Vegan Diabetic birthday meal - help!

[Gumbo]

DH's twin brother is about to turn up with the usual 2 days notice for their birthday in a couple of days. I was planning on cooking a nice meal for DH (omnivore) with a yummy pudding and cake - but all that's just gone out of the window. Instead I'll need to whip up some hideously tasteless lovely food for them both...

So - the criteria are:

• Vegan (so nothing with eggs/meat/gelatine/cow's milk)
• Low sugar/fat/taste

ANY ideas?! The laste time he came he cooked up a huge pot of lentils, and spent hours working his way through that along with a green salad...

I gather you all have as many ideas for this as I do!

Lentil curry, mushroom risotto, savoury rice stuffed peppers, bean chilli.
As for pudding.....that's tricky. I've recently been on a diabetes course and was told that people with diabetes can eat anything in moderation, so other than a fruit salad, no idea....sorry.

I would make a veggie curry, served with rice. For the non-special-eaters I would add some naan bread. Possibly you could also stir some cooked chicken into the curry once the vegan guest (s) has been served.

Pudding is a little more tricky. Personally I would have several options available. make the cake/pudding you had intended making for your dh. Buy in a couple of nice varieties of fruit, plus some soya/dairy free type puddings e.g. alpro yogurt style yogurts.

Have some nice coffee and a selection of chocolate, make sure one type is vegan. You should be able to get most of what you need from either reasonable sized supermarket or health food shop.

Alternatively if you are really short on time due to the short notice (and if your dh would be ok with this) buy some nice ready made meal from health food shop. If your dh does mind, perhaps he can cook with you (or instead of you?)

Chana dhal and rice. Make the chana dhal the day before if you can. Very easy though recipe looks long. I have never known any adult not like it.

You will need: 2 onions, 2 tins chickpeas, 1 and a half tins chopped tomatoes (good quality), 1 large or 2 small bunches coriander, ground cumin, ground coriander, plain veg oil.

Strip all coriander leaves from stems and chop them, keeping a few back for a garnish if you care; chop onions finely.
Put generous slosh of oil over a low heat, add onions, stir.
When transparent (5mins?), add chopped coriander leaves and stir well. Add 2 tblspoons ground cumin and 2 tblspoons ground coriander, stir well. Should look like muddy sludge at this point.
Add tomatoes and stir well; bring to boil then turn down low and cook for 10mins.
Open tins of chickpeas and drain into a sieve, keeping their fluid in a bowl or jug. Add chickpeas to pan and stir. Bring to boil and then turn right down to simmer for 40 mins. If you need more fluid, use the chickpea fluid or extra tomatoes.

When you need the dhal, reheat for a minute or two and add the fresh coriander leaves before serving.

I knew I could reply on the people here to provide inspiration! Thanks so much - I'm still dreading it (he's here for a few days so I'll need to summon up every whiff of an idea that I can) but at least I now have a couple of options...

(And Onepieceoflollipop - coffee isn't an option because it's unhealthy , and chocolate is a no-no due to the diabetes. Oh - and he doesn't drink - you'd think that with so few other enjoyable things to look forward to at the dinner table he'd at least tuck into the Scotch (or something else that's suitably Diabetic-friendly)....)