There was some trepidation about this choice in advance – but in the end it was one of the most delicious meals we’ve had. Vegan food has come a long way.

Starters

Karen – Roasted butternut squash and red onion with tahini and zaatar.

From Jerusalem. A bit fiddly but worth the faff. Lovely crunchy textures against the softness of the squash. 11 out of 10. We all loved it, and later remembered that Karen made it for the Ottolenghi Jerusalem night a couple of years ago!

Julie – Tacos with squash, coriander and black beans

From Waitrose magazine. It should have included an ancho chili, but she used a paste instead. Should be feta but Julie used vegan feta. This tasted very similar to normal, but had a different consistency. The tacos were accidentally vegan! Another very tasty, very successful dish.

Mains

Jane – Gado Gado Indonesian salad with peanut/coconut dressing.

I knew this would be a success, as I couldn’t stop eating the dressing whilst making it! So tasty, with peanut butter, coconut and spices. From the green roasting tin book. It made a massive portion, frankly no bad thing as it gave me lots of leftovers. Sue was so keen she was going to make it the next day.

Sue – Stuffed squash with mushrooms and sunflower mince

Sunflower mince was a new ingredient to many of us, made of ground sunflower seeds. This dish had lots of sage, almond yogurt, fresh parsley and hazelnuts. Recipe from Mindful chef. Tasty, but the recipe asked for only 30 minutes in the oven, and it actually needed a lot longer.

Sides

Jus – Roasted carrots in maple syrup

Jus used the leftover carrots from our weekend away, on a dare from Tracey. Cooked in dairy free butter ‘which is obviously disgusting’, covered up in maple syrup. Given she currently has no kitchen, to produce anything was impressive – it was a delicious contribution!

Tracey – Roasted aubergine salad

This was from BBC good food, and had a tasty resonance of an Italian caponata. It used pomegranate molasses in the dressing which made it beautifully zesty. The recipe was a bit confusing about the garlic. It also had honey in it so it wasn’t actually vegan – we didn’t care, but reckoned we could swap it for maple syrup if feeding true vegans.

Desserts

Debrah – Raspberry and cassis sorbet

This was another recipe from BBC good food. It was supposed to need 4 hours to set, and was still runny after 11 hours. But that didn’t prevent it from being utterly delicious, though still pretty soft. Maybe it was the cassis that stopped it setting? Definitely a dessert to make again, but maybe leave a couple of days to freeze!

Janet – easy chocolate tart

And another BBC good food recipe. Lots of digestive biscuits (who knew they were vegan!), whizzed with cocoa powder and golden syrup etc. Then unusually the crumb base is baked for ten minutes. Solid part of coconut milk with dark chocolate was baked with a little flour. When it was warm it tasted like chocolate blancmange, when cool it had a slight coconut flavour but the dark chocolate balanced it very well.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-chocolate-tarthttps://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-chocolate-tart