Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I searched and saw a lot of threads about dinner party menus, but they all seemed to be specific to a certain person's party. There wasn't any like the holiday threads where everyone posts their menus. So I thought it would be cool to have a lot of dinner party menu ideas all in one place.

Please post yours if you're having one, or if you had one in the past that was really memorable, or are planning one for the future. Tips on how to prepare a great party would be nice too.

I'm having one tomorrow so that's why I'm thinking about it. Technically, it is a lunch party, but I was going to make the same thing for dinner. It is just that my friends live a couple hours away so they wanted to come at 12:30pm & not get back home too late.

This is what I'm planning on making, all tomorrow morning. Ugh! Hope I can finish it all! I usually do more prep ahead of time but didn't get a chance today.

The menu is kid friendly because it will include my toddler and two pre-teens. It's totally simple, nothing fancy, because I'm short on time.

Appetizers:
~Fresh salsa (w/ a combo of home grown & farm market ingredients)
~Guacamole (homemade)
~Chips

Meal:
~Vcon black bean burgers w/ roasted italian peppers from my garden
~Potato Salad (Steamed chunked idahoes + soy-free vegenaise + diced carrots + peas + celery salt+ cider vinegar)
~Vcon Quinoa Salad with Black Beans & Mango
-Pickles

Dessert:
~Chocolate & Vanilla Coconut ice cream (store bought) in wafer cones w/ homemade chocolate magic shell
Here's the magic shell recipe. I haven't made it before. I'm so excited. I remember loving the store-bought stuff when I was younger! My excuse now is making it for the kids haha.

we just had my son's birthday party, where the guests were a mix of vegan, vegetarian, GF and omni. We did have two non-vegan foods (not listed) but the rest was all vegan:
- vegie platter
- corn chips, crackers
- sweet potato hummus (from Choosing Raw blog)
- regular chickpea hummus
- Indian spiced eggplant dip (from Vegan Indian Cooking)
- plain peanut butter sandwiches (no allergies present) cut in semi circles (using a scone cutter initially)
- plain salted popcorn
- raw lemon bites (from City Life Eats blog, I rolled mine in to balls)
- edamame falafelly burgers (from best Vegie Burgers-- serve with something liquidy!) with a cream cheese-roasted red pepper-steamed broccoli serving sauce
- plate of store bought salsa with sour cream piped over the top
- fruit platter
- cashew cream
- birthday cake
- fairy bread (don't know if this is an Australian name only, it's where you have plain buttered bread pressed in to a plate of coloured sprinkles. The only vegan gluten free sprinkles I could find were plain blue in colour) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_bread

The kids party bags had some loot inside and the treats were isa's Choc Chip Cookies and the Citrus Glitters from her Vegan Cookies I.Y.C.J. book.

The food was both for kids and adults.

Does a tapas party count if we ate them for dinner?

My mother-in-law's birthday was a few weeks ago. We had:

Cold apps:
Truffled white bean hummus (from Party Vegan) w/crackers, french bread, and veggies
Banana, strawberry, and apple skewers with peanut butter marshmallow dipping sauce (modded this recipe replacing the cool whip with marshmallow fluff)
Green bean and pinenut salad (Vegan Yum Yum)

Hot apps:
White bean, spinach, walnut, & fig phyllo cigars (Party Vegan)
Italian sausage and daiya stuffed 'shrooms (Vegan Cooking for Carnivores)
Roasted cauliflower and garlic with a lemon tahini sauce (sauce from Veganomicon)
Chickpea Artichoke Bites w/Rosemary Aioli (Party Vegan)

Drink:
White sangria (here)

Dessert:
Margarita Cupcakes (VCTOTW)

Oh, oops, my lemon tahini sauce was from VWAV, not Vcon.

I'm making a nice dinner tonight night for some omni friends. I know part of my menu but can you all help me plan the rest?

App--Some kind of crostini? Any ideas?
Entree--Pesto Risotto w/ Zucchini (Isa's recipe)
Side Dish--I'm open to ideas! Something to contrast the risotto?
Dessert--I was thinking Vcon Lemon Vanilla Pound Cake w/ Peaches since I just bought gorgeous Colorado peaches at the farmer's market yesterday. But i'm open to suggestions!

Help me round out my menu!

Maybe crostini with some kind of white bean dip or hummus? Or a walnut-lentil pate? That would add some nummy protein.

Since your main dish is so green, maybe a non-green veggie side? Like roasted cauliflower? Or, if you're feeding adventurous people, I think the Vcon italian tofu would be an awesome complement to that risotto.

