vegetarian option for wedding

eoglyn

Hi Everybody,

I'm a guest at a wedding soon and the bride has asked me to provide suggestions for the hotel for the vegetarian option.

The initial veggie option that the hotel proposed was a baked avocado in filo pastry, which i thought sounded nice but at the tasting, the bride and groom both thought it was inedible - to be fair it can be hard to get good avocados at the best of times, and i can't imagine the hotel going too far to get ones that are at the perfect ripeness. I saw a picture of it, and it didn't look well executed.

Having a good veggie option is important to the bride, both for me and for the 2 or 3 other veggies that she knows. And after the tasting the hotel asked her for suggestions, which put it back on the bride, but its important to her also that this is on the menu - and not a silent option like the hotel normally do.

So here's the thing, after years of silent complaining about wedding food for veggies and bad experiences, including getting a crappy veggie stir fry served as everyone else tucked into dessert, i'm finding it hard to come up with constructive suggestions.

I can tell you what i don't like or think are appropriate for a wedding, i'm trying to figure out if these are just me please tell me if i'm being unreasonable on any of these:

- Mushroom rissotto - Bleugh!!! - its not like i don't like nice mushrooms, i do, but i detest the flavour and consistency of the ubiquitous button mushroom that is generally used for the base of all of these things - its also why i will never touch mushroom soup - brothy soups with nice mushrooms are good - but rarely found.

- pasta or pasta bake of almost any kind - again i like pasta - its a big part of my diet, have it at least once a week - but the tomatoey or (vile) creamy pasta that you can for weddings are not exactly celebration food. Also dislike when a pasta bake is too cheesy, which they tend to be.

- veggie stirfry or curry - again anything that you can and do whip up after coming home late on a tuesday evening shouldn't be considered a wedding feast


So i'm not expecting cafe paradiso standard here, it has to be simple enough so the hotel can't mess it up. The best i can think of, that is simple and winter wedding appropriate is a butternut squash risotto - i've had it before at a winter wedding and its the only time i can say i enjoyed the main course. Something with goats cheese and caramelised onions would be nice - but i think that's more of a starter - maybe as part of a filo pastry.

Any and all suggestions welcome.

tl:dr - looking for suggestions for a foolproof, christmas wedding appropriate main course

New Home

Form some parcels with some crêpes filled with long leaf red radicchio* -NOT the round variety which is more bitter- which has been cooked with shallots/red onions, a splash of decent balsamic vinegar and a smidgin of acacia honey if the taste is too sharp, and when it's cooked add a touch of vegetarian cream cheese -not ricotta, something creamier, with the consistency of very fresh stracchino**, which I know can be hard to find and which is much smoother to the palate than Philadelphia but not as rich as mascarpone** - maybe a splash of cream would do. Add some semi-liquid white sauce and vegetarian parmesan on top, and grill until crunchy and golden brown on top. Yum.

**I don't know if a version of these with vegetarian rennet can be found in Ireland, maybe Sheridan's might be able to point you in the right direction.

*This kind of thing or this kind of thing.

It's a winter vegetable, so it shouldn't be too hard to find suppliers - it's not the cheapest, but it's worth getting a good quality one.

Yum.

A similar filling can be used on a savoury tart.

Zombienosh

Have a look at sova https://m.facebook.com/SovaFoodVegetarianButcher/

For some ideas, his presentation for dishes is great.

flikflak

For my wedding main course we had polenta (baked in the oven so it formed a kind of brick shape) with a tomato and bean sauce. It was lovely.

This was in addition to the other 3 courses as we got married in Italy.

There was also a pasta dish with artichokes and a smoked pepper risotto.

This has been discussed a few times so maybe do a search too.

New Home

Gnocchi are also a great option, they can be made in a million different ways, and are always delicious.

PhoenixParker

These were the options my hotel gave me for the vegetarian mains:

• Cauliflower, Broccoli, Parsnip & Cheese Sauce Gnocchi
  
• Goats Cheese, Forest Mushroom & Spinach Wellington (mange tout, green beans & asparagus spears with butternut sauce)
  
• Roasted Root Vegetable Risotto (with pesto dressing)
  
• Spinach & Ricotta Cheese Tortellini (with sun blush tomato, spinach & oyster mushroom)

seamus

Hah, we became the official veggie selectors for a wedding we're going to this weekend. There were some of the traditional ones there - mushroom risotto, salad etc. I do like a mushroom risotto, but I know what that tastes like, it's practically the go-to option for weddings.

In the end we picked a roast vegetable stack, on a portobello mushroom with goat's cheese. It's not very original, but it is relatively rare and delicious when done properly.
Plus, it's the kind of main where you get included on the sides. I always get weird looks demanding that they throw a couple of roast spuds and some carrots beside my mushroom risotto

Kathy22

I remember from our wedding we got a few options including a mushroom risotto which more often than not can be very poorly executed at weddings. Our other options were:

- Tower of Grilled Vegetables with Buffalo Mozzarella, Polenta Cake, Parsley and Citrus Salsa and Mixed Leaves (we went with this option).

- Warm Goats Cheese and Tomato Tart, Sautéed Spinach, Pesto Cream

- Slow Cooked Portobello Mushroom, Goats Cheese Stuffing and Lentils Ragout

Another good option scould be a vegetable moussaka.

The worst wedding i was ever at only had beef as the main course. I was so peeved and hungry. Actually just went to my room for a snack rather than sit around watching others eat dinner! I eat fish as well so I am usually safe.

Shenshen

How about a bit of a twist on the standard risotto?
One of my favourite recipes is risotto with lentils and caramelised onions, filled into a scooped-out, pre-baked half of butternut squash, covered with feta and baked again?

It's easy to do, and looks quite the show-stopper.

eoglyn

Thanks everybody for all the great replies - plenty of... food for thought :cool:

now i'm hungry.