Veggies by candlelight

[chrose]

Hey gang, I need some input here. A holiday tradition in my house is a candlelight Xmas eve dinner. Usually I make something French and decadent. Items in the past have included Duck L'Orange, Tournedos Rossini, Faison Souvaroff, Steak Au Poivre etc. This year my sister and, my 20 something niece and nephew will be here; they are all vegetarians. When I was talking to my niece she told me that in "vegetarian land" the traditional protein, starch, veg. that I would use is not usually the way they eat. So I am challenged to make a candlelight vegetarian meal. I am going to try and straddle the format line and loosely keep the protein, stach, veg. type format going, but of course with no meat or fish in this case (maybe a little here and there as an accompaniment)
The lineup I have so far is:
Roasted Beet and Fennel composed salad with Roasted Beet vinaigrette.
Cream of Sugar Pumpkin soup with King Crab
And that's it. I was going to do a planked salmon, but I'm not sure of their fish eating habits just yet.
Any suggestions for elegant veggie fare that can be plated individually?
Thanks and Happy Holidays

[Suzanne]

If they're REALLY vegetarians, then you can't even give them the crab garnish (more for you! ).

But I would keep the beet thing, do a wild mushroom soup (vegetable stock and cream, to keep that decadence) instead of the pumpkin, and then for a main do a Vegetable Couscous, with chunks of roasted pumpkin, zucchini, red bell peppers, carrots, cippoline (onions), and eggplant, and boiled chickpeas for protein. (You could always add some chicken and/or merguez sausage for those who think they'll die without meat.) A little homemade harissa on the side, some minced preserved lemon mixed into the couscous along with raisins and whole almonds. It looks gorgeous with all the colors, and tastes really great (hint: season the veg with a little cinnamon, ground coriander, and/or ground cardamom before roasting). As my mother used to say, "Good and good for you!"

And then you can go crazy with the dessert.

[KeeperOfTheGood]

Hey oh

I was once very nearly vegitarian. I took a nearly a year, and had my week worked out that I only did one meat dish a week. There is a lot to learn to be a vegitarian. One thing to know is this; by what definition of vegetatian are your relations. Vegetarians are not all one big group, there are a number of variable types of vegitarians. So, the quick list, Ovo-Lacto -- will do dairy and eggs, Vegan -- will not do any non-vegtable sourced protiens at all. There are groups that exclude fish and seafood as meat, and others that exclude fowl from meat, meaning they will eat these exclusions. Knowing the type will be your biggest determiner. A very good friend of mine will only eat if I prepare his food first. He will no abide by cross-contamination.

Secondly, beans and most grains are incomplete protiens. Hence they are frequently found together in dishes.

Two very good grains are spelt and quinoa. Quinoa can be treated just like rice or better yet like fine cous-cous. Roasted quino has a peanut butter like taste. These are the exceptions to incomplete protiens.

Most importantly, if you see anything calling itself tofurkey RUN AWAY

That stuff has got to be the absolute worst stuff you could ever imagine putting into your mouth.

Vegtable samosas are great vegetarian fair, as are all vegtable tomallies. Vegtable stocks are the order of the day. Cream soups are only okay for ovo-lactos, otherwise you need to do a pure, which you can serve with a decanter of heavy cream for those that want it.

Another thing to ask is, what sugar source to they use. I have encountered vegitarians that will only use unpasturised honey (claiming that maple syrup is over processed), right up the ladder to sugar twin users.

I would also sugest asking your guests for dinner suggestions. Even if you don't do specifically those dishes, you will get a feel for what they are accutomed to. I would even sugest that you don't do a dish they might suggest or recomend. Nothing worse than eating the uncles interpretation of grannys cooking right?

Since this is your first foray into vegitarian cooking (sorry for that assumption) and it is for a holiday that is about the brotherhood of mankind, you could do a world dinner. Some Indian dishes, some south american dishes, some morrocan dishes, etc.

OH, and there are a lot of vegitarian things that people just don't immediatly think of as vegitarian. If dairy is on the table, eggplant parmasean is awsome, polenta and red sauce is also just plain awsome, home made gnocci without eggs (depending) is awsome, rice pilafs are awsome, you could do a nice stuffed pepper with rice/lentils/cornmeal.

Lots of options, really, but you must start by finding the parameters of your relatives definition of vegitarian.

[kuan]

I think stuffed pasta makes a nice presentation, three in a bowl with a nice velvety sauce of some kind.

I don't know what to call this, but it's from the 80's Patina menu. A layered potato and mushroom lasagna, with the potatos being the "pasta." Serve with Nage.

Hrm...

[Peachcreek]

Make the planked salmon even if you end up eating it all. Heres what I'm making my sweetie, the longtime vegetarian with with other quirky food dislikes, for Christmas Eve dinner. First, the rules:
1. No tomatoes, celery, cucumber, spinach. Anything else needs to be well cooked. Really well cooked, but not dried out. Will occasionally eat a lettuce salad as about the only raw vegetable.
2. No red meat, white meat, poultry, fish, or its parts. Except eggs if you use them in something. The most egg-like thing she eats is Creme Brulee. But omelets are out. She drinks milk and loves cheeses, so cheese is always a feature for almost every meal.
3. All grains, white sugar are all OK.
4. Not big on fruit, with only a few exceptions: berries and lemon.
5. No fake meat products.
So this is what I'm doing this year.
There will be 1 vegetarian, 7 adult carnivores.
Swiss chesse fondue with mushrooms, assorted breads,steamed broccoli, cauliflower,and carrots for dipping. Spicy lentil soup. Phyllo with an artichoke-olive-pesto filling. Cippolini dip, baba ganouj and fresh breads, mixed lettuce salad, chocolate something for dessert. For the rest of the carnivores we are bbqing up some chicken and salmon along with everything else. I'm sure some other desserts, side dishes and appetizers will be around for the people in the world like me that actually like apple pie or bbqed salmon . We are doing it buffet style this year. Good luck with your meal. Don't sweat it, it'll turn out fine.
Happy Holidays.