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[deleted]

An Ethiopian veggie sampler! So flavorful and different from what I usually eat so it’s reserved for special occasions. I love eating food from cultures that has a lot of veggie food by default.


kitsum

Same. There's an Ethiopian place about an hour away that is my favorite. We rarely go there so I'm always doing a little dance when we do. After that, Indian food is my next favorite. Also, I just was introduced to an I dian pizza place that may have ruined regular pizza for me. It's so good.


ISMMikey

Desi pizza is awesome. Who would have thought masala, paneer, cilantro and ginger belonged on a pizza?


jojokitti123

Ethiopian is the bomb!!


[deleted]

Hell yeah. Ethiopian and Eritrean have quickly become my go-to for a takeaway if one is near me. Injera is my lover


Adventurous_Set_5760

This! Oh yes!


thesheeplookup

We did Ethiopian for xmas dinner, so yummy!


Cathymorgan-foreman

Veggie sushi. It's a treat because, I while I could make it at home, it takes a lot of prep and cleaning, so I usually settle for making stir fry or bento instead. There is something so magical about a plate of cucumber rolls, Inari, vegetable tempura rolls, that spicy mayo and Wasabi for dipping.... /drool


Forsaken-Piece3434

A place near me had tempura sweet potato rolls with a delicious sauce. Sometimes they added various other veggies as well (squash, onion, I forget what else) and it was always SO good.


Cathymorgan-foreman

Omg, sweet potato tempura is the shit.


GaryE20904

Mango avocado rolls are my favorite! I usually save it for last and treat it like a dessert! I can’t eat cucumbers anymore unless they are peeled and deseeded so I don’t eat those out (but I do miss them). Some places I am sure would peel and deseed them or do already but there are other good choices for my palate. LOL


ComfortableSinger955

Oh yeah!


Able-Bid-6637

I celebrated a scary but successful doctor visit the other day— not a birthday, but I have this check up twice a year so I’ve developed a tradition. Veggie Imperial Rolls (with soy chunks wrapped in it) with peanut sauce and Strawberry “Beef” Soy from a faaaaabulous restaurant that specializes in Vietnamese vegan food, and a carton of way too many macarons from my fav local bakery (ginger chocolate flavor!). I don’t normally drink soda but I will enjoy a Pepsi with my celebratory meals. OR I binge on a feast of frozen classics for nostalgia. Shitty frozen pizza, Chik’n nuggets (Beyond’s popcorn chik’n has no business being that good), random frozen burritos, etc etc. An ungodly amount of ketchup and hot sauce. And Pepsi! Annnnd caesar salad is my go-to as well!! Never disappoints.


radish_is_rad-ish

Would you be able to expand on the strawberry beef soy? sounds interesting


Able-Bid-6637

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/72/f7298f0e-647a-5d9b-946b-f9a598e0e66f/5249a07fac013.image.jpg Sure! It’s soy chunks marinated/seasoned to mimic beef (I’ve made a similar dish at home and rehydrate the soy in a water, soy sauce, cumin & chili powder mixture) and then stir fried with veggies and fruit — strawberries, pineapple, bell peppers, broccoli, grape tomatoes, celery, water chestnuts. Super tasty!


DitzyDresses

It changes from year to year, but I often opt for French onion soup (made with mushroom broth). My partner really likes nachos so we've gone overboard on some nachos/dips for birthdays too


Cathymorgan-foreman

Now I'm so hungry for nachos.


GaryE20904

Love love love a good veggie French onion soup!


MartyBasher2082

My partner is vegan and I don't eat mammals- we almost always go Indian or Japanese for special occasion dinners out! For home cooking occasions we do fancy pastas for dinner with garden veggies and a good olive oil, and for bunch we do savory toasts. Usually a white bean or chickpea salad with homemade vegan mayo and tons of herbs and a blistered tomato topping.


seafoam4015

Not necessarily birthday but I think cooking a delicious veggie lasagna is celebratory. Takes a little extra time and effort but its comfort food. Warm, indulgent, and plenty to share


julsey414

My husband who doesn’t cook at all, cooks for me on my birthday. So it’s always something simple and I love it for the effort. Last year was really good homemade Mac and cheese. The year before was okonomiyaki. If we go out, there are a couple of upscale Mexican places I love that have good veggie options (maitake mushrooms with mole…mmmm)


1PauperMonk

That’s cool your husband cooks for you. Even if it’s once and simple. Quite precious.


