We need to bring something for a St. Patrick’s Day themed pot luck, and at least one attendee is vegetarian; if anyone has any suggestions for anything appetizer-y (it’s not a full-meal, just desserts / snacks), I’d be grateful for the assistance!
Potatoes and beer?
3 potatoes, diced
water for boiling
3 leeks
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp margarine
1/2 cup vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
Boil the potatoes in water until cooked, about 15 minutes. Drain well.
In a large skillet, sautee the leeks and mushrooms in the margarine until soft, about 6-8 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and the potatoes and cook for a few more minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Oh, yeah. There’s also colcannon. Basically mashed potatoes with chopped kale in it.
How many non-vegetarian-friendly desserts do you generally make? As long as you skip the gelatin (and the beef suet, which is probably quite a sacrifice for most of us :D), you ought to be fine. Vegans are obviously more difficult to bake for.
Throwing ‘Irish appetizer’ at epicurious.com gives Cheddar and Stout Fondue. I have no idea how authentic it is, but it sounds tasty.
Also soda bread! (Tried to edit, got too elaborate, and went past the edit window.) Homemade soda bread with butter is great!
On the dessert front - I have no idea what’s authentic, but for the average American, Guinness cakes (eg this chocolate version, or anything flavored with Bailey’s (eg cheesecake) is pretty ‘Irish.’
Came in here to suggest that, mostly because I don’t like potatoes colcannon. 
Potato pancakes!
I was going to suggest soda bread, too. To be clear, are you guys talking about the moist brown soda bread, or the stuff that’s like a thick scone? The brown bread is absolutely wonderful: I went for about two weeks where it was at least half of what I was eating each day, and didn’t get at all tired of it.
And while we’re at it, if anyone has a good recipe for Irish brown bread, I’d like to know. I have one from one of the B&Bs we stayed at, but I think some of the units got mangled in translation: It turned out inedible.
Boxty I roll them out and cut them with a biscuit cutter. You can serve them with a sour cream and chives for dipping.
Oooh - thanks for all the suggestions!
Beer is right out, unfortunately (pesky Boy Scout rules about no drinkin’ at Scout events, grumble). Soda bread might be a perfect answer, in either form (the brown or the scone-like). A friend of mine has a recipe for soda bread that she swears by.
Locht-citre (spelling is surely wrong there) is extra yummy on bread, if your vegetarian eats dairy products? It’s very simple, you just need a mild sour cream and a jar of lemon curd. just mix them together into a thick paste - a little on the creamy side.
Look into Aine McAteer’s recipes (books available, or on Oprah’s website.) Vegetarian_Shepherd’s_Pie I used to do a simpler veggie shepherd’s pie and just used thinly sliced portabello’s in place of the meat. I usually marinated them in red wine and garlic for a day before hand, then cooked them a bit seperately to keep the filling from getting too runny. Cooking down the resulting liquid with a ton of fresh herbs and onion made the gravy.
If you are really looking to go to some trouble you could use the liquid to bake some sliced rutabaga, then blend the whole thing into a thick creamy base for the carrots and peas (and a touch of parsnip!). That’s a lot of work (ever sliced a rutabaga? Try it before your commit on the eve of a party!) but the result is heavenly.
You can make individual pies using mini cupcake tins and lining each with cabbage leaves, then just build your layers inside the cup. Or cheat and put your filling in puff pastry shells. . . make enough for everybody because these will be popular.
Don’t forget Potato Bread…
Whiskey and lettuce.