Business: Cooking for Vegans

One of the more difficult things when cooking for a group of people is that in general, you're going to have differing palettes sitting around the table. This is part of my rationale for being extremely suspicious of any sort of eating fad, such as that ridiculous thing the "Atkins Diet" that so many women were following just a few short years ago: people seem to buy into them and become difficult. Whenever I'm asked to cook a meal for a dinner party, it's always a good idea to find out as much as possible about the guests: age, sex, dietary requirements, absolute pet hates in terms of food. That way you can plan a menu to suit everyone. There's nothing more awkward than having a vegetarian feeling left-out because the cook couldn't be more imaginative than the dreaded 'vegetable lasagna': so when I have the information I require, I liaise with the organizer and decide if we need a special menu for someone, or if everyone can eat the same fare. I always prefer the latter option - it's much more warm, cosy and inclusive.

On New Year's Eve I was asked to cook for a group of eight friends in Oregon. Nothing too fancy, a simple two course meal that they could sit around and munch on whilst seeing in 2009. I asked the usual questions and unearthed a woman, 27 years old, vegan, non-drinker. A few phone calls later and I was charged with making a vegan meal that everyone would enjoy. I used to be of the opinion that carnivores will never feel truly satisfied without meat (ridiculous) until I ate at David Bann, a vegetarian restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland. The food was so wonderful, so satisfying that I didn't once think of having a kebab on the way home. I remembered that there were some serious use of root vegetables, and pulses. You felt full. You felt fed.

So I tried to recreate something similar and after some recipe searches came up with a simple two course meal, and the recipes (that were well received) are below. If anyone out there has more experience of feeding vegans, please e-mail me. I need to build up a good database of options! These recipes are inspired by, recipes from Moro, a great restaurant in London, England.

Roast Butternut Squash Steaks with a warm Chick Pea Salad, Stuffed Bell Pepper and Tahini Dressing
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 medium size butternut squash, sliced into chunks lengthways and de-seeded
1 dessert spoon all-spice
A handful of sage leaves, shallow fried, to garnish

1 tin of Chick Peas (Garbanzo Beans), drained
1 small red onion, finely diced
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted
A handful of coriander (cilantro)

2 Red Bell Peppers, halved and de-seeded
2 oven-roasted Tomatoes, quartered (you'll need to make these in advance)
1 head fennel, sliced thinly

For the dressing:
3 parts Tahini
2 parts Olive Oil
2 parts Water
3 parts Lemon Juice
1 clove Garlic, crushed
Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

Method:
1. First make the dressing. Put all the ingredients into a blender and whizz until smooth. Add more water if required, the consistency should be quite liquid. Taste and season, set aside.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees centigrade.
3. Place your chunks of squash into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, all spice and some sea salt. Toss until well covered. Place on a baking tray. Bake for 30 mins or until tender and brown. Set aside in a warming oven.
4. While the squash is cooking start the peppers. Place them in the oven with the squash until they start to soften. Now stuff with the tomatoes and top with a layer of fennel. Bake until almost collapsing. Remove and set aside in a warming oven.
5. While that is all happening, make your chick pea salad. Simply toss the chick peas, diced onion, cumin and coriander with a little of the tahini dressing.
6. Assemble as follows: a few (three) slices of squash, pepper to the side with chick peas to the side also. Drizzle more dressing across squash and salad, garnish with shallow fried sage leaves and coriander.

Medjool Date and Orange Salad with Cinnamon and Mint
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 Oranges, segmented
8 Medjool Dates, stoned and roughly chopped
1 dessert spoon icing sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
A handful of Mint, roughly chopped

Method:
1. Easy: just mix everything in a bowl and serve. But do taste and correct the amount of sugar or cinnamon.