Guess Who's Coming to Dinner....Vegans !!

Tell many a home cook that your are bringing vegans to dinner and they will run screaming from the kitchen. Personally I love a good challenge in the kitchen, I don't flinch at vegan or gluten-free or any other specific dietary choices, bring them on !!

Last weekend we had my friend and her husband over for dinner, the food was to be vegan and lots of it as they are both very physically active.

For those of you unclear on the concept, vegans choose a diet that is all plant based, no flesh, dairy or eggs. Some do it for health reasons, others as part of their belief system.

These days there are cookbooks and restaurants abound that cater to vegans, at least on both coasts ;-)

While I am an avid omnivore it was easy for me to look back through this blog to find tasty recipes to use for this feast.

Here is my menu.

Drinks: Grapefruit Lemonade, these days I use whatever citrus I have on hand.
             Muddle Mint Lime Soda, I used my lime simple syrup, a few sprigs of mashed spear mint and sparkling water

First Course: Fresh Spring Rolls to which I added a baked tofu purchased at the store.
                     Chickpea Soup, since I was doing a curried roasted veggie dish as part of the main course I switched it up a bit using my Moroccan spice mix and in place of the tomatoes, I used some of my roasted bell peppers from the freezer.

Half the fun of this kind of meal are the condiments or "food toys" as I like to call them. From left to right: two kinds of fruit chutney, sliced lemon and limes, fresh spearmint sprigs, peanut sauce and a soy citrus ginger sauce ( I need to document that one next time I make it, so I can post it;-). We used them both for the first course and the main course.

Main Course: Massage Kale Salad with oranges and finely chopped fennel bulb.
                      Quinoa and Millet, which I toasted first. I used 1 cup of quinoa ( a mix of red and yellow) and 1/2 cup millet. Cook in three cups of water in your rice cooker.

                   

Roasted Curried Vegetables.

I used butternut squash, carrots and three kinds of potatoes(Trader Joe's sells them in a mesh bag together).

I cut them into rather large similar size chunks, toss them with a tablespoon of olive oil and a couple tablespoons of freshly made curry spice. The fresh curry spice is the secret to this recipe, I use the same curry spice in a baked chicken dish I have been making lately.

Place the vegetables in a foil covered and oiled baking dish, cover with more foil and bake at 350 F for 1-2 hours, checking after one hour for doneness, you want them to be very soft.

Here's what the plate looked like when Jim went back for seconds, I forgot to get a photo the first time.

Dessert !! I made the chocolate vegan cupcakes with the chocolate ganache, added a strawberry buttercream frosting to make them fancy and some fresh strawberries. They were the perfect ending to to the meal along with coffee and tea.

No one went to bed hungry !! And there was plenty of protein in the spring rolls( tofu), the bean soup, the peanut sauce and quinoa/millet.

 I will admit this was an over the top feast and had a lot of steps to prepare. I did as much as I could ahead of time and you can certainly simplify your menu.   The most important thing is to have fun with the challenge. While I won't give up my omnivorous ways, I do love lots of these plant based recipes and use them frequently in my daily meals.

For more wonderful vegan fare, check out my friend, Laurie's food blog.