Vegan Entertaining

[WittgensteinsBunny]

We're planning a fairly last minute birthday party for DH. Most of DH's friends are veggie / vegan. We're on the outskirts of Brighton, so I'm wondering about outside catering or what I could do that would be simple to put together in the morning for about 25 guests. We're not around the day before but will be here in the evening. It's a Sunday late afternoon / early evening thing for adults and kids. I'm planning to get an Infinity Cafe chocolate birthday cake, we've done this before and they are lovely. I have limited knowledge of vegan wine but I know that there are local producers who make vegan wines / sparkling wines and beers. It would be a nice touch to have some local things, I think? But v expensive and their red isn't great. I could also get one of those mason jars with a tap and do a long cocktail? Is that too much for Sunday lunch?

I'm not bad at cooking, it's just timing it all and making sure there's enough!

Here are my initial thoughts - I'd love some more ideas and suggestions for how to serve. I've got a couple of weeks' to get ready 😳

So:-

• big bowl of vegan pesto pasta using Zest pesto
• mixed bean and veg chilli in the slow cooker and rice
• sweet potato chips and vegan garlic mayo
• lots of dips - humous, tapanade, guacamole and things to dip in - bread sticks, crudités, crackers etc
• a couple of loaves of bread - focaccia and sour dough
• bowls of vegan friendly crisps
• some salad bits and pieces - cherry tomato

There will be a few children - mostly around 3 -7
So, a big fruit rainbow and some party rings and nibbly bits
Most children I know seem to eat pesto pasta and crisps? No nut allergies, so the zest pesto should be ok.

Help!

What about quorn cocktail sausages ? Or vegan sausages cut up for the kids . The quorn nuggets are really nice and I'm guessing if they are vegan they would have eaten them?
Crudities and dough balls for the kids ?

Ooh good idea. I love the idea of dough balls and quoin cocktail sausages. They do sausage rolls as well don't they?

When I do buffet type things I do vegan garlic mayo potato salad, vegan coleslaw, jacket potatoes, wontons, samosas, corn on the cob, the usual salad bits. Pitta bread, crackers, veg sticks with dips are always popular with the kids. Pesto pasta salad is great, especially with nuts and avacado. Speaking or avacado you could make a guacamole to go with the chilli.

Not all quorn products are vegan. I THINK the cocktail sausages are, but the mini sausage rolls aren't.

The Linda McCartney sausage rolls are nice and are vegan!

Tesco do vegan sausage rolls, but I can only get them online or in the really big stores.

Some fairtrade sainsburys and marks and spencers wine is vegan. Linda mcartney have a vegan range now. Something like a big vegan bean chilli with nachos goes down well. You can make guacamole and salsa which is all vegan.

This sounds yum!
Chilli great and you can make it in advance.

Quorn cocktail sausages are vegetarian but not vegan. Linda McCartney do vegan cocktail sausages though. Quorn do do vegan nuggets which are yum, but most Quorn isn’t vegan. Look out for the big green vegan label on the front of the things that are! Fry’s nuggets are nicer (Ocado, Morrison’s, maybe some other places)

The Tesco mini meat free frozen sausage rolls are vegan and much nicer and cheaper than the LM ones (the LM pastry isn’t great)

The Sacla free from pesto is much nicer than the Zest one.

Barnivore.com will tell you if a wine or beer is vegan or not, very handy.

The best vegan mayo by far is Vegenaise - sold on Ocado.

Can’t go wrong with dips. Keep an eye out for rogue dairy in loaves of bread you wouldn’t expect. Falafels are always a good filler.

This is so helpful. Thank you all so much! I had no idea about quorn.

Handy tips about pesto and veganaise - we always have zest pesto in the house as DH is allergic to dairy, will be good to try another variety :)

Non-vegan wine really tripped me up during veganuary, so I'll check out that website for sure.

I think it's possible to do it without relying on 'fake' products or giving yourself loads of cooking to do or necessarily doing anything involving forks!

Kids usually like the following which are easy to be vegan:
Mini breadsticks
Jam sandwiches
Marmite sandwiches
Party rings
Carrot and cucumber batons
Twiglets

Many falafel are vegan, cauldron Morrocan ones are nice.

Or Onion Bhajis
Veg samosas/pakora/chutney
Olives
Cut up pitta bread are easy to use for dips etc too.

I don't rate Linda McCartney sos rolls as I think making your own from sosmix if you can get it, and jus roll puff pastry is better.

Pizza is also an easy thing to do...vegan one can just have veg and pine nuts.

Thank you dangermouse. Twiglets and sandwiches is a great idea. I think we should add in the Indian snacks too.

We've decided to do the slow cooker bean and veg chilli, rice, dips, breadsticks / crudités, pitta breads, sweet potato chips, roast potatoes / chips (DH request), breads (they will be vegan - Infinity bakery), crisps, popcorn, fruit rainbow, party rings, hot dogs for meat eaters, olives, falafel (we live on those Cauldron falafels dangermouse - so delicious!) and a few other little bits and bobs.

I've contacted a Gelato shop in Brighton who are known for their huge selection of vegan gelato and sorbetto and they sell 2.5l and 5l tubs.

It's sounding manageable and varied. I'm so grateful for everyone's input :)

It sounds great, I hope it goes well wittgensteinsbunny

If you look on the Ocado website for wine you can filter the search to show only vegetarian wine - I presume these are suitable for vegans too. The issue with wine is to do with fish, isn't it? Does anyone know? It's a bit more reasonably priced.

Not sure which outskirts of Brighton you are, but did you know there's a vegan cafe inPeacehaven?

Now tell me more about this gelato place....

gelatogusto.com - in the North Laine in Brighton

I'm not near Peacehaven but good to know there's a vegan cafe there.

The big issue with wine is the use of egg whites to filter out impurities. Some traces of egg make it into the wine. Also fish guts and last week our local off licence told me that fish gall bladders are sometimes used to colour beer 🤢 So, the vegetarian filter on Ocado would only filter out the fish gut use. I know that Bolney Wine use chalk, as I did a wine tasting there last year. They do a great sparkling and white but the red isn't that nice.

Thanks dangermouse

Plenty of vegan wine here:
www.ocado.com/webshop/category/Vegan-Beer-Wine--Spirits-Wine/20000-43510-135827-20011?dnr=y