Ideas for vegetarian Easter dinner

Cafe Society
1

On Easter Sunday, we’re having my brother-in-law and his fiancee and my sister-in-law and her husband over for Easter dinner. I’m handling the meal. Growing up, Easter dinner meant ham, sweet potatoes, biscuits, and ambrosia, and despite being married to a vegetarian for three years and eating a largely vegetarian diet myself, I still have a hard time thinking of anything else as appropriate Easter food (okay, aside from chocolate bunnies and jelly beans). We’ve got three omnivores, one fish-eater, and two vegetarians coming to the table. I have a few ideas, but I’m open to any menu suggestions. Dessert will be coconut cake. A few things:

  1. Nobody is vegan. Bring on the butter, baby!

  2. I prefer to cook with fresh ingredients when at all possible.

  3. No fake meats, please. I’m a fan of tofu, but not when it’s masquerading as beef.

2

You can go with a more general spring theme-

A strawberry and goat cheese salad
Gazpacho
Pasta Primevera
Dilled potato salad
Some kind of yummy fresh green bean dish- maybe with almonds
Fresh baked bread

3

Oooh, that sounds tasty! What else do you put in the salad, even sven, and what kind of dressing would you use?

4

Dandelion salad is an Easter tradition in my family, and it can be made vegetarian (though it’s not as good as with bacon). Gather about a grocery bag full of greens, and wash them thoroughly. You might want to recruit help from any kids around, as this part is both fun and extremely time-consuming. Alternately, some grocery stores (especially natural-foods organic types) sell them pre-washed. To the greens, add 4 hardboiled eggs, 1 1/2 boiled potatoes, and 1 onion, all diced. For the dressing, you’ll want a pound of butter (this would be bacon, in the meat version), 4 oz appple cider vinegar, and 1/3 cup sugar. Melt the butter or fry the bacon, then stir in the vinegar and sugar (be careful of splatters). Pour the dressing still hot over the greens etc, just before you’re going to serve it. It won’t look like enough dressing, but if you stir it thoroughly, it will be. Serves about 6.

Since you’ll have about half omnivores, you might want to make two batches, one with bacon and one with butter. And out of season, the same recipe can be made with endive instead of dandelion (dandelion must be harvested before the blossoms appear, or it turns bitter).

Another family favorite for vegetarian meals (including special occasions like Easter) is pierogis (dough foldovers filled with mashed potatoes and cheese). You can buy them frozen, generally near the frozen potatoes. Boil them until they’re soft, then fry them golden-brown with onions in lots of butter.

5

Perogies takes me back. This year I am vegetarian, and will be having egg salad (since we will have lots of colored eggs), along with fruit, and more fruit.

6

You know, I don’t actually know. But I always see it in the deli and it looks delicious. Here are a couple of recipes that look about right.

http://www.saveonfoods.com/1/cookbook/recipe_cards/strawberry_salad.htm
http://picktnproducts.org/food/recipe/recipes_strawgoatcheese.html

7

My brother has been a vegetarian for as long as I have been alive and his favorite Easter treat is a Spinach and Feta Quiche. I too enjoy my fair share of this dish when Sunday rolls around. For the fish lovers, some grilled asparagus wrapped in salmon fillet can be quite delicious. You can prepare some, for the vegetarian guests, that are covered in cheese instead. Cheese makes everything delicious.

8

Stuffed Cabbage are an Eastern European Easter favorite.

Maybe a Rice or Kascha filling with mushrooms and aromatics in lieu of the meat. A simple fresh tomato sauce with some Paprika to slow simmer.

I once saw a kick ass Chinese Faux Vegetarian Goose Breast made with mushrooms and tofu skin. That might substitute a ham.

9

Sorry, the grain is Kasha, not Kascha.

10

Aside: Treat the Kasha like cous cous. Simply soak it in hot vegetable broth. Then simply mix in the butter sauteed aromatics and mushrooms. Roll into the parboiled cabbage leaves.

11

Thanks, y’all! These all sounds good…grilled asparagus and salmon, mmmm. Chronos, I’m not sure we have enough dandelions in the yard now to make that salad, but it sounds good (though better with the bacon grease, I agree). Perogies could be intriguing. I’m not really familiar with Eastern European food, like stuffed cabbage, but it could be fun to try. Frosted Glass, quiche was my first thought, but I thought I might try to branch out a little. Everyone coming like quiche, though, so it’s the fall-back plan.

12

Like I said, you can buy them frozen, which takes all the hard/time-consuming part out of making them. Boiling pierogis is no different than boiling pasta.

devilsknew, fresh tomato sauce sounds wonderful, but where would one get it this time of year? Even Florida and California don’t get tomatoes this early in the spring, do they?

13

Hoe 'bout serving veggies no one eats :smiley:
like parsnips, rutabaga and chicory? :eek:

14

Lasagna! A good lasagna doesn’t have to have meat, is generally loved by everyone, and is special-occasion food. You can load it up with cheeses and everyone will do the Holiday Happy Dance.