Vegetarian special occasion dishes?

[Jenise]

For the neighborhood Xmas dinner this year, I'm feeding 80 meat eaters and five vegetarians. And for all that I like to boast that I love and cook vegetarian foods, I have to admit that this situation made me realize that I'm pretty centered on proteins when it comes to making special occasion foods. Lobster, prime rib, you know the stuff.

So what about vegetarians? What constitutes special occasion food for vegetarians?

The menu is a West Coast theme. We're making oysters rockefeller as a starter and will substitute eggplant in that dish for the veggie people. The next course is the California course: a carrot and vanilla bean soup from Mourad in San Francisco finished with a citrus 'salad' and mint. We'll pair that with Edmunds St. John Bone Jolly. It's vegetarian already, vegan even.

The 3rd course is the Oregon course, a salad of butter lettuce wilted under a sauteed mushroom and red wine vinaigrette dressing. We'll add a pork belly garnish for the omnivores and crispy garlicked oyster mushrooms for the vegetarians. A local light-bodied syrah and an OR pinot with that.

And lastly the Washington course: rolled pork roast with a black truffle stuffing with an apple-marsala reduction sauce, scattered peas (shoots, English and whole snap peas--lots of texture) and dehydrated apple slice. One ea Napa and Washington cabs with that. For dessert, mocha cheesecake with blackberry compote.

So it's only the main course that presents a problem. What would you do that would go with everything else? Potato gratin (with black truffles? Individual ramekins with the same veggies everyone else gets? Remember that at the venue I have limited ability to pull off anything too complicated. Last year I gave the vegetarians cauliflower steak picata--seared early, finished a la minute with the sauce in one skillet--but I only had two vegetarians. Can't repeat that.

[Robin Garr]

I have a library book on Vegan Holiday Feasts out that might help. Let me dig into it tomorrow.

Gratin works.

I tend to focus meals around having protein as well, and if vegetarian the centerpieces would be some sort of bean dish. Tofu depending on the guest and their prejudices. But these are just as much blank canvases as beef, chicken, lamb, etc. You can take them in any flavor direction you like.

Cheese is the other obvious choice. It sounds like you would not want pasta (although ravioli can be nice, tasty, and easy). Risotto or polenta are my standbys. My wife sometimes thinks they are not festive enough but they are always delicious, and can be served with lots of extra optional adornments to make it festive (standard for us are roasted chestnuts, black pepper, extra cheese, and several sabas or balsamics, sometimes caramelized onions).

How about petatou?: potato (add truffle) and olives, held together with thickened cream/egg, roasted and topped with chevre. Use a biscuit cutter to make pretty stacks.

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Another thought: a spiral vegetable tart. There are lots of versions on the internet, e.g., https://stasty.com/?p=3716

It's a lot of assembly but easy at serving time. I did one once and it was a success; I think with some careful planning it could be a showoff piece. Baked blind, for sure, maybe sauteed onions as the base, you have truffle to add, the question is what to pour between the slices?

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Another thought: you have 150 years worth of boast-worthy terrine recipes at your fingertips... make one and develop a snazzy sauce and plating for it.

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In the same vein, a good local restaurant offers Vegetable Wellingtons. Just what you'd imagine but it's a plateful. (It is one of their dishes that I've ordered more than once.)

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Imam bayildi is always good.

A local Spanish/Sephardic restaurant makes Berenjena con Miel... fried eggplant sticks (or halved fairy eggplants, if you can get them), doused with cheese, honey, and nigellum seeds.

Tamales. A lot of work but all up front; in the moment, you just need a steamer. You can fill with cheese and chilis, sweet potato and black beans, celeriac and hazelnuts, pear and spicy chickpeas, seitan and mushroom, and on and on.

[Jenise]

Wow that spiral tart! Must try it, even if not for this dinner though it would be spectacular. And probably just right for five main course servings. If I end up with more vegetarians (could happen), though, I'd have a problem.

Vegetable Wellingtons is a very interesting concept. Definitely not (most likely) a food our guests would be making at home, so yes: special! And I can make an oven available for it, too, once the oysters are out for service.

Risotto and polenta--not in the cards because I can't deal with last-minute cooking requiring that much 17 minutes of hands-on work. I've got to be everywhere at once and need to actually be anchoring a table once the food's served (though I disappear as soon as I've eaten to set up the next course). A pasta that's precooked or assembled, like a lasagna, could work.

Terrines--yes, I hear you, but for a winter dinner the main course should be hot, don't you think?

