Vegan Dinner Party

I had some relatives in town a few weeks ago so naturally I invited them over for dinner.  The night before, I called my cousin to see what everyone ate (or didn’t eat).  Today there are so many different kinds of diets (vegetarian, pescetarian, vegan, paleo) just to name a few.  I normally just cook whatever I decide or feel like making.  Something told me to ask and thank God I did!  He told me that his wife and daughter were vegan!  My immediate response was “Oh shit!”………….. he replied “what!?”………….. it was funny because I didn’t really mean to say that out loud.

In any event, as soon as we hung up the phone I went to Google and started my research.  No dairy, no meat, blah blah blah.  I could do this.  I am a cook after all and can make just about anything (I think).  No problem!

In my search for recipes, the very first one that came up was for a Creamy Vegan Garlic Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes.  Oh and by the way, the recipe was from Minimalist Baker who I just so happen to follow!  I read at least 50 reviews for this recipe since I had no time to test it out.  All of the reviews were fantastic so I planned my menu around this dish – which calls for whole wheat pasta that I keep stocked and cook all the time anyway.

I had a brunch to attend that Saturday and was making a whole beef tenderloin.  Since the tenderloin was way too big for the brunch, I cut a piece off to make for this dinner.  My cousin, his son and myself could have some meat!  I also made grilled Portobello mushrooms that I marinated in a little olive oil, fresh thyme, fresh minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce, roasted asparagus tossed with olive oil, fresh minced garlic and lemon zest and a beautiful salad with lots of fresh greens and vegetables.  I make all of my salad dressing from scratch so I had to think about what was in it (had some already made in the fridge).  Honey!  Comes from bees…………. no big deal.  Also, I almost always use Dijon mustard and checked out those ingredients.  I never would have guessed, but a lot of mustard is not vegan because it has sugar in it and some sugar is made using bone char.  What???  Okay, it would be easy to whip up a salad dressing at the last-minute using some olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice. The vegan diet is easy and definitely not a big deal.  It’s just that I wanted to make sure they had plenty to eat.

Needless to say, dinner was a huge success.  My only regret is that I didn’t take good pictures of all of the dishes.  Once I put the food out, everyone pretty much dug in.  I tend to serve a  lot of cocktails before dinner so by the time I usually put the food out, everyone is pretty famished!

After dinner we hung out listening to music, drinking and catching up.  It really was a lot of fun!  I remember going to get something out of the fridge and noticed these sesame noodles from Whole Foods.  At first I was a little confused.  When my cousin came into the kitchen she saw me holding the container of noodles and said “Oh, we brought those over just in case.  Usually there isn’t a lot of food for us to eat when we go to someone’s house for dinner.”  I must say, that made me feel so good!  The fact that we had so much food for everyone to eat (vegan and all) that we didn’t even have to touch the sesame noodles. I thought it was very sweet how they discretely put it in my fridge when I wasn’t looking!

I actually have some vegetarian and vegan cook books in my collection.  I remember showing my 16-year-old cousin Simone one that I really love.  It’s called Thug Kitchen…… eat like you give a fuck.  If you think the title is funny, you should get the book and check out the recipe descriptions!  I absolutely love this book!