YAAH! Let’s celebrate the fact that a vegan food blog has made it this far in Project Food Blog 2010. Could a vegan win this entire competition? That would be pretty epic. You be the judge after feasting your eyes on this luxurious vegan dinner party menu.
Serving a vegan menu to non-vegans is easier than you might think. Not that this was an EASY challenge! But I get to work with ingredients I know very well, while my guests are impressed by the creativity, tastes, and textures of food that they rarely, if ever, eat or cook with themselves. These are everyday staples in my vegan diet but they appear exotic and experimental to the regular diner. Things like kale, miso, cashews, dates, fennel, nut flours, pomegranates, and quinoa make this menu luxurious and eliminate the panic attack I would otherwise have about wowing my friends! There’s nothing typically vegan or vegetarian about this menu and that was the one thing I wanted to avoid… tofu. It’s an easy “go to” and everyone I know thinks that’s all vegans can eat!
The key to creating a dinner party menu is to make it as easy as possible on YOU the day of the party. Plan it so that the dishes can have components prepared in advance… not a few hours before your guests arrive. You need time to look fabulous! The worst would be to have your guests arrive and there you are, hair a mess, standing frazzled in your apron in the kitchen trying to pull this all together. I was able to make the quinoa stuffing, miso gravy, cheesecakes, the dip and crostini’s, the drink, and the crisp kale for the salad all on the day prior. The rest of the warm apple fennel salad only took about 20 minutes to prepare before the dinner.
I should point out this was sort of a lunch/dinner party. I work nights and it’s impossible for me to get together with anyone after 6 pm. So this was a mid afternoon sort of thing. Kind of like how seniors eat dinner at 4pm! A food blogger can only take luxurious food photos in day light (in case you were wondering) so this worked out perfectly. Otherwise they wouldn’t look this great!
To add “luxury” to my vegan menu I concocted an aperitif (which I’ve never put much thought into before) because it seems like a rather posh thing to serve your guests. The Crushed Pomegranate Punch is made with REAL pom and cran juices, giving you a healthy dose of antioxidants. It’s sweetened slightly with agave nectar, flavored with lime and mint, and garnished with pomegranate seeds. You could serve this alcoholic or non-alcoholic. Either way it’s the perfect way to rev up your palette before eating!
Most of the dishes are from recipes I’ve been storing away on the computer to make when the time was right! I have to give credit where credit is due for these inspiring dishes. The Maple Date Cannellini Dip is from Healthy Food for Living, the Warm Apple Fennel Salad is courtesy of (never)homemaker, and the cheesecake was discovered (and adapted) via Foodbuzz.com on Tasty Eats At Home. These are dishes I’ve never made before, which some would say is a big no no when preparing for a dinner party, but I have worked with all these ingredients and methods before so I felt confident pulling it off. More importantly, I did!
If there’s one thing that will pull you away from your guests and good conversation, it’s having to plate and serve each course. No thanks! So I had the appetizer on the table to be self served, and served the salad and main on the same plate. It’s much more comforting to have a selection of foods on the plate, anyway, and this way your guests can have what they want and no one gets distracted during the meal.
The final course, dessert, was probably the most rewarding part of the meal for me and my guests. You know how everyone feels guilty eating dessert and they rrrreally want to eat a big piece or have seconds, but they don’t want to look like a pig. Well, I realized what an impact my cooking can have on people because my friend Jeffrey was going to be modest and eat half a cheesecake, but when he clued in that it wasn’t cheese and it contained healthy nuts, unrefined sugars, and “good” fats he went for the whole thing. No flavor was compromised in the least and they loved it! In fact, I don’t think my friends would even eat REAL cheesecake, but they had no problem devouring the vegan alternative.
Because the dishes are vegan I had to get creative so that they still felt familiar to people who aren’t used to eating a plant based diet. I wanted comforting foods and textures that smell and taste the same as non vegan dishes. I wanted the meal to feel whole and each dish to compliment the other. My friends Rayanne, Ryan, and Jeffrey (all omnivores) said if I didn’t mention to them that this was a vegan menu, they wouldn’t have known the difference! They said they felt good and satisfied after eating… and the word “inspired” was even tossed around! That was the goal and I did it. Whether I make it through round 3 or not, I won. Not to sound TOO profound or anything, but Veganism won. I’m not out to change the world, but if I can impact people’s eating habits and prove that there is no sacrifice when it comes to eating this way, then that’s all I want. Well, and $10,000 would still be nice too!
