Book clubs have soared in popularity as the new “Girl’s Night Out”—okay the guys are welcome too! The basic premise is that everyone in the club reads the same book and
then discusses the various chapters, themes or their thoughts on the book at the weekly meeting. Members often take turns hosting the book club and food is an important part of the evening.
Whenever you are entertaining, dietary restrictions and allergies are an important consideration. Here are some simple and delicious non-dairy recipes that will have book club members begging for the recipes!
Make Your Own Taco Bar
Easy, make ahead, delicious and convenient. The host simply warms up the pre-made meat filling and gets the toppings out of the fridge. Guests make their own using their favourite toppings and condiments. What could be simpler?
In a large Dutch oven, brown 2 lbs of lean ground beef, chicken or turkey. Break and stir until meat, season with salt and pepper and 1 tsp chili pepper along with a crushed garlic clove. Once meat is fully cooked, stir in one cup of salsa. Let mixture simmer on low for about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool and refrigerate until needed. Meat can be reheated when needed or can be cooked just prior to your guests arriving.
In the meantime, set out five or six of your most colourful bowls and fill each with your favourite taco toppings including: red and green pepper slices, sliced red onion, grated non-dairy cheese and salsa. To serve, wrap tortillas in foil and place them in the oven to warm for about 5 minutes. Serve buffet style so guests can help themselves to one or two tortillas to which they add a few spoonfuls of the meat mixture and their favourite toppings. Then top the whole thing off with a big scoop of TOFUTTI® SOUR SUPREME®, roll up and enjoy this finger-food fun treat.
(P.S. the kids will love these tacos too)
Harvest Pumpkin Cake Roll
You will be the hit of your book club when you make this delicious and unique dessert. It looks showy, yet it is truly easy to make!
- ¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- Dash of salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Confectioners’ (icing) sugar for dusting
Filling:
- 1 package of TOFUTTI® BETTER THAN CREAM CHEESE®, softened
- 4 Tbsp non-dairy margarine, softened
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside. In large bowl of stand up mixer, beat eggs until thick and add sugar, beating until well blended. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice and mix again. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Line a 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan (rimmed cookie tray) with parchment and spray with non-stick spray or grease lightly. Spread batter on pan to cover. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.
Remove cake from oven. Sprinkle top with confectioners’ sugar. Place a clean tea towel over the cake and gently roll the cake jelly-roll style into the tea towel. Let cool.
To make the filling, beat together TOFUTTI® BETTER THAN CREAM CHEESE® and non-dairy butter or margarine until fluffy. Add in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and whip on low until creamy.
When the cake is cool, gently unroll the cake and spread the filling over the cake, remove the tea towel and re-roll the cake. A bit of the filling can be placed along the top of the roll to decorate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Using a large bread knife, carefully cut into slices so that the spirals show and wait for the applause!