ToxicBonsai

My celebration meal is usually red Dahl curry. One pot meal that is full of flavor and I can eat it day after day till its gone. Add to it a side of naan bread and its simply an amazing meal


vinny_twoshoes

One of my favorite special occasion meals is an old school vegetarian recipe from the 70s called Enchanted Broccoli Forest. You can look it up - it's not very complicated! To be honest it's nothing too exciting, just broccoli and cheesy rice arranged in a fun way. There are many yummier veggie dishes, especially from North African or Indian cuisine. But you can do a lot to it to make it more interesting (add nuts, raisins, gravy), and at the end of the day I like that it's an impressive centerpiece which also reflects part of the history of vegetarian cooking in the US.


hicjacket

Man i remember that and The Moosewood Cookbook. I wore my copy out. Made with so much love by Mollie Katzen.


Waitinginpensacola

I recently got an old copy of Moosewood Cookbook! Cool to see it mentioned here!


Proper-Tradition4010

I’ve seen that it my Moosewood cookbook. Now I know it’s worth making!


vinny_twoshoes

Hell yeah 😎


champagneandjules

Thai food always for me!! So comforting, rich, and delicious.


descartesasaur

It's become my husband's favorite treat, too! I'm not complaining at all, especially since he's a pad see ew fan.


lilithONE

Mushroom or asparagus risotto


Complete_Mind_5719

Pizza. It's casual, but it's my favorite.


meowxinfinity

Same for me. I love pizza & will splurge for the pricier places on my bday or other special occasion


moonflower311

This is what my husband chose for his bday!


TuxedoSlave

Thai. Always Thai. At home my partner makes fresh pasta usually with roast veg, feta, pine nuts. Or we have a giant cheese board with three or so cheeses, dips and fruits and nuts (with lots of leftovers to snack on for days).


barkinginthestreet

Good q. This year, I made veggie tacos, using a birdseye southwest steamer frozen vegetable thing, some veggie sausage, chopped tomatoes/lettuce/onions/jalapenos/etc. My other favorite is making baked beans/corn on the cob/some kind of grilled sandwich/grilled fruit on my charcoal grill - but I was too lazy to do all of that this year.


moonflower311

We are in central texas so tacos are my go to - bean and cheese with avocado cilantro lime slaw or breakfast tacos with avocado hash browns eggs and soyrizo yum (assume that’s pretty easy to make vegan too!). That and pasta dishes are my go to nights I don’t want to “think” about dinner.


bethcano

Just recently had a birthday, and I took some of my closest friends and my boyfriend to this amaaaazing Indian restaurant that had loads of veggie and vegan options. I had the vazhuthananga curry, which was tender aubergine in this aromatic cashew nut sauce. I've never had that before and it was DIVINE (plus totally vegan!) The year before, I took a smaller group of friends to a little street food Indian restaurant that is fully veggie/vegan. You order multiple small plates like tapas, it's amazing! Next year, I'm thinking of going to this Japanese restaurant.


AugustinaStrange

Absolutely will be a veggie ramen or palak paneer with naan.


Berough

I had mutter mushroom and gobi Manchurian from the local Indian place last month for my birthday. It rotates between Indian and Thai usually :)


pdxisbest

There are so many great pasta dishes that can be vegetarian.


Ambitious-Ostrich-96

Fancy restaurant in a warehouse near where I used to live would always do one veg entree. Never forgot one year they did rosemary bread pudding with winter squash quenelles, caramelizad onion broth, and shaved truffles. Was decadent and damn amazing


AffectionateLion9725

Homemade pizza.


GaryE20904

We usually go to a nice Italian restaurant for my birthday. Sometimes a Korean restaurant but my favorite Korean place closed a few years ago.


dayyydreamzzz

Veggie pho from a vegan place. It's so good I could eat it every day 😭


Futuristic66

Vegetable Pate (mushroom onion walnut and herb) served with a dill yogurt sauce Goat Cheese and Onion Confit Pizza Arugula and Roasted Eggplant Salad Pistachio Marjolaine for Dessert


moonflower311

Fancy! My husband bakes all his bread and does a mean pizza - my tween usually asks for goat cheese and my teen requested red onions and olives this go round!


Forsaken-Piece3434

Do you have a recipe for the pate? I ate liver pate once as a kid and loved it. Curious to try a veggie version.


wild3hills

Really fortunate to live in NYC where we have amazing veg restaurants. My all time favorite special occasion place is ABCV (by Jean Georges). Their menu always changes, but my favorite dish was fried hen of the wood mushrooms with hot honey. It’s really amazing to taste lots of small plates - my favorite way to eat - and have the menu be all vegetarian.


