love the stuffed peppers recipe.

the only thing i'd add is Mujaddara and felafel to this great list.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/butternut-squash-lasagna-recipe/index.html

This is my go-to fall dish. I like it so much I almost always divide the recipe into two dishes so I can freeze half for later!

I had a vegetarian dinner party last night. We grilled up kabobs of mushrooms, brussel sprouts, onions, fennel, tomatoes, and squash. I whipped up some peanut sauce and sautee'd some tofu and made asian steamed buns. It was excellent.

I made a mezze spread for an omnivore over the weekend: eggplant caponata, fresh bread, hummus, roasted green beans, and sauteed carrots & cauliflower with lemon and garlic.

Oh my word, can it be that no-one mentioned halloumi? Almost all my friends are veggies and this cheese is my saviour! It's the perfect veggie dinner party backbone for a main meal; cut it into thick planks and grill it with red peppers, then stuff it into burgers or flatbread, or stick cubes of it onto kebab skewers (thin bamboo ones are best) with mixed veg and a dusting of paprika and roast them for 20 mins, or coat it with breadcrumbs and fry it...it's so so tasty and hefty enough that no veggie will complain of still being hungry. Or I also sometimes do a main course salad of rocket, tomatoes, roasted peppers etc, and surround the mound of colourful vegetables with big ciabatta croutons topped with rounds of goats' cheese and popped under the grill; with a dollop of chutney or caramelised onions on top of each crouton it's beautiful and fancy enough to be dinner party appropriate. Who needs bacon?

I make a version of Tiffani Faison's Top Chef lasagna in a pumpkin:

http://recipes-stage.bravotv.com/top_chef/season_1/episode_1/pumpkin_lasagna.php

Taking care to only choose vegetarian cheeses and I skip the gingersnaps but serve it with sage leaves fried in brown butter.

My other favorite is a pasta bar, with multiple sauces, which can easily be made completely vegan.

I make a killer vegan lasagna with zuchinni as the "pasta" portion and raw cashew "cheese". Sooo amazingly delicious and filling. My hubby keeps asking for it again and he is not vegetarian or vegan.

Re: 18 and 29 - Proper parmesan is never ever vegetarian. It has to be made using rennet. I don't know about America, but in Europe the law (Protected Geographical Status) means that parmesan is never vegetarian, as only cheese made in the right place with the right ingredients in the right way is allowed to be called parmesan.

This can cause a lot of problems for vegetarians, unfortunately, as parmesan is used in lots of things. It's almost impossible to buy vegetarian pesto in a normal supermarket in Britain, for example. :(

Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/may/15/foodanddrink.uk

what a great list!

I've noticed that nobody has stated the obvious (especially with the season coming up): Anything Vegetable Grilled. Plus, you can accommodate with some pre-planning for your non-vegetarian guests.

I've had extremely good luck with most hearty vegetables and fruits, but you can also grill marinated pressed tofu. The key is though to make sure that the tofu is oiled a bit, and put it on last- it just needs to develop a light crust from searing, get a bit of that smoky flavor and just watch it.

www.unprofessionalcookery.tumblr.com

unprofessionalcookery, a couple of us did recommend grilled vegetables --- it's one of my favorite fair-weather dishes! And it's great not to heat up the house in summertime.

I especially love to serve a big platter of grilled mixed veggies with a basket of grilled bread: a tiny bit of oil or butter and a few minutes on the grill turns simple, good bread into something transcendent.

Like you, I've had great success with grilled tofu, either slathered with homemade barbecue sauce (which gets all caramelized on the grill) or marinated in a classic oil-vinegar (or oil-citrus) marinade. Next time I make grilled marinated tofu, I'm going to roll the tofu planks in sesame seeds. That should give a great crunch and flavor and make sure the tofu releases from the grill without tearing.

@thehoopiestfrood brings up a good point, vegetarian cheeses - cheese isn't inherently vegetarian, understanding what's what means you'll have reduced your usable cheese pool for vegetarians down to less than 20% of what markets generally offer. Trader Joe's is one of the few shops that offers a list on their website and will give you a shopping list of vegetarian cheeses at the customer service counter. The topic, i.e., understanding the various cheese enzymes, is a genuine eye opener for anyone who cooks for vegetarians and might make a good article for TheKitchn.

