Vegetarian Dinner Party

Author: Jane Underwood
Type: Article
Language: Australian
Length: 565 words
Keyword: Vegetarian
Keyword Density: 17 / 3.00%

Your husband’s just come home from the office and announced that he’s invited his boss and his wife over for dinner on Saturday night. However, there’s a catch – they’re vegetarian!!

What do you do? You’ve never cooked vegetarian before. Your household is meat, three times a day. Don’t despair, vegetarian cuisine is not greatly different, and when you consider that over three-quarters of the world are vegetarian there is a wide range of foods to choose from.

First of all you need to find out how strictly vegetarian they are. Are they vegan? Do they eat dairy products? Do they eat eggs?

Once you know this you can start preparing a menu. If they are vegan you have to be careful that there are no dairy or egg products in what you are serving. A true vegan does not eat honey either.

Eating vegetarian these days is not just rabbit food, nuts and beans. There is a wide range of options available and many vegetarian recipe books to consult.

As you are also cooking for your husband and yourself it may be easier to use one of the vegetarian meat substitutes. These come in many varieties. There is vegetarian mince, nutmeat, many soy products and even vegetarian roasts. Your local Asian food market is probably your best bet to find these alternatives. You could also use tofu, however I don’t know how your carnivorous husband would take to this – it is an acquired taste!

For nibbles before dinner it is very easy to put out plates of nuts, olives, gherkins, pickled onions, dried fruit and fresh fruit such as grapes. This is the easiest part of a vegetarian dinner party.

For the main course probably the easiest thing to make would be vegetarian / vegan pasta with salad. There are many types of pasta you can buy that do not have egg or dairy in them. Also it is very easy to make a rich tomato sauce with no animal products. You could serve parmesan cheese on the side so they can use it if they want to.

Mushrooms are also great for vegetarian and vegan food. If you can get the really large field mushrooms you can marinade them in soy, garlic, ginger and herbs, then slice them thickly (like steaks), grill them, then serve them with baked vegetables – a sure fire winner with everyone.

Dessert is easy – fruit salad served with cream or ice cream (if they eat dairy) or just by itself if they are vegan. Or if you wanted a hot dessert you could make an apple or apricot pie or crumble – it is very easy to make pastry without egg or milk. You can even buy frozen vegetarian / vegan pastry.

So you see all your panic was really for nothing. It will probably be good for you to get out of your cooking rut and do something different. Think of all the fun you can have searching through vegetarian recipe books and in the supermarket. Vegetarian will no longer be a dirty word. Think of this dinner party as an adventure and enjoy the journey.

I am sure that you will come through with flying colours and that your husband will have earned many brownie points at work because of your efforts. It also might mean that you start having a few vegetarian meals at home for a change!!