Spooky vegan food!
September 30, 2010 7:57 AM Subscribe
Please share some tasty vegan Halloween recipes!
I'm hosting my annual Halloween dinner party, which will probably be around 15 people this year, and for the first time one of my confirmed guests is vegan. I'm not, and have no experience cooking vegan. All of the dishes will be Halloween themed, though not necessarily gross (last year's main dish was 'goblin toes in blood sauce' - baked 5 cheese stuffed manicotti with whole mushrooms pushed in the bottoms in a homemade marinara sauce). There will be loads of food - side dishes, at least two main dishes, tons of desserts, et cetera - and I don't mind cooking things separately or making extra just for our new friend. I'm putting together the menu for this year, and would like some options for vegan dishes that would fit the theme, or tips and tricks for turning regular recipes into tasty vegan recipes. Ideally, I'll have at least one main dish and one side dish that our new guest can eat.
I'm dressing up as a mad scientist, so anything that sort of goes along with that gets bonus points. Thanks!
I'm hosting my annual Halloween dinner party, which will probably be around 15 people this year, and for the first time one of my confirmed guests is vegan. I'm not, and have no experience cooking vegan. All of the dishes will be Halloween themed, though not necessarily gross (last year's main dish was 'goblin toes in blood sauce' - baked 5 cheese stuffed manicotti with whole mushrooms pushed in the bottoms in a homemade marinara sauce). There will be loads of food - side dishes, at least two main dishes, tons of desserts, et cetera - and I don't mind cooking things separately or making extra just for our new friend. I'm putting together the menu for this year, and would like some options for vegan dishes that would fit the theme, or tips and tricks for turning regular recipes into tasty vegan recipes. Ideally, I'll have at least one main dish and one side dish that our new guest can eat.
I'm dressing up as a mad scientist, so anything that sort of goes along with that gets bonus points. Thanks!
How about...
spaghetti squash in vegan marinara sauce (entrails or witches' hair)
little balsamic onions - sometimes Whole Foods has these on the antipasto bar (peeled eyeballs)
a pot of vegan chili (swamp sludge)
posted by dywypi at 8:06 AM on September 30, 2010
spaghetti squash in vegan marinara sauce (entrails or witches' hair)
little balsamic onions - sometimes Whole Foods has these on the antipasto bar (peeled eyeballs)
a pot of vegan chili (swamp sludge)
posted by dywypi at 8:06 AM on September 30, 2010
Favorite simple Halloween dish:
Take whole, small pumpkins (hand sized) and cut them in half. Remove seeds. Put enough butter in them to coat the inside of each half. Bake at 350F until tender. Remove, let cool a little, and eat with a spoon.
If people like spicy, pumpkin curry is also really tasty.
posted by strixus at 8:10 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Take whole, small pumpkins (hand sized) and cut them in half. Remove seeds. Put enough butter in them to coat the inside of each half. Bake at 350F until tender. Remove, let cool a little, and eat with a spoon.
If people like spicy, pumpkin curry is also really tasty.
posted by strixus at 8:10 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
I thought of something else. Pesto is so gorgeously green that you could toss that in a heap of spaghetti (or the aforementioned spaghetti sauce) and make something very appropriately hideous and squirmy and delicious that way.
For strixus' pumpkin dish above, you'd want to use olive oil or some other vegan product instead of butter. But yes, yum. Especially with a dusting of cinnamon.
posted by dywypi at 8:14 AM on September 30, 2010 [2 favorites]
For strixus' pumpkin dish above, you'd want to use olive oil or some other vegan product instead of butter. But yes, yum. Especially with a dusting of cinnamon.
posted by dywypi at 8:14 AM on September 30, 2010 [2 favorites]
For a side dish, what about roasted beets/carrots/sweet potatoes/onions with, say, olive oil, garlic, salt and rosemary? It's not particularly spooky, but the colors are sufficiently Halloween-ey. White asparagus (or "skeletal fingers") might also work.
