Vegetarian food for Tiki Nite?

Any suggestions?

Im really new to the whole tiki thing. I got the drinks all set, but what about the proper dishes? More than half of my friends are vegetarians or near-vegetarians.

Help!

Our very own tikifish has developed a smashing vegetarian luau... http://www.tikifish.com/tikirecipes.html

BINGO!

You guys are really great! Less than an hour and my question answered. Bravo

I serve my guest fish. Do they eat fish? I usually put some Hawaiian seasoning on the fish (Salmon or Mahi Mahi) and wrap'em with a banana leaf and throw it on da grill. The leaf steams da fish. You can use wat eva fo' da seaonings but try wrap'em in a banana leaf. Just tear off da banana leaf from da tree, then wrap da fish and tie it with rope or wire to hold in da steam.

If you go to your local Asian food store they might have da Ono seasoning? Unless you have a Hawaiian food place.

I love the ONO seasoning with garlic pepper on grilled steak, AUUUWWWWWEEEEEE ONO!!

when you're trying to figure out what to serve a vegie - vegetarians usually don't eat anything "with a mother" or that "has eyes to look at you." and fishys are very much live animals.

these days, there are so many great meat substitutes, it's not that hard to just substitute any recipe you have with 'meatless' meats.

i personally think veat is the best commercial product on the market for most applications. - good to cook up and use in lieu of shredded pork, etc. (use the veat "bites" as opposed to the "nugget" variety). You'll find it in the frozen section - occasionally i have seen it trader joes and some regular markets. otherwise try your local health food store.

also don't forget to use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock!!!!! that's a big no no.

unless they are hardcore vegans - a little dairy in the mix probably will be tolerated, but think twice before you use eggs.

in the case where it's being mixed in something for texture - you can use silken tofu. if you need eggs for coagulation - use potato starch.

You'd be surprised what you can find at your local health food store.

we've thrown a few cocktail parties now with tastey vegetarian canapes and nibbles and many meat-eater friends didn't even know they were eating vegie - so it can be done.

good luck. what a wonderful host you must be to be so considerate - on behalf of your vegie friends i thank you.

Veat is great - we've also become very fond of Seitan, which seems to be in the same family...

Quorn (now its legal in the US)is my fravorite for replacing meat when cooking for veggies, but i do have a friend that makes a respectable vegan Spam.

Quorn is great stuff - so is seitan...
I find i'll use different things for different purposes. veat is great shredded for a chinese chicken salad. whereas quorn makes a great veal parmesan.

is there someplace online that talks about (non-vegie) luau food? can't remember if it's been here on t.c. or not?

[ Edited by: Futura Girl on 2004-01-11 17:02 ]

Is this it Futura Girl, this Low Carb Luau link is from a post by Tikifish? Yummy Stuff! http://hometown.aol.com/Terranova0/recipe1.index.html

thanks dt, that's a good site with lots of links to other luau sies/recipes

I was looking for information on this same topic, so I thought I resurrect an old thread...

I received a book as a present a few years ago called "Party Food for Vegetarians". The book has a very few seafood recipes (nice, since the only meat I do eat is seafood), but is mostly vegan or vegetarian. And I think it's one of the best veggie "party food" books out there - everything from cocktail bites, appetizers, to full course meals. In it there are lots of tiki-esque foods that work really well with mai-tais, zombies, and the like. I'd recommend buying it if you can get your hands on it for entertaining those that don't eat animals - or like me, that only eat finfish/shellfish when consuming things that have eyes (although potatoes have eyes, don't they?).
A few tiki-compatible samplings include:
-Teriyaki Almonds
-Banana, coconut & lime muffins
-Thai tuna and mango salad
-Turmeric potatoes with lemon & coconut
-Broiled stuffed peaches
-Broiled tofu & mango skewers

Link to Amazon

There are some more hearty and substantial dishes in there, but these are some of my favorites.

I'd be happy to post these recipes for anyone interested, but recommend buying the book. Good food for veggies and non-veggies alike.

I've hesitated buying the "Taboo Table" to go with my other Berry books only because I fear it's loaded with red meat and poulty recipes. Can anyone tell me definitively if it's worth buying for seafood/veggie/drink recipes alone?