Great ideas.

Going off your potato idea, how about a vegetarian take on shepherd's pie? Betsy did that once (lentil base), you could do the truffle in the mashed potato.
My first thought was cauliflower steak, but see you already know won't work for your timing.

[Jenise]

Going off your potato idea, how about a vegetarian take on shepherd's pie? Betsy did that once (lentil base), you could do the truffle in the mashed potato.
My first thought was cauliflower steak, but see you already know won't work for your timing.

The cauliflower steak actually WOULD work--but I did that last year!

I like the shepherd's pie idea with lentils--I would not have thought of that. HMMMMMMMMMM.. Another elegant presentation.

substitute eggplant in that dish for the veggie people. The next course is the California course: a carrot and vanilla bean soup from Mourad in San Francisco finished with a citrus 'salad' and mint.

The soup sounds delicious. Maybe post a recipe.

Is the eggplant dish Eggplant Caviar or some sort. I've seen this a few times but have never tried it.

I don't have any specific suggestions but mushrooms and legumes are always a good substitute for protein. The cafeteria where I work had mushroom stroganoff one day. I know that is not vegetarian, but it was an interesting option. They also had a "braised" lentil dish and always have a grain risotto.

One of the things I would like to do is cook more with tofu. From soft to extra firm, tofu has always been an ingredient in restaurant dishes that I loved.

[Jenise]

Yes on mushrooms but we're already featuring them in the Oregon course. The soup recipe was posted by me here long ago, just search on Mourad, should pop right up. The eggplant? Not a caviar, proably just a chunk to receive the same Rockefeller treatment the oysters get.

Terrines--yes, I hear you, but for a winter dinner the main course should be hot, don't you think?

Generally, yes. I suggested it for two reasons: (1) its neatness and precision makes it a match for the tied/rolled roast, and (2) I think it could encourage sharing and maybe even envy in the non-V diners.

I don't have any specific suggestions but mushrooms and legumes are always a good substitute for protein.

Others may think differently, but FWIW, as a vegetarian I disagree that mushrooms are a good substitute for protein. I understand that they can be very savory and add the bass notes to dishes. But nutritionally they are far away from providing the same benefit as meat, fish, cheese, tofu, beans, etc. So whenever I go out to a multi-course meal where the main dish has been swapped out for some mushroom-based dish, I know that I am going to leave hungry and undernourished.

Of course mushrooms are always welcome and are attractive on many levels (including the great marriage with wine). But they do not replace the main protein.

I eat a lot of dishes that don'y have meat or fish, but I don't think of them being 'vegetarian' and when I eat out I get fed up with the thinking that meat free dishes must have added protein. It's just one meal, so not necessary. (plus I'm real awkward in that I can't eat cheese....

Anyway --

a really popular dish offered by - I think - Marks and Spencer for last year's Xmas meal which sold out so quickly I never got to buy it was Cauliflower Wellington.

A head of cauliflower rubbed with spice (tumeric? can't remember), encased in pastry and baked in oven.. That was meant to be carved for a veggie family, but if you do it with a baby cauliflower you'd get an individual serving which could be cooked in advance and warmed up.

And going with the lentil shepherds pie, earlier this year at Neethlingshof Wine Estate I had lentil Bobotie. Bobotie is an aromatic South African dish similar to shepherds pie, but here they used lentils instead of ground meat. Bobotie recipes online and a picture of the dish I had is here
http://petes-pix.blogspot.com/2019/03/l ... state.html

It could be served in a small dish or ramekin

I eat a lot of dishes that don'y have meat or fish, but I don't think of them being 'vegetarian' and when I eat out I get fed up with the thinking that meat free dishes must have added protein. It's just one meal, so not necessary...

I agree with you that it's not necessary. But that cuts at some of the complications with vegetarian dishes in non-vegetarian restaurants. Some people may view vegetarian meals as a 'light' alternative to their normal nutritional course. Others (like me) view them as a normal part of a balanced diet (protein, carbohydrate, vegetables). I guess the problem for restaurants is that they don't know which type of diner they are getting.

The eggplant? Not a caviar...

Indeed, it's very tricky to catch the eggplants just after they swim upstream to spawn.

The eggplant? Not a caviar...

Indeed, it's very tricky to catch the eggplants just after they swim upstream to spawn.

https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/eggplant-caviar

The eggplant? Not a caviar...

Indeed, it's very tricky to catch the eggplants just after they swim upstream to spawn.

https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/eggplant-caviar

Did you need an emoticon, Dan?