Vegetarian special

Peggy, way to grow and expand!! In the area of Cleveland that I set up in I have a ton of vegans, vegetarians, and PETA folks....yeah, I have heard my fair share of complaints about pigs...chickens...etc...etc...etc...
But, I met with a couple of the community members at one of their meetings, and asked for input on what I can serve to make them happy since my current menu has tempted some of the flock. They are actually putting a few recipes together for me to try in the FEC100 (of course, not while shoulder or ribs are going)...but I found it to be a good experience. A lot of them are employees of some of the vegetarian establishments around the area. I will mail you some of the recipes that they end up putting together for me, and let you try them out. AGAIN, congrats on the growth with you business.....GOD knows that my business has overwhelmed me, but I reckon it is true, be careful what you ask for....lol

Rob

here is something i have been experimenting with...maybe you can use it. you will have to hit or miss with the exact measurements.
basically, in a half pan, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, maybe some cerlery, or any other veggies, a couple cups of vegetable stock, and a couple cups of long grain rice. cook all together covered until rice is done. makes a great dish. normally, its done with plenty of bacon, ham, or other meats and drippings. around here, they call it red rice, cause the rice soaks up the tomato juice. absolutely wonderful aroma!
i tried it the other day with chicken, pork, and beef. mmmmmmmmm.
but i got the feeling it would be an awesome dish without meat products, just replace with veggie stock, or perhaps V-8.. or just tomato juice.. add a little citrus(fresh), and maybe some habaneros.....jalapenos

after thought.... maybe take that veggie mixture, also make a veggie bean mixture, wrap them both up in a tortilla with cheese, and bbq sauce....
"the veggie-bean queburrito"

Rob and coffebluff,
Thank you both. I would love any ideas your friends come up with, Rob. The q-burrito sounds like a good idea, too.
We sell plenty of meat and most of the folks that buy the meat don't want anything with it except for bread. I usually sneak in a few pieces of fruit.
The vegetarians have been so nice to us. I had no idea how many there are in this market. I felt we could increase sales greatly. I just don't want to get overwhelmed and feeling like we're running in circles trying to satisfy people, either. The strata recipe costs .60 per serving, I think is what Jack figured and sells for $4.00. That's not counting the lettuce leaf, tomato slice and mango pieces we put in the box, but we have that on hand and usually end up bringing a box full of lettuce and tomato home with us. So we use what we normally have left over as garnish and side and make money. Still have enough lettuce and tomato for our sandwiches when we get home. We're trying to think of a good vegan meal and thanks to you guys, we're getting there.
Peggy

Hey Peggy,

Have you considered stuffed peppers? I'm thinking green bell, but any big mild pepper would work. Just stuffed with rice, onions, red beans, and maybe cheese. Then topped with tomato sauce when served. These would cook up real nice and smokey in the FEC and what you don't serve will freeze well for the next week. Also easy on prep and holding. Garnish with pork rinds.....er, I mean fruit and it would look nice.

Also, are you'all doing a fruit bowl? Maybe with a cream cheese dip? Seems like a natural in Fla. and it's easy to do as well. Anything you do is going to look and taste better than the fruit bowls offered by the fast food places too. I know these are real basic, but the vegeterians I know, in addition to not eating meat, seem to be real pickey about what they will eat. I've been very surprised the see vegan types picking carrots and mushrooms and cucumbers off of salads because they don't like them.

I'm revamping the menu at two local restaurants and the owner wants to add several vegeterian dishes. I was just downstairs looking through some cookbooks for inspiration of a vegetarian nature. Every recipe seemed to be missing something, then I realized they all needed meat. I really can't wrap my head around a meatless lifestyle.

one of my heartiest customers's wife is a vegetarian. i talked to her about what she prefers. she normally likes stuff that does not resemble meat..like i bought these veggie burgers.....not.. they resemble meat, so she dont do that. she does however like tofu and soy products, which i think have a flavor resembling dog poo...
the easiest is to do like squash casserole, veggie gumbo stew, garden salad, three bean salad, or mix veggie plate. perhaps the smartest way is to create something different each week, peggy. then see what gets the most encore request.
perhaps baked ziti veggiestyle.....
i love the green peppers idea.

