Catering Ideas for A Vegetarian Wedding

Planning a vegetarian wedding poses a lot of challenges for the bride and groom. But this does not mean you cannot pull one successfully. Even if you are going to invite guests who have the words, “meat lovers” written all over their face, the right strategies would help you provide them with a wedding reception that all of you would love and enjoy. To help you with the planning for this type of event, here are some bits and pieces of information you should know about.

Different Types of Vegetarian Diet

Generally, a vegetarian diet is one that consists of vegetables and fruits. This type of diet does not contain any meat, fish, poultry, or seafood. Vegetarians say that they will not eat anything that has a face. Another type of vegetarian diet is the “ovo-lacto” diet, which sprung from the name ovo, which means eggs, and lacto, which refers to milk and other dairy products. Ovo-vegetarians would eat eggs but not dairy products while lacto-vegetarians would consume dairy products but not eggs. Ovo-lacto, meanwhile, is okay with both eggs and milk.

The strictest form of vegetarian diet is the vegan type, wherein a person cannot eat anything that contains even a trace of animal product including anything that causes animal’s death to acquire that food product. This means that aside from the meat itself, eggs and dairy products are off-limits. Vegans also stay away from honey and refined sugar.

Overcoming Obstacles along the Way

As mentioned earlier, planning a vegetarian wedding can be difficult because of several issues that usually include other people in the event who are not vegetarians. The families and friends of the bride and groom may not be comfortable with the idea of not having meat in the wedding. This can be resolved by serving familiar foods that are vegetarian such as breads, pasta, vegetable trays, soups, salads, sweet fruits, cheeses, potato dishes and so on.

Finding a caterer is another challenge that you should overcome. Sure, there are various vegetarian catering services but it would be quite hard to find those that are flexible with their options or have wide variety of choices. It may also be a good idea to consider having a vegetarian restaurant host and cater your reception. Looking at and studying your choices would help you end up with the best catering service that would provide mouth-watering vegetarian dishes that even non-vegetarian dieters would love.

Menu Suggestions

1. Wedding cake – The wedding cake is probably the most difficult part of the reception menu especially if you are going to have a vegan wedding. This is because it can be hard to find a baker who would not use egg and milk to bake the cake. You are lucky if you can find a vegan baker but if not, you can ask the baker to substitute egg with flaxseed or use an egg replacer product, which is available in most health food stores. Choices on vegetarian wedding cakes include carrot, applesauce, or tofu cheesecake.
2. Soup – Options on vegetarian soup include minestrone, miso, cherry, gazpacho, cucumber, mushroom, asparagus, tomato, dill, squash, pea, and potato.
3. Breads – As for breads, you can choose among challah, cornbread, anadama, vegetarian bruschetta, garlic bread, pita, crostini, polenta cakes, almond cupcake, foccacia, vegetable rolls, and scones.
4. Salads – Salads are vegetables so there is no much problem in this. You can opt for an antipasto, bean and tomato, cabbage, green, romaine lettuce, spinach, potato, Japanese, tabouli, and also fruit salad.
5. Sides and Hors d’oeuvres – Some of the delectable choices for this are artichokes, baba ghanouj, empanadas, falafel, tomato and basic tarts, fruit trays, mushroom finger sandwiches, guacamole, hummus, mashed potato, fried potato sticks, roasted vegetables, vegetable kebabs, sesame noodles, stuffed tomatoes, and stuffed mushrooms.
6. Main Course/Entrees – Sumptuous selection on main courses include primavera in marinara sauce, meatless lasagna, stir-fried vegetables, mini-quiches, penne with white or marinara sauce, tomato basil pasta, stuffed squash, stuffed cabbage, and ratatouille.
7. Desserts – The final part of the menu should be just as glorious. Serve baked apples, cookies, baked peaches, fruit salad, jams and jellies, plum tarts, and pistachio nuts.

Having a vegetarian wedding is not only about making an impact or infusing something different to your wedding day. Having this kind of wedding is more about sharing your lifestyle, your dietary habit, in hope that people including your family and friends would understand your beliefs and practices, and perhaps learn to enjoy them as well.