How nice to invite friends for dinner, see them happy while they are eating the food I cooked for them. Food has this magical power that while we are eating around a table laughing and talking about our lives or any other subject, we are more relaxed and let down our guard. That is the time in which you can talk about anything and that is the time in which I like to explain the plate that I have decided to cook for that particular dinner or that particular group of friend.

The dinner

Some days ago I had for dinner two friends that are following a vegan diet. Silvia and Sauro are masters of martial arts, dealing with acupuncture, chinese medicine and nutrition education.

I can remember myself a few years ago panicking without knowing what to cook. But today it is all different as my diet has evolved and I often eat vegan or vegetarian. A difference is that today I am able to invent dishes with what I have in the fridge but the biggest one is that today I really enjoy to cook.
I immediately picked up the challenge, of course, and I can say that dinner went very well as also my other friends (Annalisa, Barbara, Chiara, Massimiliano e Francesco) liked it even if they are not following a vegan diet.

The menu

1. oil dip of raw vegetables (carrots, celery, fresh little onions, fennels and radishes) with a vegan mayonnaise made with soy milk (I followed Simone Salvini’s recipe).
2. roasted carasau bread with extra virgin olive oil and dry herbs (La cucina etica);
3. whole spinach rice;
4. sautéed tofu with shoyu, ginger and mixed vegetables (in my favourite keramiek on demand bowl);
5. raw cabbage with toasted seeds;

Finally some fresh slice of pineapple and a warm ginger tea.

Now that the dinner is over I am thinking about all other dishes that I could have made: chickpea flour pancakes with vegetable, tofu and leek patty… well, I’ll definitely create another nice occasion to improve my vegan’s menu.
Is there any vegan who wants to come to dinner?