A few months ago, my friend Amadi suggested putting some of the recipes I’ve already posted together in a meal plan post. I immediately latched onto this idea, and have been daydreaming about it at least every day since then, but it sat at the bottom of my list for a long time because the idea of photographing and developing an entire dinner was totally daunting. I cook meals like this for friends and family all the time, and I post two new recipes here every week, but it would take so much more work to write and photograph an entire post about an elaborate dinner.
But it was during one of these moments of anxious daydreaming when I realized that, actually, most people are probably like me. While it can be fun to occasionally spend the whole day cooking, life is usually pretty hectic, and it would be so much more lovely to spend all the time you would have spent cooking just enjoying the company of friends and family, savoring a beautiful meal together. So for my first meal plan post, I’ve put together a classic dinner party that you can easily accomplish with just a little daily effort. Hopefully there will be more of these posts in the future (Sunday night meal prep, summer grilling, make-ahead brunches, and holiday planning are all on the horizon), but for now, I thought it would be nice to keep things simple with an easy vegetarian meze.
A meze (also known as mezze, mazze, or mazzeh) is a meal or appetizer course consisting of a bunch of small dishes. A meze will often include lots of finger foods, so it’s a really great tool for entertaining, especially if you don’t have enough room for a big seated dinner. And while this vegetarian meze looks elaborate, it actually only takes about 4 days of cooking for 35 minutes/day, to pull it off (not counting the optional tasks, like blending your own spices). It’s absolutely not aspirational, even though it looks it.
The first trick to planning an easy dinner menu is knowing what to make when; for instance, the amba should be made earlier in the week because it needs a few days to pickle in the fridge, while the feta should be plated about an hour before guests arrive, and somewhere in the middle, the spreads won’t suffer from sitting in the fridge for 1 or 2 days. By spacing things out, you’ll only have to put in a little effort at a time.
But even more than scheduling, I’m a fan of relying on cleverness instead of hard work whenever possible. So the second trick is including a few things that you can buy, but which still seem really special and lovely. While making everything from scratch can be fun when you’re looking for a big project, sometimes it’s nice to simply place ingredients together in an appealing and surprising way. Everyone will be delighted with the feta, radishes, and herbs, which will take you literally 5 minutes to put together. Don’t be surprised if this even outshines the homemade double-roast baba ganoush, which takes 45 minutes to make (although it’s a tough call).
To make this meal plan super straightforward, I’ve put together a grocery list and schedule. If you follow my plan below, you’ll totally pull it off with just a little effort every day. I’ve timed the schedule so that you will have everything ready for a Saturday dinner party, but you can obviously change the days if you’d prefer to throw a party on another day.
The Menu: A Vegetarian Meze Dinner Party
Labneh dressed with extra virgin olive oil and za’atar or your favorite dried herb *
Hummus dressed with extra virgin olive oil and baharat or paprika
Baba ganoush dressed with olive oil and parsley
Tabbouleh (I added pomegranates to this one, which is optional)
Feta cheese with olive oil, basil (or mint), and radishes
Olives
Amba
Pita bread *
* For this easy menu, the labneh and pita bread are store-bought, but feel free to make your own if you’re feeling ambitious.
Dietary restrictions
Edit the grocery list and schedule if you plan to add any of this to your menu:
To make this vegan, you could replace the labneh with muhammara or banadurah harrah, which would take more time to prepare, but can be made ahead of time on Thursday when you make the hummus (or you could just leave out the labneh). The feta can be replaced with your favorite similar vegan cheese.
Cooked quinoa can be used instead of bulgur in the tabbouleh, and you can use carrot and cucumber slices instead of pita bread, which makes the original menu gluten free.
The Grocery List
Pantry
2 15.5-ounce cans chickpeas
Tahini
Pita bread
Apple cider vinegar
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Bulgur (preferably burghul number 1, but couscous, quinoa, or another bulgur will work)
Spices
Za’atar or your favorite dried herb (optional: make your own za’atar)
Baharat or paprika (optional, make your own baharat)
Yellow curry powder
Ground fenugreek seeds (optional)
Turmeric powder
Red pepper flakes
Produce
7 lemons (if they don’t seem very heavy, buy more to be safe)
3 pounds baby Italian eggplants (about 7 baby Italian eggplants)
1 small head garlic
3 big bunches parsley
4 plum tomatoes
1 bunch mint
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch basil (or skip it if your mint bunch is really big and you want to find a way to use it up)
1 bunch radishes
Assorted olives
3 green, unripe mangoes
Pomegranate seeds (optional, for the tabbouleh)
Dairy
Feta cheese
Labneh (if you can’t find labneh, you can buy whole milk Greek yogurt and just use it as is. Greek yogurt is not exactly the same thing as labneh, but it’s still very tasty, and great if you add a lot of extra toppings)
The Schedule
Wednesday
Go grocery shopping.
Pickle the amba. (25 minutes)
Thursday
Make the hummus and plate it, but don’t dress it. (15 minutes)
Cut the pita bread into wedges and put it in a ovenproof serving dish. Cover it to keep it from drying out. (5 minutes)
Plate the olives. (1 minute)
Friday
Make the baba ganoush and plate it with the olive oil and parsley on top. (40 minutes)
Saturday morning
Make the tabbouleh and plate it (add pomegranate seeds if you bought them, and and use a food processor to chop the herbs by just pulsing them a few times, if you want to speed things up). (30 minutes)
Wash/dry the basil and slice the radishes. (10 minutes)
Set the table (either for a sit-down meal or hors d’oeuvres around a coffee table)
Saturday evening, the hour before serving
Plate the feta with olive oil, basil, and radishes. (2 minutes)
Plate the labneh with olive oil and za’atar/herbs. (5 minutes)
Dress the hummus with olive oil and paprika or baharat. (2 minutes)
Plate the amba or just open one of the jars. (1 minute)
Put the pita bread in the oven at 200° F for about 15 minutes until you’re ready to serve. (1 minute active time)
Check the photo below to make sure you didn’t leave something in the fridge, and enjoy!
Ed
Lovely, thank you! 🙂
Kathryn Pauline
🙂
Camilla Titterington
I love this. Thank you. I hosted a “Cardamonandtea” inspired meal last year and needed this! I included your peach trifle and fig galette as desserts – BIg Success!! . What dessert would you serve with this meal?
Kathryn Pauline
Oh my gosh that’s lovely! 😀
That’s a great question, and either of those would go wonderfully with this meal plan. I think I would probably opt for the fig galette, because it can be made ahead and frozen with very little decline in quality. Or it might be nice to go with a cookie or something similar to go with the passed foods theme—maybe kleicha or baklawa! (https://www.cardamomandtea.com/dessert)
Alex
What an epic idea! The platter is a beauty 🙂
Kathryn Pauline
Aw shucks, thanks so much!
zarah
I don’t have words for how beautiful and tasty this looks… and I was to thank you extra for being thoughtful enough to add alternatives for different dietary needs! That is so lovely of you!
Now I just need to get cooking because I suddenly have SUCH an appetite for meze…!
Kathryn Pauline
Thank you for the very kind words! I’m always so happy to consider dietary restrictions, whenever possible. Hope you enjoy lots of good meze soon! 🙂