{summer wedding} Vegan Party Food

My son is getting married in a month and, since our caterer is a barbecued chicken joint, I am charged with making one or two supplemental dishes for the vegans to eat.

The Wedding Invitation

I am perfectly comfortable with vegetarian food since I am a semi-vegetarian, that is, a social meat eater, but I tend to rely on eggs, milk and butter for much of my meat-free cooking. So my kitchen has turned into a test kitchen, with two or three possibilities floated per weekend. I think I have two winners. The criteria are as follows:

1. Must be made the day ahead.
2. Must be served at room temperature.
3. Must taste good.
4. Must be relatively easy to make since I will be really busy.
5. Must not be a disgusting vegan loaf or contain ingredients that are “meat replacements.” Absolutely no tofurky.

I have scoured my vegan and vegetarian cookbooks and the web and in the end have relied, as ever, on variations of Mark Bittman recipes. These recipes are tweaked from “The Food Matters Cook Book” to conform to my personal preferences. I did allow celery into one of the recipes, but banned it from the other one since two celery dishes are more than I can bear. I also made them spicier because I dislike bland food. I like the contrast in flavors between the lemon of the tabbouleh and the sesame oil of the tofu dish. For both recipes, you can substitute other vegetables freely – it is summer, after all, explore your garden! -but the radishes provide nice crunch in these dishes.  Don’t forget the crunch if you swap vegetables.

So here are the two contenders. Feel free to send me suggestions! I still have time!

Colorful and lemon-y tabbouleh

{RECIPE} QUINOA TABBOULEH

Ingredients:

• ½ cup quinoa, rinsed
• salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• ½ cup fresh lemon juice
• pepper
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1 cup chopped mint
• ¾ cup cooked or canned pink beans (rinsed and drained if canned)
• 7 chopped radishes
• ½ cup chopped green onions
• 2 chopped ripe tomatoes
• ¼ cup pitted and chopped black olives
• ¾ cup roughly chopped almonds or other nuts

Method:

Place quinoa in small saucepan, add ¾ cup water and a pinch of salt. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Place into a bowl and toss with olive oil, lemon juice and a liberal dose of pepper.

Hand chop, rather than food process, the vegetables so that the chunks maintain integrity and don’t just turn into grated mush.

Just before serving add the rest of the ingredients to the quinoa and toss gently. Add more lemon juice, oil, salt or pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature

No-cook tofu salad

{RECIPE} MARINATED TOFU SALAD

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of pressed extra firm tofu
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 teaspoons minced fresh Serrano (hotter) or Jalapeno (milder) chile
• ½ cup sesame oil
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• grated fresh ginger to taste (optional)
• 2 grated celery stalks
• 1 de-seeded and grated cucumber
• 1 grated daikon radish
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced and cut into two inch segments
• sesame seeds

Method

Cut the tofu cake into half lengthwise and wrap each half in a clean tea towel. Place on a flat plate, top with a plate and weigh down with a heavy object like a big cast iron pan or a brick or two. Let it sit for half an hour or longer.

 

An improvised tofu press

 

Remove the seeds and membranes from the chile peppers before mincing.

Mix the soy sauce, chiles, sesame oil and rice vinegar together in a large bowl. Add some finely grated ginger if you want extra flavor.

Cut the tofu into matchsticks around 2 inches long. Gently toss into the marinade.

Add the vegetables, toss together and marinate in the refrigerator for two hours. Toss again before serving and sprinkle with sesame seeds.