Yes, I just recommended two things off my own menu. I'm like that.

I used to have dinner parties all the time. This is fun! For a while I was working on an entertaining cookbook so I meticulously recorded all of my menus, took notes on what worked & what didn't, & linked the files within my Word document to the corresponding recipes I have saved.

Comfort Food
Mac & Cheese
Collards with Smoked Tempeh
Chili
Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Thai
Spring Rolls with Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce
Rolled Salads (romaine, julienned carrots, cucumber, red bell pepper, tied with blanched scallions) with Peanut Sauce
Pad Thai
Coconut Cupcakes

Junk Food Party
Tot-chos
Nachos (taco crumble-style tofu, tempeh bacon, Daiya, scallions, cilantro)
Spinach Stromboli with Homemade Marinara
Seitan Buffalo Wings with Homemade Bleu Cheese
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Banh Mi Bowling Night
Banh Mi with Lemongrass Tofu & Homemade Scallion Aioli (Colin’s veganaise recipe + 1 tsp garlic powder & 3 thinly sliced scallions & ½ tsp vegan fish sauce)
Green Salad (green leaf & romaine, mung bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions, pickled daikon & carrots) with Peanut Sauce

Taco Tuesday
Tofu Tacos (crumbled tofu + standard taco seasoning + ketchup + soy sauce + liquid smoke + scallions + nutritional yeast)
Garden Salad (leftover from work)
Salsa Fresca (scallion variation on standard recipe)

Cookout
Pasta Salad (Mom’s recipe, veganized & simplified)
Provencal Lentil Burgers (new recipe, came out really well, will be experimenting with adding more veggies in the future)
Green Salad (leftover from work)

Italian
Spaghetti with Marinara (homemade sauce)
Vegan Meatballs (needs a meatier, denser texture)
Garlicky Spinach (I make this all the time)

Breakfast for Dinner
Classic Homefries
Itailan Scramble (onion, tofu, garlic powder, basil, dash of oregano, mustard powder, paprika, nutritional yeast, black olives, broccoli, roasted red pepper)
Coconut Bacon

Bacon on nachos? You are a genius.

Ooh everyone's menus sound delicious.

Here's a tip: don't stay up late the night before drinking too much and posting about how much you have to cook the next day! The stretch from 7am - noon was grueling this morning!!

At least I got everything done. Not my best party, but everyone seemed happy so it turned out ok.

I ended up serving the Pesto Risotto w/ Zucchini, Toasted Baguette Slices with Cashew Ricotta and Roasted Red Peppers, a simple side dish of sautéed Kale with Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes, and fresh peaches for dessert. So yummy!

Sounds awesome, Victoire! I'm sure the party was great, Aubade. We are so much harder on ourselves than our guests are.

I just had a total of 6 people for dinner on Saturday Night. We had all attended a tomato battle that day (google it, its awesome) and I knew we would be dirty and need to change. And I would be WAY to tired to cook most of the food, so almost all of it was done beforehand. Also, most of these people are scared of 'vegan' food, so this was very omni-friendly (even though I thought it was a little boring myself haha)


Apps: None (i forgot, but next time would do walnut mushroom pate and a cashew cucumber dip with pita and veggies - both easy make-aheads from VCON)

Main

Ceasar Salad with Tomatoes from the garden. AFR dressing (all made ahead)
Rosemary Foccica bread with carmelized onions (Made that morning)
Spinach Cauliflower Lasagna from AFR (made the night before)
Seared lemon-garlic Green Beans

Dessert

Frozen Banana Bites (basically bananas dipped in melted chocolate and peanut butter-made night before)


It was not the most elaborate dinner, or fancy, but everyone seemed happy. We were all half delirous from the battle and wine so that helped too. I usually do more though, especially desert and apps.

My parents have their 30 year wedding anniversary next weekend and they are spending the day with me and my partner.

Since they contributed to the vitamix I got as a birthday present earlier this year, I thought it would be fun (and easy for me) to do a vitamix themed dinner.

Starter: raw avocado soup (maybe with carrots, maybe with cucumbers, I haven't decided yet)

Main: Miyoko's cashew gruyere fondue. I'll serve it with crusty bread, baked potato, simmered seitan and seitan sausage, roasted mushrooms and onions, yellow beet cubes, cherry tomatoes and olives. We'll sit around the big pot dipping and talking.

