My husband and I absolutely love entertaining. We love having people over and creating good memories with people. Part of the easiest way to bring people together is by sharing a fun meal together.

After reading the Little Book of Hygge, I’ve become a huge fan of party food that takes some assembling together with your guests. It’s ideal if everyone brings a little ingredient themselves, it helps create a sense of unity and informality that I just love.

When it comes to vegans entertaining non-vegans, I feel this method helps break downs walls and show people that they too, can easily create impressive vegan food.

With the idea of co-assembly in mind, these are the dishes I find that is the most fun to serve at get-togethers with your non-vegan homies.

What to cook your non-vegan friends

Vegan Perogies

This comfort food is insanely easy to make and a crowd-pleaser for most people. You can get a large bag (or 2) of cheap potatoes onion perogies at any local grocery store.

Ingredients you and your friends can contribute:

• LOTS of green onions

• Vegan sour cream

• Hot sauce

• Onions to saute

• Vegan ham or bacon, finely sliced

• Sliced vegan sausages

• Salt & Pepper

• Saurkraut

You cannot go wrong with a vegan perogy bar for your non-vegan friends. This is that good comfort food that you and your friends didn’t know you needed.

Have everyone bring an ingredient, chop it up and saute it all together.

Vegan mac and cheese

This is super simple and insanely delicious!

Buy a large box of vegan macaroni and cook it according to instructions.

I would follow this recipe for some incredible and easy vegan cheese sauce that even your non-vegan friends will love!

You can easily serve this as is or top it with green onions, vegan hot dog slices, crumbled vegan sausage, or simply hot sauce or ketchup.

Vegan Burgers

This is an easy way to make everyone happy!

I’d recommend you provide all the patties, buns, and condiments and have your guests volunteer for what kind of burger toppings they want to contribute.

Some vegan burger bar topping ideas:

• Lettuce

• Onion (fresh or sauteed)

• Tomato

• Pickles

• Mushroom (fresh or sauteed)

• Jalapeno

• Vegan cheese slices

• Avocado

• Olives (because I love olives)

• Sprouts

Vegan Burritos

I’m obsessed with this dinner party method.

Things I’d recommend providing and prepping for your guests:

1. Vegan wraps

2. Vegan ground round

3. Refried beans

4. Rice

Things I’d suggest your guests bring:

• corn

• cabbage slaw

• red or white onion (diced)

• tomatoes (diced)

• jalapeno

• cilantro

• lime

• shred iceberg lettuce

• avocado

• bell peppers, sliced

• OLIVES

• pico or salsa

• vegan sour cream

• their favourite hot sauce!

Everyone feels involved and excited to assemble their burritos. They are so easy and insanely delicious, your party guests will not be disappointed.

Vegan tacos

I mean really just take the list from above and modify it a bit! No rice needed, obviously.

For incredible vegan pulled chicken taco meat, shred a bunch of king oyster mushrooms seasoned with fajita spices. Cook on high in a well-oiled cast-iron until there is some caramelization. Let it cook in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes afterward to make it softer and less moist.

Some other awesome vegan taco fillers are listed below:

• Vegan Al Pastor Mushroom Tacos

• Vegan fish tacos

Vegan Pizzas

You may be shocked to know, but the fresh ready-made pizza dough sold at most grocery stores is (usually) vegan! Be sure to double-check the ingredient list but it should be totally vegan according to my experiences.

I would suggest buying a couple of dough balls the night before your party in order to ensure it is ready to go the night you want to use it.

With this vegan pizza bar, I would simply provide all the dough, tomato sauce, and vegan cheese shreds while asking your friends to bring their favorite toppings!

Topping ideas:

• Vegan pepperoni

• Vegan sausage (crumbled)

• Onion

• Tomato

• Green pepper

• Mushroom

• Artichoke

• Pineapple (!?!?!?)

• Olives (black and/or green)

• Fresh basil

• Vegan feta crumble

• Spicy banana peppers

• Etc.

With this you and your friends can really go crazy. There are no limits to the different types of fun combinations you can whip up together.

If you think this is something you can see yourself doing a lot, I’d highly recommend buying yourself a pizza stone. My husband and I bought one a while ago and we’ve had no regrets about it! It truly helps elevate our at-home pizza game.

