Vegetarian b'stilla?

Cafe Society
1

Yahoo! Going to our first Blossom
concert of the season tomorrow and have hallucinated an excuse to have a picnic featuring a Middle Eastern menu (the program is Mozart, who wrote The Abduction from the Seraglio, and Friday was Bastille Day, so we’re fixing Moroccan food.)

Anywhistle…I’m planning to make an appetizer that’s sort of like individual b’stillas, and I just found out that one of the people who’ll be there is a vegetarian. I can’t really just leave out the chicken because that’s the bulk of the filling. I guess I could increase the amount of almonds to compensate, but I’m wondering if there is something non-meat I could substitute for the chicken.

I’d thought about eggplant, but someone’s bringing an eggplant tagine.

Any suggestions???

2

Portabello mushrooms are kind of meaty but I don’t know if they would interfere too much with the other flavors.
How about squash or tofu?

3

I forgot to add well seasoned couscous. It would give you the neccessary bulk to replace the chicken.

4

Cheese, particularly some sort of fresh white cheese? Other roasted veggies that might go with almonds - tomatoes, maybe? Roasted peppers? (I’d roast them first, so you don’t get too much liquid and end up with soggy pastry.) At risk of carbo-overload, potatoes?