For the main course, you could do a super spicy (devilishly so?) black bean soup — I mix the marinade from Molly Katzen's jerk tofu, plus an extra hot pepper or two, into a pound of black beans (you can add carrots or other veggies if you're so inclined) and either bake it or just simmer it in a pot on the stove until it's thick.
posted by rebekah at 8:17 AM on September 30, 2010
For the main course, you could do a super spicy (devilishly so?) black bean soup — I mix the marinade from Molly Katzen's jerk tofu, plus an extra hot pepper or two, into a pound of black beans (you can add carrots or other veggies if you're so inclined) and either bake it or just simmer it in a pot on the stove until it's thick.
posted by rebekah at 8:17 AM on September 30, 2010
Roasted winter squash is a great vegan entree for fall, and would be enjoyed by non-vegans alike. Don't be afraid to go savory with your squash. Rub big cubes of squash with olive oil and smashed garlic, roast until tender but still firm. Then top with marinara or pomodoro sauce. Pass parmesan on the side along with garlic bread made with olive oil. This is something you can make ahead, and top with warm sauce when serving.
A vegetable soup is another thing that's commonly vegan. Adding beans, lentils or chickpeas would probably be appreciated for some extra protein. Again, something you can make ahead, and hold warm the stove for a long time.
One thing that surprised me when cooking for vegans: margarin isn't vegan. For whatever reason, it often has whey in it. Earth Balance is found easily in most grocery stores and it's vegan. Some vegans will also request use of vegan white sugar or raw sugar, as some commercial sugar whitening processes use animal bones to remove molasses. Also, check for gelatin, another sneaky non-vegetarian ingredient.
Also, this depends entirely on the individual, but I'd skip naming the vegan dishes anything related to dead animals (or mythical creatures). Maybe the soup is "lab sample #13"?
posted by fontophilic at 8:30 AM on September 30, 2010
A vegetable soup is another thing that's commonly vegan. Adding beans, lentils or chickpeas would probably be appreciated for some extra protein. Again, something you can make ahead, and hold warm the stove for a long time.
One thing that surprised me when cooking for vegans: margarin isn't vegan. For whatever reason, it often has whey in it. Earth Balance is found easily in most grocery stores and it's vegan. Some vegans will also request use of vegan white sugar or raw sugar, as some commercial sugar whitening processes use animal bones to remove molasses. Also, check for gelatin, another sneaky non-vegetarian ingredient.
Also, this depends entirely on the individual, but I'd skip naming the vegan dishes anything related to dead animals (or mythical creatures). Maybe the soup is "lab sample #13"?
posted by fontophilic at 8:30 AM on September 30, 2010
Best answer: Dexter's blood slides
Maybe some of the others can be veganified.
posted by K.P. at 9:57 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Maybe some of the others can be veganified.
posted by K.P. at 9:57 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Jamie Oliver's Hamilton Squash would be a good main course here.
posted by hazyjane at 10:00 AM on September 30, 2010
posted by hazyjane at 10:00 AM on September 30, 2010
Speaking of sneaky non-vegetarian ingredients:
Will there be beer?
Many beers are made using fish guts. Here is a list of allegedly vegan beers.
posted by AugieAugustus at 11:47 AM on September 30, 2010
Will there be beer?
Many beers are made using fish guts. Here is a list of allegedly vegan beers.
posted by AugieAugustus at 11:47 AM on September 30, 2010
Dreena's Festive Chickpea Tart, while not especially spooky, is a yummy autumnal dish I've served to vegans and omnivores alike.
posted by dmvs at 1:47 PM on September 30, 2010
posted by dmvs at 1:47 PM on September 30, 2010
As far as making something Halloween-y, it's all about the presentation! Make a batch of tasty hummus, pour into a hollowed out pumpkin, serve with crudites (you could even carve some into spooky shapes).
posted by Wavelet at 3:30 PM on September 30, 2010
posted by Wavelet at 3:30 PM on September 30, 2010
Just FYI - pesto is usually not vegan as it's made with Parmesan cheese.
I'm not a pumpkin fan, but one of my favorite dishes is roasted acorn squash, filled with walnuts, cranberries, brown sugar and Earth Balance and/or olive oil. You could make them look like little cauldrons.
