Veganism is a popular lifestyle that comes with a long list of mental and physical benefits. If you’re a practicing vegan, or need to plan a party for an upcoming vegan event, you’ll appreciate these vegan catering tips! Read on to learn how you can cater your party with a vegan food spread.
What is veganism?
To better understand how to cater to vegans, it helps to learn what veganism is all about. A vegan is a person who follows a diet free of meat and animal by-products. This includes all dairy products, such as milk, cream, cheese, and butter. It also includes all meat and animal by-products, including poultry, beef, pork, lamb, eggs, and shellfish. Some orthodox vegans also avoid wearing or using anything made from animals, such as leather, feathers, hides, skins, and more.
Drinks and cocktails
There are endless options for vegan drinks, alcoholic cocktails, and even mocktails. As long as you don’t use any mixer that contains dairy, it’s clean. Stick to lemonades, wines, beers, iced teas, hot teas, coffee, sodas, juices, and spirits. Avoid milk-based products or substitute coconut, cashew, or almond milk products.
Appetizers
Snacks that are vegan are easy to come by. Summer is the time for fresh produce, so grab an assortment of fruits and vegetables, both raw and prepared. Cherry and grape tomatoes, zucchini, squash, broccoli, carrots, radishes, cauliflower, bell peppers and more are all fantastic choices for color and flavor. Try them in salads, on sticks, marinated or dipped. Your vegan guests will love them all! You can also include vegetable and vegetable dips, such as hummus, chickpea, falafel, eggplant, onion, and more! Just make sure they don’t contain sour cream or dairy.
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Whether it’s for dinner or lunch, your main course is easy to plan for a vegan guest list. Choose hearty vegetables, such as eggplant and portobello mushrooms, to replace meaty entrees. Tofu is also a great option. When prepared right, these vegan dishes are just as filling and delicious as meat. Consider pasta dishes for late nights, such as eggplant parmesan or risotto. Pair these dishes with delicious vegan-style salads and side dishes like vegan pasta salad, couscous, tabouli, rice, potatoes, corn on the cob, grilled asparagus and more.
Dessert
Desserts are sometimes a challenge for vegans because most contain some form of dairy. However, there are great vegan-friendly dessert options, as long as you choose carefully. Any type of cake, pudding, or cream pie is likely not vegan-friendly, so you may need to make them especially with dairy substitutes, such as almond milk, applesauce, and nut butters. Fruit smoothies are another great option, as long as you use non-dairy milk, like almond, cashew, or coconut.