Post Punk Kitchen Forum

For those who celebrate Easter (or any other spring holiday where there's a big meal involved), please inspire me with your menus. We have family coming and I am at a loss for what to make this year.

This is a good thread! I'm at a loss, too. Do the stores carry all the fancy seasonal roasts for Easter? You know, like the Trader Joe's Loaf and the Tofurkey and such?

I'm looking forward to Easter this year. My family usually gets together for a brunch. I have lots of ideas...
Some sort of tofu quiche... Leeks? Asparagus? Spinach?
Hot cross buns - my favorite thing about Easter!!
English muffins with various jams, nut butters
Grilled or sautéed asparagus
Smoothies
fruit salad

I'd say, if you're looking for ideas, just flip through vegan brunch! You can't go wrong.

I don't usually do a huge Easter meal, but I like to get at least a little festive when I can and my very very favorite Easter-y recipe is for these deviled egg replacements made with little potatoes: http://www.vegweb.com/recipes/my-husban ... ato-angels
They are SO good. I have made them many times for vegans and omnivores and everyone has always loved them.

Those potatoes are so cute.

I flipped through Vegan Eats World last night and I think I've narrowed down to either a Greek or Moroccan menu with either the Spinach Pie or Bistilla as the centerpiece. Both are very different from what my family usually has for Easter, so I figure no one will miss the meat. Still no idea what to do for dessert.

My family celebrates in the afternoon, but it's still sort of brunch-y food. If I were making it (as it is, I'm avoiding our family dinner), I'd make:

tofu quiche (asparagus and pepper or mushroom and spinach)
light salad (pea shoots in lemon dressing or some such)
fruit salad
poppy bread (makivnyk) or yeast waffles
sausages (or if not making poppy bread/waffles, sausages in puff pastry)

I would also pine for earth balance molded into a lamb shape for easter and hope that someone else would bring vegan challah along.

I think the bistilla is a great idea! I made it during testing and I thought it was the perfect centrepiece dish. If I celebrated Easter I would totally make it!

The rosewater cupcakes from VCTOTW are suitably exotic and festively pink! They've been a hit for me with omnis of all ages.

I'm thinking of an Alfredo sauce based lasagna with carrots, spinach, and zucchini in it. You know, spring veggies. I'll use the Alfredo sauce from Quick and Easy low Cal Vegan.

Maybe a spinach salad with radishes (I love the idea of seasonal veggies) and a few other things.

For dessert I'm thinking of lemon cupcakes. Lemon always reminds me if spring. I'd rather do strawberry but they aren't in season here until June.

Easter officially falls in Autumn here, although summer despite it's official end has hung on a bit longer. Who knows what weather we'll get on the day.

While I'm loving the spring foods ideas, I'm going to have to go with a different plan. I doubt my family will eat anything I make, anyway. They'll undoubtedly have roast beast, I can't make X because X doesn't eat X. Yet despite the fact I don't eat roast beast, they still continue to make it. The family argument, a long held holiday celebration tradition. :)

Autumn in America seems to equal massive amounts of pumpkin recipes, my sister doesn't eat pumpkin, I think I might make something special for myself with pumpkin. Or go with a whim and try dumplings from Vegan Eats World.

Last year I think I made a quiche from Vegan Brunch, stuffed mushrooms (app) and green bean casserole. This year I think I'm going to make one of these two creamy pasta/veggie recipes, not sure which one yet:

http://vegan.sheknows.com/2010/12/10/pa ... eam-sauce/
http://tofu-n-sproutz.blogspot.com/2011 ... s-and.html

In addition, I'm also going to make spinach-artichoke dip (app) and green bean casserole again (my family loves it, and they have it with their gross ham...)

For dessert, I like to make some kind of vegan carrot cake, but this year my mom is buying some cake from Veggie Galaxy (Boston) as a belated birthday celebration for me - YUM.

Pastitsio!

Do you have a favorite recipe, Amey? They are my mom's favorite and I would love to make some for her.

yeah, I do!
I blogged about it last year, and everyone wanted my recipe, so I put it up on my blog
http://veganeatsandtreats.blogspot.com/ ... -buns.html

or, here's the recipe:
Hot Cross Buns
makes 12
tweaked from a recipe of unknown origin!

