A vegan diet avoids all animal foods, including meat, fish, chicken, eggs, dairy products and honey. But vegan wedding food doesn’t need to be boring – but if you’re still haunted by the limited meat-free options of a jacket potato or a limp salad, we’ve rounded up the best plant-based wedding food options and vegan wedding menu ideas that won’t compromise on taste…
Vegan Appetizers
If you’re looking for vegan appertizers to tide guests over between the ceremony and speeches, go for plant-based canapes such as chickpea falafel or courgette fritters with beetroot dips.
Vegetable gyozas and cauliflower bites are always a good vegan finger food and hummus dips with carrot, cucumber or celery, is a favourite among vegans and non-vegans alike.
Vegan Starters
For vegan wedding starters, choose between more casual entrées such as stuffed mushrooms or bruschetta.
Stuff your mushroom bites with walnuts, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes and make plant-based food exciting again.
Vegan bruschetta is a classic crowd-pleaser that will add colour to your tables. It features four simple ingredients: a crunchy baguette, tomatoes, basil, and olives.
For more formal and filling option – a fresh pea, asparagus and mint risotto or warming lentil soup with crusty bread will go down well with guests.
These Greek-inspired tempeh spinach filo parcels from Tempeh Meades would be perfect as part of a vegan buffet or as an appetiser served to wedding guests. Tempeh is a plant-fuelled staple from Indonesia made up of healthy low GI protein by forming cooked soya beans into a block and adding a culture to initiate a fermentation process.
Vegan Mains
There should be vegan food options that are gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free to accommodate all of your wedding guests.
Pastas are a great vegan wedding food option if you’re having a buffet. Or popular individual vegan mains include mushroom stroganoff, wild mushroom risotto, vegetarian paella and vegan curry.
Vegan Curry Recipe
If you’re cooking your vegan wedding food yourself, Mark Hartstone, chef at La Fosse in Cranborne has shared his recipe for the perfect vegan wedding curry…
• 2 large golden beets grated • 1 head of cauliflower divided into florets • 1 carrot diced • Bunch of coriander • 2 onions thinly sliced • 1 tsp turmeric • 1 tsp mix of Moroccan/north African spices • salt • dash of apple juice, adds acidity and a slight sweetness • 400ml almond milk • handful of almonds • Can of chick peas, save the water for an egg white substitute • Dash of ground nut oil Sweat off the spices in the oil with the onions, then add the vegetables. Add the liquid ingredients and simmer. Add the nuts and chickpeas. Continue heating till vegetables are just cooked (usually 20mins but dependent on veg and size of veg). Add the roughly chopped coriander prior to serving.
And you can’t have a vegan wedding dinner without vegetable side dishes – think asparagus, rice, sweet potatoes and rainbow root fries.
Vegan Desserts
There are plenty of vegan desserts options to choose from including pastries and fruit-based dishes which you can serve in individual portions or on a platter for guests to help themselves.
Popular vegan wedding desserts include fruit sorbet, apple tarts and mixed berry shortcakes. For more plant-based menus and vegetarian wedding recipes, see our round-up of the best meatless menus for vegetarian weddings.
Louise Palmer Masterton, founder of plant-based restaurants, Stem & Glory, has shared how to make vegan raspberry and almond gluten-free muffins below….
Ingredients:
2 cups Gluten free flour
2 cups Ground almonds
2 tsp Baking powder (gluten free)
2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 x Apple, grated
1 x Lemon (juice and zest)
¾ cup Maple syrup
3 tbsp Coconut oil
½ cup Sunflower oil
¾ cup Rice milk
1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
1 cup Frozen raspberries
¼ cup Flaked almonds (for garnish)
Directions:
- Mix dry ingredients in a bowl (except flaked almonds)
- Place the wet ingredients, including the apple (but excluding frozen raspberries) into a food processor and blend
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, then fold in raspberries whilst still frozen
- Pour evenly into 12 muffin cases
- Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for 20-25 minutes at 150°C
