Menu ideas: Starters, snacks and party food

There is a multitude of starters and snacks that are already suitable for vegans or can be quickly adapted. Try asparagus tips with olive oil, aubergine stacks and melon balls. Soups, dips, pâtés and finger food are explained in more detail below.

Soup

Soups, along with sauces and gravies, are perhaps the easiest dishes to adapt. If the soup contains butter or cream this can be replaced with olive oil, vegan margarine and/or dairy-free cream. Choose a vegan vegetable stock or bouillon from these suppliers, or better still make your own.

Try pea and mint, roasted tomato and basil, corn and chickpea chowder, carrot and orange, curried apple, cauliflower and almond or leek, lime and coconut.

Dips and pâtés

Choose from the following or invent your own: lentil, wine and walnut, ginger-roasted vegetables, chestnut and cranberry, tomato and olive, tikka vegetable, avocado and roasted pepper, cashew and fresh herb, broccoli with lemon and cumin.

Dips and pâtés can be served with vegetable crudit's, strips of fruit, potato wedges, tortilla chips, curly toasts, garlic bread or baked fingers of smoked tofu.

Finger food

Finger foods such as vegan sausage rolls, mini-pizzas and stuffed vine leaves are perfect for buffets and parties and served as a starter or snack. Other examples are samosas, spring rolls, marinated fruit and vegetable kebabs, melon segments, vol-au-vents and veg sushi.

Side salads: a few favourites

• Red cabbage, apple, flaked almonds, olive oil, cider vinegar and a squeeze of lemon
• Cucumber, vegan yogurt and fresh mint with a hint of garlic
• Grated carrot, bean sprouts, sweet red pepper and celery with a spicy peanut sauce
• Cooked potatoes, sweetcorn, watercress, vegetable oil and a little lemon juice
• Fennel with toasted walnuts, orange and grapes in a mustard vinaigrette
• Tomato, olives, fresh basil, red peppers, red onion and olive oil
• Celery, walnuts, apples and cucumber with vegan mayo or vinaigrette

Sandwiches

See our sandwich fillings page for over 50 delicious ideas.