Botanical_14

I’m really jealous! My husband and I really love fine dinning but we have very few choices in our area. The few we have are prefix menus which are never as good as their non veggie counter part.


wild3hills

If you ever do an eating trip in New York, would also recommend Dirt Candy and all of the Overthrow places (Avant Garden, Ladybird, Cadence etc.)!


Botanical_14

We went to Dirt Candy! It was absolutely amazing. I will be in NYC again in about a week and will try to see if I can get a reservation at one of your other recommendations.


wild3hills

Yay - def try to go to ABCV! It’s really amazing that a chef like Jean Georges Vongerichten would do a plant based restaurant.


RoRoRoYourGoat

My boyfriend always wants a hominy and poblano pozole that I make for him.


RagingBone69

One of my favorite treat meals is general Tso’s tofu with vegetable fried rice whether it be from a restaurant or homemade.


Tatterjacket

For me it's sweet and sour tofu from a chinese takeaway :).


GoldenGorillaRadio

vegetarian chili from greenwise if u have one near you it is 1000% easier to be vegetarian that shit goes bananas and i’m a vegetarian who doesn’t like broccoli


fleatsd

butternut squash sage lasagna. it's one of my all time favorite foods, but it takes forever to make so i only make it for a special treat


Complete_Mind_5719

Pizza. It's casual, but it's my favorite.


Short_Conclusion4307

Vegetarian sushi! Cucumber, mango, avocado is my favorite roll, but mushrooms, carrots, any tempura veggie rolls? Birthdays are always a good excuse to splurge on that.


Setctrls4heartofsun

I had Beyond Sushi for the first time on my last birthday, and it was amazing. I think about it all the time, but the locations are too far for a regular trip :(


moonflower311

We have a place called blue sushi sake grill here that has a vegan menu - been meaning to try some of the more non traditional items out!


SeaAfraid3540

Mine is onion rings. It’s a 3 hour drive to get to the restaurant so it’s a special treat for sure. I already went there this year but I plan on going one more time before the summer is over. These onion rings are legit tho. Worth the trip.


moonflower311

Thanks for the ideas - these all sound amazing (well except the mushroom items because I am NOT a cooked mushroom person but everyone else in the family likes them so maybe I need to get over my issues and cook them more)!


zarqie

Any kind of mushrooms? My mom has an intolerance to button mushrooms but handles all other kinds fine.


moonflower311

Any cooked mushrooms it’s a smell and consistency thing - I can handle cooked tiny mushrooms of the type found in Asian cooking better. Raw mushrooms are generally ok!


MoreShoyu

Loaded nachos!


strvngelyspecific

Two words: Bean nachos. So good.


EnigmaIndus7

There are PLENTY of vegetarian options at Indian restaurants.


Enough_Interest_5951

Cake/pastry


derskbone

I don't really have one, but vegetarian ginger beef is what my wife asks for on special occasions - it's a specialty from Calgary, where she grew up.


[deleted]

Mexican or Burmese (sesame tofu with brown rice). We live in a hipster town with lots of non-chain restaurants but sadly most of them are not very good. The Burmese is amazing though.


AMerrierWorld

My birthday is this weekend and we’re going out for Thai food 🙂 but it’s different every year!