~muchos mahalos

[ Edited by: Humuhumu - Fixed overly long link - 2005-08-02 18:06 ]

3 pepper, pineapple and pistachio fried rice.
It's as easy and delicious as it sounds.
Use a bit of sesame oil.
One of your peppers should have some heat.

Also I've posted a recipe for Island Slaw (bad name - good flavor) over on the TIki Food and Drinks forum, where this thread should be.

I enjoy lots of vegetarian and vegan food and cook it often even for those cranky carnivores who never seem to miss meat when the time comes to eat.

Then again, there isn't a dish any better than Sabu's Coconut Chicken, also in the Food and Drinks forum. Whoa.

On 2004-01-11 00:43, Basement Kahuna wrote:
Our very own tikifish has developed a smashing vegetarian luau... http://www.tikifish.com/tikirecipes.html

wow, those look like some really good dishes. I'm going to have to try some out.
This is perfect too, as I'm trying to figure out foods for feeding my vegetarian friends out my wedding reception/luau this summer.

zombiepops

nice, i'll definitely be trying the tropical quesadillas this weekend and bringing them to a murder mystery luau. thanks!

On 2004-01-11 00:43, Basement Kahuna wrote:
Our very own tikifish has developed a smashing vegetarian luau... http://www.tikifish.com/tikirecipes.html

Who is this Tikifish?
Shouldn't her name be Tikivege?

On 2007-04-20 23:25, Unga Bunga wrote:

Who is this Tikifish?

Tikifish is the creator of Shecky, the first tiki central mug.

I just found this old thread, and thanks Tikifish, for the luau recipes.

Does anyone have any new ideas for more pupu recipes, finger-food, appetizers? I was thinking of making some of those rice paper salad rolls with peanut sauce and maybe veggie wontons.

I just had veggie Vietnamese salad rolls. Super cheap and easy to make. Rice paper wraps are about $2.00 a pack. Just soak for a minute till soft then stuff and wrap with your favorite fillings. Japanese rice or thin rice noodles are good for filler with shredded carrot, lettuce, cilantro, mint, soy sprouts, shredded radish, your favorite seaweed(mines dulse) and a slice of firm tofu. If you live near a big city China town you can get gluten mock shrimp. For a dip we mix peanut butter and Hoi Sin sauce or go for Thai chili dip sauce.

Some time ago in the thread What food do you serve at your tiki bar? I posted this:

Edamame...Green soybeans in the pod. You can buy the frizzed bags of them at Asian grocers and usually in the health food section of big grocery stores. Dump a bag into boiling water, boil 'til the beans is hot (not cooked), give 'em a quick rinse in cold water (just to cool 'em down a bit so they don't bite fingers), dump into some swell monkeypod bowl you bought but never used for anything and sprinkle big salts over the top. Have another bowl for the shells. They're easy as heck to make...Even with a buzz on...And everyone I've served these to have loved 'em.

In that same thread the following recipes were posted by Caber-Net:

*No Ka Oi Maui Onion Souffle (Dip)

Recipe By : KTA

2 large Maui onions -- chopped
2 cups shredded cheese
1 3/4 cups mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Tiger Sauce
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
8 ounces waterchestnuts, canned -chopped

Combine all ingredients in an ovenproof dish. Bake at 375-degrees for 25-30
minutes. Serve with crackers.

A crowd favorite -- any sweet onion will do -- and any tobasco instead of tiger sauce is fine*

*Sweet Potato Cakes

Recipe By : KTA
1 large sweet potato -- grated
11/2ounces Maui Onions -- grated
2 tablespoons green onion -- chopped
1 egg
1/2 ounce flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
dash white pepper
1 teaspoon Chinese parsley chopped
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup macadamia nut oil or canola oil

Combine all ingredients except oil. Form pancake-sized patties. In a large
skillet, pan-fry pancakes in oil over medium heat until lightly browned and
heated thoroughly. Serve with sour cream, if desired. These were pretty tasty too*

In the Food: Puu-Puu Platter thread Tikifish posted this recipe found in a vegetarian cookbook:

