November is off to a great start and one of the reasons is that November first is World Vegan Day. I’m not promoting we all need to switch to veganism, but I am promoting more vegan dishes in our menus. Not only will be making a concerted effort to meet the needs of our custom eaters, we’ll be opening our events to a vast and surprisingly delicious world of innovative vegan dishes.
With a growing number of people turning to vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, the effort to create meat-like dishes is long gone. Occasionally, we still see tofurkey, fish-like tacos, and beef-ish burgers. But now it’s about creating delectable and appetizing meals without the attempt at trickery. And the vegans are winning.
Vegans make up 5% of the population, which is about 8 million people. Their diet choice has been officially recognized for 75 years, which means we’ve had plenty of time to adapt our event menus to their needs.
And we should know that there are a few types of vegans. All vegans avoid animal products, but some focus on a raw diet, so nothing can be cooked in temperatures above 115 degrees fahrenheit. Other vegans will eat any food, junk food included, as long as it is free of animal products. There are also strict vegans who are careful not to eat any form of animal product or animal by-product. This means no honey (because honey is created by bees, for bees), beeswax, or gelatin, among other things. This group of vegans also avoid animal products in their daily life, such as avoiding wearing silk, leather, and wool.
Quick reasons to try more vegan menus:
- While adopting a vegan lifestyle is an undertaking, adding vegan dishes to your event menu is exciting. It opens doors to new and innovating ways to celebrate food.
- As long as we don’t over-emphasize pre-packaged foods and snacks, veganism in a few dishes or an entire menu is a healthy gift to attendees.
- We automatically avoid dairy, eggs, fish, and crustacean shellfish, four of the Big Eight allergens most of our custom eaters with food allergies are trying to avoid. As a reminder, the Big Eight allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans.
- Vegan dishes, when researched and handled well, can often be less expensive than meat. This means you’ll actually save money on your food and beverage budget!
Some Vegan Recipes from Around the Web to get you started:
- Try this vegan cornbread and chili
- Here is a recipe for black forest gateau raw brownies with coconut cream
- This is a recipe for beetroot hummus
- This main dish looks delicious, spinach farinata crepes with masala potatoes
- Use dates to add a caramel flavor to these black bean brownies
- For more recipes, try this site. When I did a quick google search to check for menu resources, I thought this was a great start. What’s your favorite vegan recipe or resource?
