Saturday night we hosted a small dinner party for some close friends. With my new diet restrictions and one friend who’s recently gone vegan, I wanted to make sure the meal was suitable for everyone. When I started to share my menu plans with my husband, he wasn’t for the vegan thing. Vegetarian yes, vegan, no. He likes his cheese and eggs too much. With the veto on vegan (fortunately, my friend isn’t a strict vegan and took the opportunity to splurge), I set out to create a vegetarian menu that I must say was a smashing success. 

We started the evening with a few small appetizers:

• Hummus covered in feta cheese, olives, cucumbers and tomatoes

• Two cheeses- Brie with Truffles and Aged Gouda

• Sliced cucumbers and zucchini

Then the meal was kicked off with this fantastic kale salad from eye-swoon.

photo credit and recipe

It’s a perfect winter salad. Kale, Honey-Crips apples and basil tossed with a lemon and apple cider vinegar dressing. Amazing.

The rest of the dinner was an array of vegetarian entrees that ended up pairing nicely, even though I didn’t plan it that way.

We had mushroom pizzas that I adapted from Lacy’s blog. 

I used sundried tomato spread, tomato paste, olived, yellow/orange peppers, basil, and mozzarella- one I made vegan and used nutritional yeast instead of mozzarella

Quinoa + Kale Patties that I found Pinterest.

photo credit and recipe

I made them gluten free by using gluten free bread crumbs and added an extra egg to the recipe to help it bind better. We served these patties with this awesome avocado dish my friend Lalo brought over- Ginger Spiked Avocados (recipe below). They were little nuggets of heaven that were like icing on the cake to the quinoa patties. So. Good.

Ginger-Spiked Avocados (adapted from Party Food for Vegetarians by Celia Brooks Brown)

3 Avocados (sliced)

Juice of 2 lemons

1 TBSP Bragg’s

1 TBSP Soy Sauce

1 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar

1 TBSP Mirin

2 TSP Fresh grated ginger

Salt and Pepper

Mix together ingredients and pour over avocados.

Braised white beans and leeks from The Sprouted Kitchen

photo credit and recipe

This is quite possibly my favorite dish of all time right now. YES. It is THAT good! (I used the recipe from her book, which doesn’t have bacon or butter in it). It’s my comfort food for the winter months.  Ask for her cookbook for Christmas! You won’t regret it.

The evening was completed with two chocolate delights.

Chocolate Avocado pudding from Lisa.

photo credit and recipe

You’ll never miss the dairy. It’s that yummy. I made it for my dad one time and didn’t tell him what was in it (he’s VERY picky) and he loved it. 

 And finally, Zucchini Bread Bites (also from The Sprouted Kitchen). 

recipe

Again, run and get this cookbook. I’m not kidding. Best gift to myself earlier this fall. And I’m not getting paid to tell you this, I just love all the recipes I’ve tried so far.

I failed to take my own pictures of all the wonderful creations. I spent the entire day in my pint sized kitchen that looked like a bomb blew up when I was done. Seriously. My kitchen is the size of a hall closet, so it got tricky trying to make all these different courses. No time to snap staged photos. But, it was worth it and I loved every minute of it. The food was a huge success and everyone was amazed at how good a meal could be with out meat!