I'm saddened to see so many heavy dishes on this list. Just because it's vegetarian doesn't mean you have to load it with dairy and pasta.

Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes are great-- he uses a lot of bold and unusual pairings. Definitely not your typical vegetarian fare, and far more interesting.

To some of the posters: a lot of vegetarians eat dairy. I think the cheese comments would affect mostly those who are vegans, who use no animal products of any kind.

No, that is the general misunderstanding to do with cheese which causes this problem. It's nothing to do dairy. Cheese can be vegetarian or non-vegetarian depending on if it contains rennet. Rennet is an enzyme taken from the stomach of calves, so any cheese containing this is not vegetarian.

We're quite lucky in the UK, and the majority of cheeses nowadays are suitable for vegetarians, and everything is labelled very well so you can tell if they are vegetarian or not. However there are still cheeses which are not - such as parmesan - which, as I explained before, is never ever vegetarian. There are some vegetarian hard cheese substitutes, but they can never be called "parmesan".

Obviously how much you care about this depends on how "strict" a vegetarian you are - and a lot of people just aren't aware of this and it causes problems for people who aren't vegetarians when they are cooking for vegetarians.

There are similar problems with gelatine (bones), isinglas (fish swim bladder), cochineal (bugs) and whey (when taken from non-vegetarian cheese).

Sorry, typo: "It's nothing to do with dairy or veganism."

Vegetarian tagine always goes over well, even with meat-eaters; we use a recipe from "Party Food for Vegetarians" by Celia Brooks Brown (an overall awesome resource.) It's vegan, unless you add labne or another yogurt topping.
For more committed veggies, I like Peter Berley's tasty yet slightly fussy recipe for Seitan Bourguinon in "The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen"; that recipe has inspired me to swap out seitan for lamb or beef in a lot of recipes, particularly stews and slow-cooked dishes--Madhur Jaffrey has a delicious mock lamb curry made from seitan that I love. (I wouldn't usually serve a meat-substitute to non-vegetarians, however; as much as I love seitan, I suspect someone used to meat would find it disorienting.) Watch out, though; seitan recipes are not appropriate for people who have wheat allergies!
It's a bit of last-minute work, but quite impressive, to serve socca (Nicoise chickpea flour pancake); I like it with tomatoes, rosemary, and pecorino, but you could easily make it without the cheese.
A super-easy-yet-impressive dish for brunch or a casual dinner is shakshuka (Israeli dish of eggs poached in tomato sauce)--there are myriad recipes, but I like Joan Nathan's version of Doktor Shakshuka's recipe in "The Foods of Israel Today."
As for the roasted vegetable suggestions: yes, if they are done well and if the veggies have real flavor to begin with. While I can't get enough of slow-roasted, cumin-dusted cauliflower or maple-glazed brussels sprouts, I have suffered (politely) through many an oil-soaked, flavorless "meal" of greasy zucchini and eggplant. For those who are not vegetarians looking to serve a dish to your veggie friends, consider that if this roasted veggie item IS the meal, and not just an accompaniment to a piece of meat, it should have the flavorful and textural "heft" of a main dish!
Yum...I want to throw a dinner party right now...

That Tennessee Corn Pone (#26) is wonderful - hearty, filling, delicious comfort food!

Great post. I bet with all these delicious dishes no one would miss the meat. But...I wish meat-eaters weren't so worried about "getting enough protein". (Maybe they should be worried instead about getting enough veggies!) There is plenty of protein in veggies. Vegans would feel unsatisfied and hungry if that weren't the case. :-)

I really want the recipe for Stileto's nut Wellington so I can make it for Christmas Eve. Please post!

I would also add that just because someone IS a vegetarian doesn't mean they live in fear of meals that don't have a vegetarian centerpiece. A few veg-friendly side dishes that are interesting are more welcome than a token veggie burger.

But why should vegetarian dishes be relegated to be "side" dishes? Don't we know enough about nutrition to know that we should favor veggies and if we have meat at all make *meat* the side dish? (I know, ridiculously radical.)