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp dry yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
2/3 warm non-dairy milk (about 110 degrees F)
1/2 c warm water
1 c. all-purpose flour

3 c. flour (I use 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c sugar
3/4 c currants or raisins
1/3 c candied citron fruit

1 vegan "egg" (I used EnerG egg replacer: 1 1/2 tsp powder whisked with 2 Tbsp water)
1/2 c Earth Balance/soy margarine

Frosting:
Powdered sugar + Earth Balance + non-dairy milk

To Prepare:
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the yeast, sugar, warm non-dairy milk, warm water, and 1 c of flour. Mix it well, and then set it aside to proof, about 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar. Add in the currants and candied citron and whisk it another few times.

In a small bowl, stir together your Earth Balance and vegan egg substitute.

Add the EarthBalance+Egg Replacer mixture, and the yeast mixture to the big bowl with the flour and candied fruits. Combine it all, and then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.... adding more flour to the kneading surface as necessary.

Rinse out your big mixing bowl, clean it and dry it. Gently oil the inside of the bowl, and then place the dough in the bowl. Cover with saran wrap or a moist dishtowel, and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour, or until about doubled in size.

After the first rise, punch down the dough. Separate the dough into quarters, and then separate each quarter into thirds, for a total of 12 buns-to-be. Shape your blobs into nice little balls, and then set them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a silpat). Cover with saran wrap or a lightly damp dishtowel, and set aside in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

While they are rising for the second time, preheat your oven to 425F. Once the buns have risen for a second time, take a SHARP knife and gently slice an "X" on the top of each bun. Then bake the buns for 15-20 minutes, until golden.

Remove from oven, and transfer to a cooling rack. Once they are more or less cool, you can make your frosting. If you rush it and put the frosting on right away, it will just melt off and make a mess. So, have a little patience, please! I don't have an exact recipe for the frosting - I just pour some powdered sugar into a cereal bowl, add in a Tbsp or so of Earth Balance, then a tiny little bit of soymilk or almond milk. I start stirring and if it's too liquidy, I add more powdered sugar and more EB. If it's too thick and dry, I carefully add another tiny little bit of milk... until I get the texture I want. You can use fresh lemon juice or orange juice for some/all of the liquid for a nice citrus-y zip. Put the frosting in a zip lock bag and zip it shut. Cut a hole in one corner of the zip lock bag, about the size of a pencil eraser. Squeeze the frosting into the "x"-shaped crevasses on each bun.

Awesome, thanks a bunch!

Bryanna Clark Grogan has got a lot of great recipes on her blog here: http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/p/vegan-easter-season-recipes-and-dinner.html

I've been contemplating the asparagus quiche in Vcon. It could be the first quiche I will ever like.

I just saw Tofurkey roasts at my local co-op yesterday.

i am making a pizza shaped like an egg and 'decorated' fancy like! or as fancy as i can get!

That's a fun idea :)

For some reason i always think Greek food for Easter. I decided to use Vegan Eat World because i've only made a few recipes from it so far. I am still playing around with the menu but so far i plan on making:

-Greek creamy lemon rice soup
-Pastitchio Vegani
-lemon garlic potatoes
-Greek village salad with cashew faux feta
-walnut spice sticky cake
-plus some icecream to go with the cake. I will probably just make vanilla unless i think of something better

I am pretty excited cos my mom put me in charge of Easter dinner this year.

I will definitely make Hot Cross Buns.
But what about easter sweets? Here everyone gets large choco eggs for their kids. in the past i took a vegan chocolatemaking class (before that saintly woman moved to germany) and we made them, then we haven't. Any good sweets/sugar bombs for kids at easter that anyone recommends?

To me Easter is the perfect time for asparagus!
If I were cooking, I'd make the asparagus-spinach dip from Vcon, an asparagus, lemon, and pine nuts risotto, and a quiche. Dessert would be fresh strawberries, maybe dipped in chocolate.