There are lots of web resources for vegan recipes but I'd say look into vegan cupcake recipes for dessert. Everyone seems to love them. My girlfriend makes vegan cupcakes to die for and lots of people can't even tell that they are vegan.
posted by FlamingBore at 8:27 PM on September 30, 2010
I'm not a pumpkin fan, but one of my favorite dishes is roasted acorn squash, filled with walnuts, cranberries, brown sugar and Earth Balance and/or olive oil. You could make them look like little cauldrons.
There are lots of web resources for vegan recipes but I'd say look into vegan cupcake recipes for dessert. Everyone seems to love them. My girlfriend makes vegan cupcakes to die for and lots of people can't even tell that they are vegan.
posted by FlamingBore at 8:27 PM on September 30, 2010
Roasted acorn squash, stuffed with quinoa, sauteed leeks, sage, and walnuts.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:45 AM on October 2, 2010
posted by gingerbeer at 11:45 AM on October 2, 2010
Best answer: Not Halloween-specific, but some tips: I generally find that non-vegans cooking for a vegan audience do best when they use familiar recipes that are already vegan or familiar recipes that can easily be made vegan (this is most things). This is because many people get it in their head that "vegan food" is some kind of alien parallel to "real food," and turn out all manner of bland, weirdly-textured atrocities because they assume that's "what 'vegan food' is like." (It certainly need not be).
So many times, well-meaning hosts come out with, like, an unseasoned portobello mushroom cap stuffed with undercooked mashed chickpeas or some damn squash sprinkled with one or another trendy, exotic grain and little else. One is always grateful, of course, when a host goes out of his or her way to accommodate one, but I've spent time at more than one dinner party gnawing on a rubbery fiddlehead fern and trying to come up with an excuse to miss the next one.
Taste what you make. If you wouldn't want to eat it, there's a pretty good chance your guest won't, either. Think about seasoning, fats, protein, and salt. These things, generally, are what make eating a pleasant experience rather than a chore.
As for "veganizing" things—avoid anything that calls for hard or melted cheeses. Many "soy cheese" products contain crypto-dairy (casein, whey isolates, etc.) or gelatin, and the truly vegan ones are pretty horrible. Sour cream, mayonnaise, and things like ricotta can be replaced quite faithfully with tofu-based analogues. My preferred non-dairy milk for cooking is almond milk, with soy coming in second—soy milk can sometimes thicken things more than cow's milk would, wonking up the texture. Rice milk is fine to drink, but, being almost protein-less, doesn't swap into recipes well. Eggs can usually be replaced (wheat-gluten-based egg replacers or ground flax seeds if the eggs are binding something; applesauce or mashed bananas for cakes and whatnot), but something really eggy like a tofu quiche can be perilous, and I wouldn't risk it.
Different people feel differently about mass-produced meat analogues. The less processed the product, the safer a bet it's going to be, so tofu, seitan, and tempeh are almost always going to be okay (I would also include textured vegetable/soy protein, which is less dispiriting than it sounds), where some of the packaged mock-these-or-thats are best avoided. If you don't mind the time/ingredients outlay, these seitan sausages are damn fantastic.
Also, you should probably ask your guest what his or her position is on things like sugar, which is often whitened with bone char (in the States, even brown sugars are whitened first, then have molasses added back to them), even though no animal products remain in the food itself. I would say that most vegans just sort of throw up their hands around this point and try not to think about it while they eat their brownies, but others will sometimes object, meaning agave nectar or brown rice syrup or whatever would need to be used.
(Oh, and about naming? If your guest is gonna get all weird about something called a "bat-wing canapé" or "dragon toes" or whatever, at a Halloween party, they need to chill the fuck out, and you probably shouldn't invite them again next year).
posted by wreckingball at 2:22 PM on October 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
So many times, well-meaning hosts come out with, like, an unseasoned portobello mushroom cap stuffed with undercooked mashed chickpeas or some damn squash sprinkled with one or another trendy, exotic grain and little else. One is always grateful, of course, when a host goes out of his or her way to accommodate one, but I've spent time at more than one dinner party gnawing on a rubbery fiddlehead fern and trying to come up with an excuse to miss the next one.
