Easy Vegan Appetizers ~ Feed A Crowd & Party On!

Whether you’re having a birthday or anniversary party, Super Bowl or Australian Open party, you’ll need to be able to feed a crowd. Feeding a crowd a bunch of vegan appetizers is easier than you might think, as long as you stop thinking of party food in traditional ways.

The first party I threw after going vegan was to celebrate Wimbledon (Hello, I am a tennis nerd! :P) and I was thinking like an animal eating party thrower. My mind immediately went to things like meatballs and buffalo wings, spinach & artichoke dip and all those other party snacks filled with dairy and flesh. No bueno.

As time went on, I became more comfortable just thinking about vegan appetizers and ways to veganize old school party foods. That was (almost) five years ago and now, I feel like a pro.

I mean, I’m not a pro but I feel less stressed when making food for a crowd. Then again that could be because I haven’t attended many crowded events for…some time now.

Feeding a mixed crowd of vegans and non-vegans isn’t something I worry about. Why? Because my husband and I are both vegans and so is our household. If you come to our house, you should expect to be served vegan food. Period.

But you know what? Even if it’s just you and your family, however big or small that is, vegan appetizers are a great way to have a snack fest all day on special days. This particular spread of vegan party food was for me and the hubs on New Year’s Eve.

Let’s start with the vegan pate because that was the most time consuming to make, but only because of the sheer number of ingredients that needed to be measured.

Cook the mushrooms on top of the stove until they start to get a bit crisp on the edges but NOT until they start to release all of their water. It takes 5 to 7 minutes, give or take.

Remove the mushrooms and add in onion for another 5 minutes, then add in capers, sundried tomatoes and half the beans.

Place the other half of the beans along with the capers, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and cornstarch into a food processor. Pulse about a dozen times and then add the cooked ingredients. Start with a choppy pulse and then run until the ingredients are smooth-ish, with a pate-like consistency.

If it’s still too crumbly, add waste free broth or water, a little at a time until you get the right consistency.

This recipe was adapted from the EdgyVeg because I love her and enjoy her recipes tremendously. Why adapted? Because there are plenty of ingredients that I was unable to find at the market the week I made this, like parsley and sunflower seeds. I wanted to make an oil-free vegan pate so I left that out on my own. I used beans because I blended that recipe with another and the beans sounded like a cool addition.

Basically I did my research and then made my own vegan pate recipe.

Refrigerate it or bake it to get the flavors blended. If you want really deep flavors, make it the night before and let it settle overnight.

NEXT!

The easiest vegan dip to make is this garlic roasted red pepper dip that has become my go-to over the years, with small tweaks here and there.

What you’ll need for this recipe: firm tofu (in brine), roasted red peppers, cooked garlic, nutritional yeast, plant milk and lemon juice.

Cook the garlic until it becomes fragrant. I recommend you chop it up a little to avoid chunks of uncooked garlic.

You can roast the red peppers yourself or buy the jarred version. If you choose jarred, give them a rinse to get rid of the brine or oil, depending on which jar you buy.

Pop everything into the food processor and run until smooth, or as smooth as you can get it. With firm tofu, it does take some time and finesse to get it smooth especially if you opt for an oil-free dip like I did. If you’re fine with additional fat, try oil or vegan mayo or even veggiegurt to help smooth out the vegan dip, but I don’t mind a little bit of texture.

For any kind of vegan dips or vegan appetizers, you’ll want dippers. Grab a baguette and your favorite veggies, maybe even some crackers and you’ll have a happy crowd. I went with cucumber slices, bell peppers and carrots, but it’s your party, crudité it up however you please!

Full disclosure: this next recipe was totally my husband’s creation. He wanted to make some type of vegan deviled eggs but here in Romania there aren’t many options for vegan egg products so he improvised. The mushrooms replace the egg white and the yolks are vegan tuna with a combination of veggiegurt and tofu.

Here is the full list of ingredients:

Bake the mushrooms as you would for any kind of stuffed mushroom recipe, so they’re cooked but not flat or too soggy.

Split the vegan tuna in half. We used Unfished brand because it is delicious…and available.

Place half the tuna into the food processor with the rest of the ingredients and run until smooth.

Fold remaining vegan tuna into the mixture along with a tablespoon or two of pickle juice because that’s the key to any decent deviled eggs recipe, right? Stuff the mushrooms once they’ve cooled and garnish with fresh dill because dill & vegan tuna are a match made in the stars!

The great thing about these vegan appetizers is that you can make them to feed a crowd of any size. For example, the deviled egg dip above makes at least double the amount of mushrooms than you see pictured because The Hubs was a little excited in his new vegan recipe creation.

There was leftover roasted red pepper dip as well because it’s a lot. The only thing that was gone sooner rather than later was the vegan pate, which should tell you how delicious it was.

The Australian Open starts this week and there are plenty of other reasons to celebrate so gather a friend or two and show off your vegan appetizer making skills.

Be sure to tag me on Instagram if make these recipes!