Help! My Dinner Guests Are Vegan!

What is your hosting philosophy? How does that extend into the experience you provide your guests at home? 

My hosting philosophy is simple: "you enter my home, you must eat!" For any dinner/tea parties I host at home, I always have a food plan nailed three days before the actual party. I feel planning in advance allows me to think of a menu that will excite me to prepare for my guests, give me enough time to source all the ingredients I may need and think about presentation. 

What would be the menu for this meal? What cuisine would you tap into and how would you go about creating this menu? 

A typical dinner menu would consist of three appetisers, two mains and one great dessert but it would also depend on the season and locally available ingredients. In terms of cuisine, my go to cuisines are Asian, Indian, Lebanese and Mexican. But first priority is ingredients - I let them decide what I will eventually make. 

I also feel at the end of the day, you have to be mindful of wastage, so if you serve one great dessert, it's way more satisfying than having too many to choose from and feeling like you're missing out.

 For those who are new to vegan cooking, what are some essential pantry staples they should have on hand for preparing delicious meals? 

1. A Great Vegan Feta Cheese - it goes well in salads, inside tikkis/kebabs and can be used even on a charcuterie board.
   
   
2. Vegan Milk - Almond or Oat Milk for desserts, especially as you will need a liquid ingredient to bring your batter together if you are baking a recipe.
   
   
3. Vegan Sauces/Dips - it really helps to have some of these in stock so that you are not starting from scratch..
   
   
4. Good Quality Silken Tofu - Good tofu is a versatile ingredient that takes the flavour of anything and everything and is super blendable for desserts too. 

 Hosting a dinner often involves catering to various dietary restrictions. How do you approach menu planning to accommodate different dietary needs while keeping the focus on vegan options? 

I think this has been my special skill for over 10 years - to be able to cook for anyone with any dietary restriction. Once, I made food for a client who had an allergy list to 35 different types of foods! My main approach is to always consider what main dishes I am cooking that can incorporate a batch of the same dish with the dietary restriction too. For example, if my main dish is a Pad Thai Noodle, but one of my guests cannot do soy/soy products, I'll make the recipe as is, set some aside without any tofu and make the rest with tofu in it.

Jackfruit or oyster mushroom tacos or making meatballs out of oyster mushrooms and serving that with a red pepper sauce spaghetti are all good options to have on hand because they give you the consistency of meat when you bite into it, satisfying even the staunchest meat-eater.

Presentation plays a significant role in the dining experience. What are some tips for plating vegan dishes to make them visually appealing and inviting? 

1. Plan what you want to make in advance. Then make a pinterest board of your dishes so you have visual representation and inspiration to plate your dishes.
   
   
2. Don't over complicate it, use what you have first and know that edible flowers or microgreens make everything look pretty!
   
   
3. If you have beautiful dining sets, pull them out to use for these occasions. In India we tend to wait for something extremely special like a festival or wedding to use our beautiful crockery but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t use them for dinner parties too. It makes the entire presentation visually appealing and beautiful and makes you more excited about hosting the event.

Beyond the food itself, what are some additional elements you incorporate into your vegan dinners to create a welcoming and enjoyable atmosphere for your guests?  Any cleanup tips to optimise leftovers to share with us?

Remember hosting is a sensational experience so you must always cater to the five senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. These will be the sensory experiences they will have upon consuming the food and how you have presented it.

Ensure the first thing your guests see when they walk in is a nice clean home with candles lit up or some fresh flowers in vases to make it visually appealing. They should be able to smell the beautiful fragrance from the candles upon walking in and hear some nice soft  music in the background. And of course, a well stocked bar with soft beverages always helps.

For cleanup, just ensure your plan of action is time sensitive. My top recommendation is to always have take away containers. First and foremost, offer it to your guests who have come, most people are always happy to take leftovers home. If they decide not to (which I find hard to believe!),please share it with neighbours and friends. 

Hosting an all-vegan dinner can seem daunting to some. What advice do you have for someone looking to create a memorable vegan dining experience? 

1. Start small and make a list of how many appetisers, mains and desserts you want to serve.
2. Take help where you need it, if dessert making is not your strength, just order the vegan dessert. However, if that's not an option, pick something easy to make like a loaf of banana chocolate chip bread that's easily doable in a microwave and is a one bowl dessert.
   
3. Do a dip platter to start with easy dips like hummus, guacamole, etc which are all vegan.
   
4. I would recommend buying things like vegan cheese and milk versus trying to make on your first attempt at home. This has to be fun for you, so don't over complicate it!
   
5. Always remember, most Indian food is largely vegan, it's only the ghee and dairy you need to omit, so doing a jackfruit biryani, some delicious vegan kebabs (you can replace the paneer with silken tofu - no one can tell the difference) is a great place to start.