So, i'm going to visit my parents for easter, and my mom is making a leg of lamb and mashed potatoes and veggies and desserts and the like. She said that i can make dessert, so that it's vegan, and i already have tons of recipes and ideas for that. Butttt, i don't know what i should eat for dinner. It's a big gathering holiday in my family, i want to have a special meal. But i have no idea what to have. Any good holiday meal ideas?

Can you get your mother to use Earth Balance and vegetable broth to make some things "accidentally" vegan? People won't notice small modifications like that. That way, you could have the potatoes and vegetables, salad and bread and dessert.

I'd make an entree salad or appetizer too. Pesto pasta, hummus, a tasty tempeh wrap with veggies, cut into pinwheels would be festive and tasty.

I've been bringing my own plate of food to family dinners for years now, I consider myself a professional! This year I get to host a second night Seder, this will be the first time I get to eat something other than matzo and salad at a Seder so I'm really excited about that.

Depends on what you want, do you want to do your own kind of thing, or do you want to make the vegan version of what everyone else is having? Do you do processed mock meat? How much time do you want to spend in the kitchen?

You could make some scalloped or mashed potatoes. You can even make a nutritional yeast sauce to make "cheezy" scalloped potatoes, or veggie mushroom gravy.

I'd bring a side veggie to share. Your family will probably have a veggie side, but it will likely include dairy if they're like my family. Asparagus is a wonderful springtime veggie and easy to prepare, just roast in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper for about 15 min.

If you want to go non-traditional you could just look in some cookbooks or around the net for a main dish that sounds good to you and make that. You can buy a mock meat product at the grocery store and dress it up with homemade gravy, that's about the quickest and easiest way to go. Asian markets for some reason seem to have a really great selection of mock meat of every kind, you might even be able to find "vegan lamb". I made this "turkey" roast last Thanksgiving. It was kind of a lot of work, but I don't mind spending time in the kitchen and it was goooood! Even my omnivore sisters and aunts liked it (the boys were all too "chicken" to try it ) Plus I had sandwich leftovers for days.

Hope that helps a little. Enjoy the gathering with your family!

Thanks for your help! Lots of good ideas. I always pack a bunch of salads and leftovers when i'm going to visit them for the weekend, so i'll definitely have that premade.


I can definitely convince my mother to use vegan "buttery spreads" and vegetable broth, she's actually very willing to work wtih me (she used to be unsupportive of this change but is coming around). So i should be able to eat her veggies when we make that modification. I do some mock meat, but not much. i guess i'm just looking for a main dish that my family will actually want to try, instead of them continuing to think i'm depriving myself of something. So far i'm thinking red potatoes and onions, i like them non-mashed too and it's fewer calories anyway, and i was thinking like maybe stuffed peppers or tomatoes or something? I don't really like mushroom, but i was thinking maybe stuffed red pepper with some rice or couscous, mock-sausage or ground "meat", maybe a little bit of soy cheddar? i really don't know i want to be adventurous but make sure i like it. I've been searching recipes but i always just find a lot of ethnic meals and stuff that i'd be willing to try, but just don't seem right for the occassion. Althouhg i might bring some vegan fallafell patties for an appetizer.

I'm not vegan (but I love the food) and I have a few possible ideas. When I think Easter and lamb, I think Greek food. So maybe you could make some stuffed grape leaves to go with occasion? The original Moosewood cookbook has a great recipe for this. The stuffing is brown rice, pine nuts, and a yummy lemon sauce. I'm pretty sure it is vegan. The cookbook also has a variation for stuffed artichokes that uses the same filling. YUM!

The latest issue of Vegetarian Times has some interesting vegan recipes that use unrefined corn oil and nutritional yeast to give the dishes a "buttery" flavor. They look really good too. They even have a mock hollandaise sauce in the magazine. Maybe these would be posted on their website?