Entertaining Ideas
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Vegetarian Southern food for party
I'm hosting an engagement party for some friends and we are going to have a very loosely themed Southern feel to the party. (The bride is from the south.) This isn't the best example, but what I have in mind is something like the wedding at the beginning of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes...casual and relaxed, but classy and vintage-y. For decorations, I plan to keep it pretty simple with just some vintage napkins, Milk-Glass dishes, etc. It will be outside if the weather is nice.
The bride-to-be, me, and the majority of the guests are vegetarian, so I want to keep the menu pretty light on meat. So far, I've thought of doing homemade veggie burgers, a baked corn dish, fried green tomatoes, some kind of salad?, lemonade, mint juleps (it will be on the day of the Kentucky Derby!), pecan pie. We'll also have a meat option that FI will probably make on the grill. What other foods would you include? Or can you think of a different vegetarian entree? I know veggie burgers aren't terribly southern (!), but I want something pretty simple. TIA!
Re: Vegetarian Southern food for party
Mac and cheese is american, not specifically southern.
Try fried okra, grilled corn on the cob, cornbread, fried chicken for the meat option or fried catfish, some sort of jello salad, baked beans, etc.
http://realistic-eats.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-you-eat-vegan-meal-on-fat-tuesday.html this was fantastic but may be a little heavy for what you're looking for - vegan red beans and rice.
what about doing a biscuit sandwich - small biscuits that you cut in half and stuff with veggies and such
sauteed greens with mushrooms, leeks, etc.
a black eyed peas salad?
on the grill for the men - you could do chicken, ribs, sausages, chicken salad (what about faux chicken salad for you ladies?)
A mushroom and okra purloo (pilaf) or some kind of fritter would work for the vegetarians. If any of you eat seafood, shrimp and grits or a Low Country Boil (you could leave out the sausage) would be good. For dessert, it just isn't a Southern shindig if you don't have cobbler with ice cream.
ETA: To be a little more helpful, even within the South, the cuisine varies considerably. If you can tell us where the bride is from, I can probably help you find something more native to her region.
My southern food knowledge is limited to the four years I spent in college in NC (and my college bf from alabama)... but here's what I remember from those days:
grits - specifically with cheese, collard greens, pulled pork (might be a good easy meat option if you do it in a crockpot with buns to make sandwhiches), biscuits and gravy (could you make it without sausage?), hush puppies (corn bread balls but fried)
I totally agree with the fried chicken and fried okra like pp mentioned.
As an alternate desert you could do an apple pie as well. Not specifically southern, but would be good with the other foods. I had an apple rhubarb pie from whole foods that was amazing and something a little different!!!
grits (shrimp and grits if enough guests will eat the shrimp, otherwise just cheese grits - smoked gouda grits are awesome and I think I saw a recipe recently on What's Cooking)
biscuits with fried green tomatoes or jelly
cucumber sandwiches
egg salad sandwiches
deviled eggs
cornbread salad, omitting bacon from recipe below
cheese straws
banana pudding
pecan pie or tarts
punch
iced tea
ETA - Thought of a few more:
pimento cheese
chicken salad (either with a meat substitute or as the meat option)
coleslaw
2 cucumbers
4 tomatoes
1 purple onion
1 bell pepper
1 box of Jiffy cornbread, prepared
4 slices of cooked bacon (I usually omit the bacon)
shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Chop veggies, put in bowl.
Mix dressing, pour over chopped vegetables
Top crumbled cornbread with the vegetables
add layer of cheddar cheese
top with crumbled bacon
Well, I live in the heart of the south and I definitely recommend fried okra. Most any fried veggie is a southern tradition!
And cheese grits or any food based on grits would be good too.
I know you did not ask about desserts, but the most southern desserts that I know of are banana pudding and peach cobbler. Both are YUMMY!!
And be sure to have sweet tea and make it really sweet!!! That is a requirement at any southern lunch or dinner.
"Don't marry a man unless you would be PROUD to have a son exactly like him." ~ Unknown
Stand up for something you believe in.
I'm a vegetarian and here are some of my fav's:
http://www.lesliesarna.com/2009/09/game-day.html
http://www.lesliesarna.com/2010/02/truffle-mac-n-cheese.html
Good luck!
I like to make something I call Southern trash. It's fried okra, squash, onions, eggplant, green tomatoes, and potatoes all mixed together. Sprinkle with feta cheese and add some dips like ranch and seasoned ketchup and people eat it up. I know it sounds kinda wierd, but I promise people love it!