chocolate Cake made with olive oil and ground almonds

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-olive-oil-cake

Agree that Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake is v. good. Great with raspberries, as she recommends. Or you could make raspberry coulis to pour over (just mashed up raspberries with icing sugar and perhaps just a little gin...)

To 'compete' with the chilli (if you wanted) you could make a Mediterranean-style bean dish:
red peppers, courgettes, aubergines, red onions, garlic, sweet paprika, oregano all sliced then gently frizzled in olive oil. When softened/just beginning to brown, slowly simmered with a tin of plum tomatoes in juice, a tin of butter beans (or other beans of your choice), drained, atablespoon tomato puree, just a little water (or vegan red wine), plus salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, top with lots of fresh basil. Great served hot with rice and tenderstem broccoli .

For a buffet:

Does he eat fish? If so, hot-smoked salmon or trout or gravadlax, or nicely poached cold salmon, or salmon pate or kipper pate (easy to make at home using vegan soft cheese/yoghurt/mayo plus parsley and herbs). Perhaps as a platter of 'salmon three ways' - hot smoked, cold poached, and pate or gravadlax. With sliced lemon and crisp lettuce/rocket.

Or cook usual the thin sliced smoked salmon in a frittata. Great with watercress or tiny sprigs of broccoli included.
Or a leek and asparagus frittata. Top with grated vegan cheese if liked.
Or mushroom frittata with some fresh spinach and tarragon and lots of black pepper.
Or Spanish slow-cooked tortilla with good olive oil, onions and potatoes.
Mini versions of all the above make nice buffet food.

Guacamole without the soured cream - I prefer it that way - and really nice posh gluten-free bread or crackers.
Mushroom pate (easy, using vegan soft cheese).
Home-made roasted red pepper hummus with nice veg crudites and marinated olives.

Good quality roast/smoked nuts (almonds etc). Or Nigella's Bar Nuts, if you replace the butter in her recipe with olive or other vegetable oil:
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/bar-nuts

Fancy rice salad - for example https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/rice-salad/ or (more ambitious) https://nadiashealthykitchen.com/crispy-rice-salad/

There are lots of other possible salads here:
https://www.themediterraneandish.com/category/salads/

Also, what about Thai/Chinese etc dishes using tofu etc? There's a whole world of Asian dishes using vegetables, vegan protein and rice.

Wow! So many great ideas, thank you.

BIL isn't too fussy otherwise. We are already doing Thai tofu green curry one of the days he's here. The second set of relatives are not very adventurous, and we may just end up doing something like 2 suffering types of soups with bread, GF bread, cheese, pizzas, sales, crisps stuff like that!

The chocolate cake looks good so I might give that a bash!

You can make the banoffee pie still. I am gluten free and used gluten free biscuits. You can use oat cream, coconut cream or an array of dairy free cream cheese.