*Mushroom Rumaki

24 canned water chestnut slices
1/2 cup port wine
1 tbsp olive oil
12 small mushroom caps. halved
1 tbsp tamari or other soy sauce
5 slices vegetarian bacon, cut into 2-inch lengths

1. Place the water chestnuts in a shallow bowl and add the port. Marinate for 30 minutes at room temp.

2. Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the msuhrooms and soy sauce and cook until mushrooms are slightly softened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

3. Position a rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the broiler. Wrap a slice of water chestnut and a mushroom half in a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Repeat with remaining ingredients and place on a baking sheet. Place under the broiler and broil until bacon is crisp. serve hot!

Serves 6 to 8...*

Aloha!
At the most recent Lund's TikiBocce Event, I got creative and made a batch of Sabu's Coconut Chicken Skewers, but used portobello mushrooms instead. (I also left out the skewers and just made large, bit sized chunks). I took a large portobello mushroom, divided it into quarters, and simply used them instead of chicken breasts. They came out great! And I pleased the vegans in the crowd (I think) too.

Sabu's is a winning recipe, and can work with just about any "meaty" substance.

Try it out.
Myke

Being that I am a vegetarian 80% of the time, I know a little about some of the foods. Seitan (Mican in Vietnamese) is wheat gluten, and provides a meat-like consistency similar to meat. They add it to a lot of products, like Hamburgers, but they call it "Texturized vegetable protein". The problem for vegetarians is that it is not a complete amino acid, as is Soy. Also, it is hard to digest. You will however, lay HUGE cables after eating it.
There are two kinds of vegetarian restaraunt, those that serve "Mock" meats, and those that don't. I prefer the authentic Chinese and Vietnamese dishes that don't try to reproduce meat as much.
The process of turning to vegetarianism is hard, but it's better to not try and replace meat. You will end up missing it too much, and Sietan or vegi patties are a poor substitute.

I usually fry some oil, add shaved garlic, and then fry a huge slab of silken tofu. You can add shaved Bonito on top, if fish is not a problem for you.

Tiki food is a hard one. It is really meat based. But a good dish of cubed tofu with pineapples, bell peppers, tomato and soy sauce can be somewhat "tiki".

thanks for all the suggestions.

I have one comment about authenticity in Chinese restaurants. Buddhist vegetarian cuisine has a long history of using faux meats. So many Asian cultures include these faux meats as part of their traditional cuisine and they can be just as "authentic" as dishes made with real meat.

On 2008-07-23 22:25, Chinarose wrote:
thanks for all the suggestions.

I have one comment about authenticity in Chinese restaurants. Buddhist vegetarian cuisine has a long history of using faux meats. So many Asian cultures include these faux meats as part of their traditional cuisine and they can be just as "authentic" as dishes made with real meat.

Well, I live near little Saigon, so I have had access to both kinds of restaraunts. For example, if you go to Au Lac, on Brookhurst, it caters mostly to american vegan gothic types (Lot's of piercings and mop top haircuts) and it is entirely meat simulation. The sweet and sour "Pork" looks like the real thing. It is my understanding that they use a pre-packaged meat subtitute.
Now if you go to Van Than, on Bolsa, it is mostly Buddhist cusotmers, and the dishes do not look like meat very much. They are strange, exotic, flavored with lemon grass. You do come across those fake shrimp and fake ham if you order the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe). Van Than is very authentic. Very few Americans go in there, as they don't speak English at all.
A lot of what I eat though, is in little india (Pioneer blvd) and they are mostly vegetarian restaraunts. Nothing is meant to resemble meat, and the dishes stand on thier own. Samosas, chick peas, green peas, paneer cheese, all of these things are basically meat free (except the paneer).

Years and years later, tiki fish's site is gone. Did anyone keep copies of those veggie recipes?

Interestingly, when I needed to make a vegetarian thing for a party, I found that cheese is not always vegetarian. If it is a type (as most are) that requires rennet and they do not indicate it coming from a vegetable source then it came from the slaughter of a cow. So read the labels...

That was quite a surprise when you realize that most places pile on the cheese for veg dishes.