Taste what you make. If you wouldn't want to eat it, there's a pretty good chance your guest won't, either. Think about seasoning, fats, protein, and salt. These things, generally, are what make eating a pleasant experience rather than a chore.
As for "veganizing" things—avoid anything that calls for hard or melted cheeses. Many "soy cheese" products contain crypto-dairy (casein, whey isolates, etc.) or gelatin, and the truly vegan ones are pretty horrible. Sour cream, mayonnaise, and things like ricotta can be replaced quite faithfully with tofu-based analogues. My preferred non-dairy milk for cooking is almond milk, with soy coming in second—soy milk can sometimes thicken things more than cow's milk would, wonking up the texture. Rice milk is fine to drink, but, being almost protein-less, doesn't swap into recipes well. Eggs can usually be replaced (wheat-gluten-based egg replacers or ground flax seeds if the eggs are binding something; applesauce or mashed bananas for cakes and whatnot), but something really eggy like a tofu quiche can be perilous, and I wouldn't risk it.
Different people feel differently about mass-produced meat analogues. The less processed the product, the safer a bet it's going to be, so tofu, seitan, and tempeh are almost always going to be okay (I would also include textured vegetable/soy protein, which is less dispiriting than it sounds), where some of the packaged mock-these-or-thats are best avoided. If you don't mind the time/ingredients outlay, these seitan sausages are damn fantastic.
Also, you should probably ask your guest what his or her position is on things like sugar, which is often whitened with bone char (in the States, even brown sugars are whitened first, then have molasses added back to them), even though no animal products remain in the food itself. I would say that most vegans just sort of throw up their hands around this point and try not to think about it while they eat their brownies, but others will sometimes object, meaning agave nectar or brown rice syrup or whatever would need to be used.
(Oh, and about naming? If your guest is gonna get all weird about something called a "bat-wing canapé" or "dragon toes" or whatever, at a Halloween party, they need to chill the fuck out, and you probably shouldn't invite them again next year).
posted by wreckingball at 2:22 PM on October 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Following up on wreckingball's excellent advice:
Daiya cheese is the best vegan cheese substitute I have ever tasted. I am not vegan and I would sooner die a thousand deaths than give up cheese, but Mrs. Augustus (who is vegan) has made entire pizzas with this stuff and I happily eat it. Some non-vegans may not even notice the difference, depending on the usage.
posted by AugieAugustus at 1:16 PM on October 4, 2010
Daiya cheese is the best vegan cheese substitute I have ever tasted. I am not vegan and I would sooner die a thousand deaths than give up cheese, but Mrs. Augustus (who is vegan) has made entire pizzas with this stuff and I happily eat it. Some non-vegans may not even notice the difference, depending on the usage.
posted by AugieAugustus at 1:16 PM on October 4, 2010
Response by poster: These are all fantastic suggestions! I love the sound of the tempeh wings, and I think I can just name the Hamilton Squash something wormy and it'll be perfect. The blood slides are too good to pass up, too. At this rate, the whole dinner just might be vegan, and that wouldn't be so bad either! Thanks to everyone for the great advice, recipes, and tips!
posted by lriG rorriM at 8:51 PM on October 5, 2010
posted by lriG rorriM at 8:51 PM on October 5, 2010
Response by poster: The party was a major success. The blood slides were a pain to make (literally - I cut my finger), but were a big hit. I had baked apples for sweets as well. There was a coconut curry stew (named specimen 23 in keeping with the theme), and chips and salsa served out of a sliced open baby doll. Thanks again to everyone for your help! I fall down go boom now...
posted by lriG rorriM at 8:51 PM on October 29, 2010
posted by lriG rorriM at 8:51 PM on October 29, 2010
Response by poster: Oh, I nearly forgot - I made mashed potatoes and put it into one of those brain molds, refrigerated it for a while so it would set, and then brushed it with a little olive oil and baked it. It stayed together remarkably well and was quite tasty. Just throwing that out there for future vegan halloween party planners.
posted by lriG rorriM at 8:53 PM on October 29, 2010
posted by lriG rorriM at 8:53 PM on October 29, 2010
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posted by AugieAugustus at 8:00 AM on September 30, 2010