I'm stumped for ideas

[thesammichfox]

 At the end of march I will be throwing my daughter a birthday party, now normally I wouldn't have an issue with things like this I have plenty of vegetarian recipes my family loves. But it has been discovered that my daughter has a milk allergy which we have gone from vegetarian to vegan as a house hold because of it. So now I need to plan a

Comments

[lunamorgan]

What about a casserole of some kind? Some kind of vegan "loaded" baked potato dish, using smashed potatoes, vegan sour cream, chives, green onions, etc. and baked?

Or a Mexican inspired casserole with refried beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and avocado layered together with salsa and lettuce on top, kind of like seven layer dip?

There's always lasagna with a tofu "ricotta" and regular veggie throughout.

A corn pudding style casserole would also be tasty. Just mix corn (regular or creamed corn style, which I don't think actually has any dairy in it, weirdly enough) with an veggie friendly cornbread recipe, add some green chilies to the mix, and vegan soy or cashew cheese if you want to.

You could do a veggie stir fry with mixed vegetables and a hoisin soy glaze.

How about a curry? Maybe your relatives aren't adventurous enough, but if your family is, you could go for it. Something milder, like a yellow or mussaman curry without the fish sauce would be vegetarian and vegan, since you generally use coconut milk for curry sauces.

On that note, Indian could also work. Make a Korma style sauce with mixed veggies like mushrooms, cauliflower, and carrots, and just replace the cream with soy or almond milk (actually cashew milk would work really well if you can find it, since cashew nuts are used so heavily in Indian cuisine).

You could make stuffed portabello mushroom caps, using sauteed onions, garlic, veggie broth, stale bread, and whatever herbs you like, then just broil them in the oven for a few minutes.

You could also make a soup entree, like a hearty vegetarian chili (black beans, kidney beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, spices), or a potato leek soup. Something substantial enough to be a main dish.

There's always stuffed bell peppers. You can fill them with seasoned rice or lentils with chopped veggies like carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes, or anything you want. Top them with a spicy tomato sauce and bake.

Hope these ideas help!

[thesammichfox]

I was actually thinking about a chilli or a curry, which I will probably end up making a chilli seeing that it is less adventurous and more likely to be eaten. My relatives are weird sometimes with what they will and won't try. The potatoes sound like a really good side dish and I could easily make those with soy milk and a vegan sour cream and cheese with no one being the wiser. And the mexican seven layer dip would be a really awesome idea, I am going to make one of those for sure.

Thank you for the really awesome ideas!

[lunamorgan]

No problem, good luck! I know how crazy relatives can be. I love mine, but my uncles are baffled by soy protein (I make chili, though, and just don't remind them that anything I make is going to be veggie. They don't even notice the difference).

[thesammichfox]

Yeah I'm not going to bother pointing it out, people are never the wiser anyways. I make cookies and cup cakes all the time that get gobbled up with no one the wiser. And it's also easier just to make something everyone can enjoy and Great Aunt whomever isn't going to make a big stink about not being invited because she had to give my kid a taste of something not safe for her.

[sydelbow]

Ooo talk to me about lasagna with tofu ricotta lol!

[lunamorgan]

Basically, if you use soft or silken tofu mixed with some garlic, basil, and nutritional yeast, it has a very smooth, ricotta like texture and the spices remind you of cheesy, Italian things even though it's just tofu.

Sometimes I'll add a tiny bit of flour (I'm taking teaspoons at a time, just until it firms up) to help it set as it cooks.

You can really do it however you want. Whatever spices you'd ordinarily use, like oregano, onion powder, salt, pepper, etc. can be used to make it taste the way people expect it to.