The picnic season presents a unique challenge to vegans and vegetarians. A typical picnic fare includes burgers, hotdogs and condiments. Vegans and vegetarians can certainly jazz up the picnic scene with their own healthy, plant-based fare without being the killjoy of the party.
Grab these from your local supermarket:
- an assortment of nut and fruits, store-bought dips like hummus and guacamole’s
- Mixed crudités, crackers or breads, antipasti
Picnic crowd pleasers
Raw Nori Wraps with spicy dipping sauce
Ingredients
Wraps:
1/2 head red cabbage
1 carrot
1 small zucchini
1/2 cucumber
2 kale leaves
1 avocado
3-4 nori sheets and/or rice paper sheets
Sauce:
1 tablespoon tahini
Chili powder, to taste
1 tablespoon miso
2 dates
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 small garlic clove
Water, as needed to make it creamy and smooth
Method
Sauce:
Blend all the ingredients until smooth.
Wraps:
Shred veggies thinly on a mandolin
Chop the cucumber by hand.
Tear up the kale leaves and slice the avocado.
Lay desired fillings on one side of nori sheet, and on the opposite side spread a little sauce to seal together the ends when you roll it up.
Roll everything up tight and set aside.
Recipe courtesy of This Rawsome Vegan Life
If using rice paper, dip the paper in hot water until it’s pliable, then place everything you want in the middle. Wrap up it like a burrito.
Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil
Ingredients
1/2 baguette or crusty long loaf bread, sliced (12 pieces)
2 large cloves garlic, cracked away from skin
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
3 small plum tomatoes, halved and seeded
20 fresh basil leaves
Coarse salt
Method
Preheat broiler to high, (if you prefer you can also grill the bread). Place bread slices on a broiler pan. Char bread on each side under hot broiler, keep an eye on it! Rub toasts with cracked garlic and drizzle with oil. Chop seeded tomatoes and place in a small bowl. Pile basil leaves on top of one another and roll into a log. Thinly slice basil into green confetti and loosely combine with tomatoes. Add a drizzle of oil and a little coarse salt to the bowl and gently toss tomatoes and basil to coat. Pile toasts around the bowl of topping. Place a spoon to scoop topping in bowl and serve.
Courtesy of Food Network/Rachel Ray
Vegetarian Tandoori BBQ
Ingredients
225g paneer, cubed into 1 ½ inch pieces
150g fried tofu, cubed into 1 ½ inch pieces
150g cassava, peeled, cubed into 1 ½ inch pieces and boiled
100g baby button mushrooms, wiped clean
Tandoori Paste
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
6 black peppercorns
2 dried Kashmiri chillies
2 tsp cornmeal
1 inch cassia bark
1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
1 star anise
4 cloves
Seeds of 4 cardamom pods
5 tbsp concentrated tomato puree
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ginger, minced
2 tbsp dark brown sugar/muscovado sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
2-3 tsp salt or to taste
Method
Paste
1. Combine dry spices and dry-fry in a pan or skillet, use low heat, constantly moving around for 3 to 5 minutes. Do not burn.
2. Place them in small blender and grind to a fine powder.
3. Add tomato puree, sugar, salt, lemon juice, garlic and ginger and blend again until smooth. Add 3-5 tbsp water if needed.
Cook
4. Bring a pan of salted water to boil. Add cubed paneer and tofu. Gently boil for 4 minutes then drain.
5. Combine boiled paneer and tofu with cassava and mushrooms with the tandoori paste.
Combine gently. Refrigerate for 1 hour up to 48 hours.
Grill
6. Skewer the ingredients onto metal skewers or soaked wooden skewers and place over hot coals until deliciously charred.
Recipe courtesy of Sanjana
REFERENCES
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/feature/picnic
http://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/vegan-picnic/
http://www.korasoi.com/blog/2011/06/vegetarian-tandoori-kebabs-from-scratch
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