How about FEC baked potatoes, stuffed with spinach, onions, and cream cheese. Or the same topped with a brocolli/cauliflower/cheese mixture. Have squirt bottles of liquid marg. for them to use as needed. The smokey potatoes would taste great, and I think you could find an easy way to hold them and their topping(s) at serving temp. Also, baked potato wedges with tahinni-lemon sauce. I'll even eat that.

Small calzones would not be much trouble to make, but holding them for servce might be difficult.

I've been looking through my limited supply of vegeterian style cook books again, and there are a lot of Russian and Indian dishes that would be pretty easy to convert to a casserole style item. One hotel pan will do at least 24 servings, so that might get you through an entire day?

I do a mean white sauce based vegetable lasagne that people love. layers of broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and carrots makes for a colorful serving. They always say they have never seen a white sauced based lasagna, but I would never think of doing a vegetable lasagna with a red sauce. Go figure. Anyway, it holds well and freezes well also, but there might be a market for take home sized portions too since you are at the farmers market and people are in the take home mode. Also works well with smoked chicken added for normal folks.

Lastly, I did a french bread pizza kind of thing for a pool party last week(general idea stolen without remorse from Bobby Flay). Roasted garlic french bread from BJ's, sliced and toasted, then topped with smoked tomato puree, smoked thin sliced red onions, shreded basil, and cheese. I did up 6 loaves(12 pieces) and it held up well even with the tomato puree. The moisture from the tomato offset the drying of the bread. Tasted really good, and it's not so much like pizza that people would expect you to reheat it. It works well at room temp so you could plate and wrap ahead of time. I'm trying to think of things that could be totally prepped ahead of time. It's too hot in Fla this time of year to try and quickly prepare stuff to order for window service. That's almost like work.

BTW, what does Jack think of all this vegeterian stuff? Is he still speaking to you?

Some others that should be easy:

Cheese grits with roasted veggies. mix up the cheeses. One week cheddar, next fontina, next blue, ........

Cold pasta(spaghetti) or Chinese noodle(Lo Mein) salad with sauteed/roasted veggies, peppers, tofu, cheese........Some could be sweet like Thai coconut and others could be savory with toasted oil and garlic........

Cold couscous, with feta cheese and veggies and nuts.........

Kind of a run on a theme. You could also have an option of adding pulled chicken or pork to any of the above on a case by case basis.

You are all so SUPER! I'd think you were all vegetarians! I can't imagine not liking meat, unless you tasted my chicken at the Callahan competition!
I like the pork rind garnish idea! We're all used to the parsley garnish that everybody shoves to the side of their plate, right?
Thank you, my meaty heroes! Cookshack folks are the greatest.

Peggy

Todd,
Jack is still speaking to me. He came up with the strata recipe that sold out! It costs less than $1.00 including the garnishes, I consider lettuce and tomato and a few slices of fruit to be a garnish. We sold it for $4.00. It was delicious. I'd eat it for breakfast or lunch. It fit in great with the time of day we're selling.
He did a killer brisket at Callahan. Unfortunately, we had a tough judging table for that entry. We did finish 1st at our table. We're definitely still carnivores!
Peggy

even though peggy has done it i just wanted to thank everyone for their help.
as i was telling todd in his "backing into it" thread i saw a strange trend developing in sales since we offered a veggie dish. the trend seems to be our meat sales are going up!!!!!!
i sure dont understand the driving factor behind this other than maybe people are hearing something like "hey those bbq guys offered us something to eat and it was good". in the next few weeks i will be adding two more veggie items and for sure you guys can bet that they are going to be based upon all the good ideas you gave us.
again thanks for all the help and ideas and input!!!!!!!!
jack