What vegan food can I cook to impress a non-vegan date?

Monkey61

Hello folks,

I'm almost four months into the veganness now and all is going very well. The only problem being my hatred of cooking for myself which has lead me to eating an awful lot of salads/sandwiches and that sort of thing.

So I am cooking dinner for a date this weekend and am trying to come up with something interesting and impressive that I can cook from scratch that isn't a nut roast (as I have already done those).

There's loads of recipes online but these can so often turn out to be horrible. Can anybody suggest anything tried and tested that will show I've put in a bit more effort than opening a jar? - and also something that will dazzle my meat eating date with the amazingness of vegan food!

Thanks in advance.

taram

If I cook veggie for friends I usually go for something straight forward and "normal" like a stir-fry (my favourite being mixed cider vinegar, soya sauce, tin of pineapple with juice, mix of all the crunchy veg in my fridge), a stew (stock cube, some random ingrediants, bake some potatoes with herbs?), fajitas are good, can have lots of different flavour combos sauces (bbq type flavours/very hot/mild warm flavours like cumin and tumeric/light flavours like lime juice soaked salad veg) so your date can pick and choose?

Maybe try find out what sort of food your date likes pick something from that sort of food, though I'm sure they'll be impressed by home-made tasty cooking minus the flesh

Good luck

sweet-rasmus

how about some roast veg? simple and tastey.

Dice some sweet potato, butternut squash, parsnip, red pepper, carrot and potato, all tossed in olive oil and roasted for 40 mins in a hot oven maybe even make some home made oven chips on the side very easy, very tastey.

Are you going to do a dessert for the date too? i'm sure it would go down well. cookies are very easy to make and plenty of recipes are available. or perhaps just pick up some vegan ice cream

Parnassia

What kind of food does your date like?

Fajitas or enchiladas are a great suggestion; if you use refried beans, avocado/guacamole and salsa you won't miss cheese or sour cream.

We made this chilli last week, it was delicious:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/whitechilli_91110.shtml

Served with cornbread, very good, even without the cheese

One of my favourites is this ale and mushroom pie:

http://www.vegsoc.org/nvw/2006/recipes/alepie.html

I use a shortcrust pastry (for bottom and top), and cook in a giant muffin tin for individual pies, it's bloody great. Have with mash or salad. Either use the chestnut mushrooms they suggest or a mixture of the 'gourmet mushrooms' you can get in a pack and add some button mushrooms to make up the weight required. I also add a teaspoon of dried porcini bits to up the 'mushroominess'.

Monkey61

Thanks for replies folks. That chilli looks great and the Fajita idea too. She says she will pretty much eat anything though so no problems there.

I'm going to make vegan ice cream from scratch for dessert - desserts are the one thing that I am good at! Perhaps some cookies aswell.