Dessert: raspberry sorbet (dump raspberries, milk and sweetener into machine, BZZZZ and sorbet it ready)

Maybe I can selfishly use this thread to have PPKers help me plan the meal for my wedding? :) We have about 35 people attending, and I will be (with the help of jdfunks and possibly katiejayne) making all the food. It's in March, so there is not a lot of produce available. I was thinking tapas-ish, but with warming foods as well. I can't decide on a theme! Random things I've been mulling over: South Indian, seitan wings/bar food veganized, veganized Easter dinner (the wedding is on the Easter weekend), some faux cheeses, I want to start with a soup, and ugh, I dunno! I will have a chocolatier making cider chocolate truffles in lieu of a cake, so at least that is figured out. Fancy mushrooms must be used in some capacity (for me) and potatoes (for my husband-to-be).

Do any of you have the artisan cheese cookbook? The new one? Those seem kind of time consuming, but I think they can be made ahead, and that would be really impressive to have out for the wedding!

I like an Indian theme, personally. Or Mediterranean . If you decide to do cheeses, maybe Mediterranean would be the way to go, and you could keep it tapas-ish. For the warming food, you could do some pastas (Italian-Mediterranean). They keep pretty well, and again, you could do some make ahead items; the sauces, lasagnas or ziti maybe. Indian also has good tapas type stuff (like samosas!) and then curries and whatnot are pretty easy to make and keep in a chafing dish. I think Mediterranean might be easier though

I always try to think of make-ahead stuff for big parties...or a wedding where YOU are doing the cooking!

And...congrats on getting married! :)

Have fun preparing for your celebration, vijita! For me, my wedding was about bringing all the people I loved together and having one kick-ass party. That included lots of delicious food and adult beverages. My family, friends, partner and I pre-prepared all the food for our wedding. However, the day of the wedding we had a had a chef (friend) running the kitchen, and servers (friends also) circulating with a 7 or 8 different appetizers-- no theme really, just lots of yummy apps--before dinner. We also had an olive/cheese/cracker table (I was vegetarian and not-yet-vegan when I was married).

The servers also served a pre-dinner salad once our guests had sat down, but then we had lasagna buffet (with multiple recipes) for the main meal. Oh, and of course a separate dessert table loaded down because since it was my wedding, I wanted lots and lots and lots of desserts.

For me, I wanted to prove that veg food was delicious, but also have many of my favorite foods making an appearance. Looking back I wouldn't change a thing, (besides making all the food vegan).

I'm having a hotpot party this weekend! Here's the menu...

Appetizer:
Vegetable gyoza with a soy-sesame-vinegar dipping sauce

Hotpot:
Mushroom-kelp broth
Carrots
Mushrooms (enoki, beech, and shittake)
Corn on the cob
Tofu
Tofu skin
Watercress
Turnip
Noodles

Dipping sauce:
A blend of 1/2 soy sauce and 1/2 vegan fish sauce
Chopped thai chilies, minced garlic, and scallions for people to add in

Dessert:
Coconut-red bean ice cream
Orange slices

DreamerSpirit where do you get your vegan fish sauce? Is it commercial, or do you make your own?

I'm curious too. I usually use vegan oyster sauce in place of fish sauce, but I have to order it from food fight....

My favorite cousin is coming over for dinner on Sunday. Her dad has a small dairy farm where we spent lots of time playing with the calves when we were kids (I now realize the poor things never got to see their moms were probably dead almost as soon as they left us), so I'm not sure how she feels about us being vegan. She said she'd rather come over to our house than invite me to her place because she wouldn't know what to make me. I want to blow her socks off with some awesome food.

For a starter I think I'll make a French style caramelized onion soup with some bread and a cashew cream cheese type of spread.

The main will be eggplant rollatini from V'con.

Desert will either be a baked chocolate pudding I've been experimenting with, or nut and date stuffed baked apples with some store-bought vegan vanilla pudding.

I made the Pastitsio from Vegan Eats World recently, and I think it would be spectacular for a dinner party. I am having some omni guests over for dinner next month, and they happen to be a bit scared of vegan food, and both my omni partner and I agree that it would be pretty excellent for this occasion. Also, I can make it ahead earlier in the day! bonus.

Here is what I am thinking:

Appetizers/Starters:
Walnut Mushroom Pate (perhaps on puff pastry squares)
Sausage Rolls (my guests are british!)

Dinner:
Pastitsio - main dish
Lemon Seared Green Beans
Romaine Salad with 'Ceasar' dressing
Rosemary and shallot Focaccia

Wine:
Medium bodied smooth red (tempernillo/cab blend)
Beer:
Choice of pilsner/lager or white belgium

Dessert:
Sticky Walnut Spice cake
Masticated berries (whatever looks good in the store. Strawberries, blackberries etc)
White Port