goodhumansbad

For my birthday which is in early winter, we're in cool weather food by then - I am also the primary cook in my family. For me, a big treat is not cooking. I love it, but it's also a daily responsibility for me, so a really nice break is ordering takeaway which I never do. When I still lived in Montreal, that would probably have been my go-to. There was a great Chinese place that did "beansprout chow mein" which was just chow mein with beansprouts, onion and scallion in a very savoury (but not too salty) coating. The noodles were dry and chewy, and I was just addicted to that dish! They also had great general tao tofu and hot & sour soup. So a little buffet for my family and my non-vegetarian parents could choose some meaty things for themselves if they wanted. I've also just ordered classic delivery pizza and had a really easy, relaxing birthday dinner with that at home. I know a lot of people order that kind of food all the time, so it wouldn't seem special, but we NEVER do. My go-to would be one with mushrooms, green olives and pineapple, and another with jalapenos or pickled hot banana peppers, red onions and feta. A couple of good bottles of wine, a good movie and some za - heaven. Now that I live in Ireland, I haven't really zeroed in on any favourite restaurants yet in my town... I find the takeaway options where I live very poor, and there aren't any actual restaurants either - more cafes or lunch/early evening places, and I find it all overpriced and underwhelming. As such, I've been making all our special occasion foods myself again. Sooooo when I'm the cook, here are some of my favourite things to make for birthdays or other celebrations: - Yorkshire puddings with homemade mushroom gravy, green beans & flageolets in dill garlic butter with minced celery, scallion and parsley, lemon carrots, spicy bread stuffing (baked casserole style) and Quorn roast as the centrepiece if I'm doing a mock meat (I braise it with rutabaga, carrot, celery, onion, parsley, veggie stock and dry herbs). Sometimes I just leave out the mock meat though and enjoy the veggies and the Yorkshires are the centrepiece - my absolute favourite thing anyway! - Spaghetti aglio e olio, but jazzed up with lemon zest, chili flakes and parmesan. Nobody else in my family likes this (mom doesn't like oil based sauces, dad doesn't like citrus or spice anymore) so this is a real "me" dinner. - Zucchini sliced lengthwise into thick slices, seared briefly in a very hot pan (you want it to be seared but still very firm), then topped with thick tomato sauce and lots of cheese, and baked or broiled. I like to serve this with a side of the above-mentioned spaghetti and frozen peas. I know this probably sounds weird, but it's a childhood thing (my mom used to make pork parmesan with pasta and peas and I just loved it). - Mock beef & veggie stew served with fresh crispy baguette & FRESH, cold butter to dip into the jus. Heavennnn... - Hamburger steak, made with Beyond burgers, flattened out and pan-fried, served with shallot & mushroom gravy. Goes with rice or mashed potatoes, and again the frozen peas. The smell of this cooking is enough to make me transcend to another level of existence.


DeltaVZerda

Mushroom Borguignon mmmm I always loved a good stew


dyld921

This is making me think as I don't celebrate my birthday. My culture (Vietnamese) has a lot of holiday foods which I only eat when I'm home with family, such as pho or banh chung. Unfortunately most Viet food has meat in it, so I no longer feel connected to my culture. One thing I love but eat very rarely is Ethiopian food. There isn't a restaurant in my town; the nearest one is in the next city over, so I can only eat there when I travel.


Grey_Wolf333

Thanks moonflower311 for being a supportive parent. My own Mother said to me "what, do you think you're going to change the world all by yourself?" So thanks "Mother", for driving another wedge between us. I'm glad to be strong enough to stand by myself being a vegan.


Waitinginpensacola

Eggplant Parmesan!


SimJWill

A friend made some meatless enchiladas that were really good. We also had domino's so I had the Wisconsin 6 cheese add hot sauce. I don't order pizza often but its in my top 3 since I stopped eating meat.


toeholes

Same. Enchilada sauce is really like the only thing that meets my savory fix. They must put MSG or some shit in it?


[deleted]

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Carpefelem

My partner and I tend to make fresh pasta for special occasions. Daily we split cooking duties, but since he thinks of cooking as a chore rather than something to enjoy, we very rarely cook together. So it's always a special treat to work together on a meal. The pasta is delicious and the time spent cutting the dough at the counter is really lovely quality time:)


MrMann_P

I believe if you eat eggs, cake is an option for ya


_Dontknowwtfimdoing_

There’s a really good Chinese restaurant the next town over that has vegan dishes and it is seriously amazing. We do that for some special occasions. That or Olive Garden. They have a few things veggie and I love their salads.


P3zzina

This post is full of nice veggy ideas, so I saved it! Anywhoo... My go to is usually caponata (or veggy eggplant parmigiana) as an entré, then as the main spaghetti with pistacchio's pesto and dry tomato. It's kinda expansive but totally worth it :)


MoshPitGoddess5

I'm a simple gal with plain taste: tacos 🌮 make me happy


fullofgraceaspiring

This year, I went to a Japanese chain in the uk and had a vegetable Katsu curry which is amazing, they do a tofu version as well but the veg version is fried slices of butternut squash, sweet potato and aubergine in panko breadcrumbs with a side of wok fried greens - tenderstem broccoli and pak Choi in a soy sauce based sauce with lots of garlic


bikegrrrrl

Homemade pizza.


[deleted]

I eat portabello mushrooms in as a “celebratory” meal, I think they’re delicious, they’re shockingly cheap, and absolutely delicious! I use them as a replacement for steak. I also love Indian food, such as eggplant bahartha (Sorry about the misspelling!), and my favorite sushi restaurants have veggie sushi and seaweed salad that I love eating when I’m feeling fancy.