can you suggest a dairy free veg or fish meal and a dessert idea for a special meal?

[samsonara]

Last minute change of plans means I've offered to cook a birthday meal for a friend. She won't eat diary products so no cheese, milk, likes fish but can't eat prawns and wont eat any meat. So anyway, I've sat down to plan it and..erm...I'm a stuck for ideas..it's for Wed eve. ..help! Am thinking Pasta?,Veg curry ? Fruit crumble?...but they seem a bit too every day any ideas please?

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Brilliant vegan recipe site

Veggie tagine with chick peas
Cous cous
Moroccan style salads

Clementine cake would be lovely for pud.

Thank you christiana and janeite, I like the idea of the moraccan veg stew / tagine. Thanks for the recipe site link TooTicky, I'll check out some soup recipes for starters and also look up the clementine cake. Have any of you tried Quinoa, I was wondering if that would work instead of couscous?

Not tried it sorry. Cous cous is so easy though and is lovely for soaking up the juices from the tagine, especially if you stir some toasted pine kernels into it.

The clementine cake sounds great, do you think I could cheat and used tinned clemetine?

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quinoa is lovely but does have a distinctive taste and IMO plenty of people don't like it

when doing vegan party food I usually do lots of small dishes

eg hummus, olives, nice bread, roasted or grilled vegetables, sun dried toms, artichoke hearts, tiny roast potatoes rolled in herbs and salt, good quality vegan sausages, that kind of thing

another advantage is you can buy most of these ready made [lazy]

oh wraps goes well with the mezze stuff - god \I fancy it now actually

Thanks. I haven't got enough time to do the boiling on that day so will leave that idea for now and look for another dessert. Meze sounds nice, but it will only be three adults eating so I think I will go for a one plate meal. Am liking the couscous and chickpea tagine option and maybe a soup to start with and then a dessert. My friend is very into healthy eating ( last two presents for me were an exercise book and a basket of healthy foods! ...I suppose she's trying to tell me something!)

I am eating dairy free and the two best puddings I have had are a fruit terrine by Delia Smith made with sparkling rose wine and a summer fruit pudding. They make soya cream which I have used. DH and I also used soya cream to make a cream and brandy sauce to go with steak and it was yummy. You could do that with mustard mash and use a dairy free spread instead of butter.

Thanks, that does sound lvely strawberrycornetto. I'll look out for soya cream as that might be something I can serve instead of cream or custard. I'd like something wintery warming maybe a sponge. Mustard mash sounds nice with veggie bangers and veg, another possiblity.

what about using a dairy free fat /rice milk instead of normal dairy

my friend is dairy free and we reguallry have sauces ,ade with rice milk and it really tastes the same

Yes that's an idea but I've never used it before, do you just add the same amount and treat is the same as milk?