Vegan Vietnamese Salad Rolls

This one depends on your friend group. If everyone seems into eating a little more “clean” and fresh, then Vietnamese salad rolls are a super fun way to go.

I’d provide the rice paper wraps, cooked thin rice noodles (follow package instructions), smoked tofu slices, hoisin sauce, sriracha, and peanut sauce for your guests.

Beyond that, you can ask your guests to bring over the following:

• Thai basil

• Cilantro

• Cucumber (cut into thin matchsticks)

• Carrot (shred)

• Cabbage (shred)

• Red pepper (thin matchsticks)

• Chives

• Lettuce or spinach leaves

• Any other fun toppings your crew wants to experiment with

I’d recommend having multiple soaking spots on the table for people.

Now you can all bond over your struggle to wrap your delicious rolls and see who does it best. Having flavourful sauces for your salad wraps is key, so ensure you have that ready to go before your non-vegan friends arrive!

Vegan Nachos

This one is so easy and an easy crowd-pleaser.

For this I recommend having the following ready:

• 2 or 3 large trays for the nachos

• Vegan cheese shreds or prepped vegan queso cheese

• Lots of nacho chips!

• Optional - vegan cooked ground beef

Have your friends bring:

• Corn

• Diced onion

• diced tomatoes

• diced bell peppers

• sliced olives

• cilantro

• black beans or kidney beans

• jalapeno

• vegan sour cream

• salsa

• avocado and/or guacamole

Your friends will be so happy munching on this packed-out gourmet vegan nacho dish. Be sure to assemble it all together.

Vegan open-faced Sandwiches

I’ll admit it, I know this sounds hella boring but when we did this with our friends it was a surprise hit! This idea was also taken straight from The Little Book of Happiness. Make sure you provide enough different bread loaves to toast up!

Everyone is to bring something that goes on top of a toastie, some ideas are:

• Hummus

• Avocado

• Red Pepper Jelly

• Vegan cheese

• Baked Beans

• Sauteed mushroom

• Peanut butter

• Banana

• Maple syrup

• Sprouts

• Brushetta

• Vegan feta

• Roast Red Pepper Spread

• Olive spread

• Cooked tofu slices in a sweet/savory sauce

• Vegan deviled tofu

• Pickles

• Vegan cream cheese

• Fresh Dill and/or other herbs

• Capers

• Radish

• Smoked carrot lox

• Vegan Pesto

• Roasted veggies

Your group can have a tun of fun toasting bread and creating epic topped toasties. There is something so simple and comforting about making and eating these. It was a surprising amount of fun and I highly recommend you try it out.

Vegan Gyros

I had to throw this in here! It’s so easy and delicious your friends will go nuts.

I recommend loading up on pitas and vegan beyond meat koftas ahead of time.

Check out my insanely easy recipe below.

Other ingredients you or your friends can contribute:

• Optional (but highly recommended) frozen french fries freshly baked or fried

• Vegan tzatziki

• Shred lettuce

• Sliced and seasoned tomatoes

• Sliced and seasoned onion

Vegan Lettuce Wraps

I have a recipe for vegan lettuce wraps on the blog already, however for your non-vegan friends and to keep things simple for you, I would recommend just using beyond ground meat or impossible ground meat as the main filler.

I would recommend you ensure you have lots of iceberg lettuce, crumbled veggie ground, hoisin sauce, sriracha, and ideally a quick and easy peanut sauce ready to go.

Your friends can bring:

• red Thai chilis

• shred carrot

• diced onion

• crumbled nuts

• chives

• bean sprouts

• cilantro

• lime

This is some flavor-packed guilt-free goodness you can all feel good about. The only possible mistake you can make with this is not cooking enough of it.

Final notes on vegan recipes for non-vegans

I think it’s extra impactful to let your friends feel involved in your vegan food to show them how truly easy it is to cook and try vegan things! When you cook it together, it helps them see that they can make these simple vegan dishes themselves any time they want. It helps break down those walls of oh that’s what so and so eats and I have no idea how to make that stuff.

Beyond that though, these are simply highly tasty vegan recipes that anyone would enjoy eating and be impressed by.

Tag me if you do any of these vegan party food bars for non-vegans! :)