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With vegetarianism catching on fast as a trend, almost all of us now know friends and relatives who eat only vegetarian food. However, cooking vegetarian food at a party, especially when you yourself are a non-vegetarian, can be quite a confusing and intimidating task. This is because most non-vegetarians are generally unaware about what a good vegetarian dinner consists of. If you find yourself facing a similar situation, then stop worrying and read on for tips on throwing the perfect vegetarian dinner party.

· The first thing to do when you plan to make vegetarian food for a dinner party is what you would do in case of any kind of party—plan the menu. Just like a good non-vegetarian dinner would feature a soup, salad, appetizer, main dish, a side dish and dessert, so would a vegetarian dinner.

· You can find a lot of help on planning vegetarian dinners online. There are a number of websites that will provide you with complete menus for vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dinners. Most good websites will also provide you with all the required recipes too.

· You can give your vegetarian menu a twist by sticking to a particular kind of regional cuisine. You can either go for Chinese, Mexican or Italian food, since these cuisines not only feature many good vegetarian recipes; they are generally favored by a majority of people.

· One more thing that you should keep in mind when planning your vegetarian menu is to keep it simple, especially if you are planning to cook yourself. Go for recipes that have a difficulty level of “easy” or “moderate” and a cooking time of less than 45 minutes (and remember, we are not talking soups here).  Also select recipes whose ingredients are easily available, otherwise you might find that you need to change the menu at the last moment because you could not find some crucial ingredients for a recipe.
 
· If you are planning to call people who eat non-vegetarian food also, then try to go for a main dish that goes well with both vegetables and meat. For example, if you are cooking Chinese, then you can keep noodles as your main dish with vegetable hot and sour and chicken or mutton Manchurian.

· In order to keep your vegetarian guests happy, try to abstain from using animal fats for cooking. Use vegetable oils as much as possible. Serve vegetarian dishes with their own separate spoons and take care that your guests do not mix up vegetarian and non vegetarian spoons. If your veg and non-veg dishes resemble each other in looks, or if it is tough to determine which is which just by looking, then try putting in small folded cards with the names of the dishes in front of each dish.

· Plan in advance. The main thing that you need to do in order to make any dinner party a success is to plan in advance. If you are not planning to take your day off work to cook, then spend an extra hour on the weekend chopping all the necessary vegetables and storing them in the fridge or the freezer. You can also go for cut and frozen vegetables to save time.

Vegetarianism is finally coming into its own with more and more people turning vegetarian everyday due to health as well as moral reasons. Even if you are not a complete vegetarian, you should try adding vegetables to your diet since at least five to seven fruit and vegetable portions per day are required for a healthy and balanced diet. People who have never been staunch vegetarians before generally find it tough to make vegetarian dishes. If you are also one of those people whose entire repertoire of vegetarian cooking begins with salads and ends with baked potatoes with nothing in between, then you can get started with these tips and tricks that will help you get the hang of vegetarian cooking.

• First of all you need to equip your kitchen with vegetable friendly equipment. This is because the right equipment and utensils ensure that you can make great vegetarian dishes within no time at all. A good food processor is a necessary addition to a vegetarian kitchen since you can chop vegetables real fast using one, cutting your preparation time by at least half.

• Otherwise you can also make do with a good chef’s knife for chopping and dicing vegetables. A nice, sharp serrated knife will help you with soft vegetables like tomatoes and are perfect for cutting thin slices. Buy a wok if you do not already have one, because you can easily make hundreds of vegetarian dishes in a wok. A wok also saves loads of cooking time for a lot of dishes when compared to regular frying pans and saucepans.

• Once you have the right equipment, stock your kitchen with the right food items. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the best, but having packs of frozen corn, peas and carrots will very often come in handy. Always keep ginger, garlic, green chillies, onions, tomatoes and potatoes handy and you are all set to prepare a number of great tasting veggie dishes as and when you want.

• As far as keeping processed stuff is concerned, stock your kitchen with soy sauce, tomato ketchup and puree, tamari, vinegar and pepper powder. With these ingredients in hand, you can always face and feed a mob full of hungry vegetarians.

• Now that you are all set with your ingredients and equipment, some simple tips to make great tasting veggies:

Learn to stir fry. You can always create a stir fried dish within minutes. Apart from being fast and easy to make, stir fries are extremely tasty. Heat you wok and put in some oil. Keep chopped vegetables ready, adding the harder ones first and then the soft ones. Great combinations can be made with hard veggies like carrots, peas, cauliflowers and potatoes with softer ones like bell peppers, tomatoes and onions. Add salt and pepper for flavor and your stir fried vegetables are ready to eat.

Start using substitutes: Substitute tofu, seitan and tempeh in your meat and chicken dishes and you can create a whole range of tasty vegetarian dishes that taste very much like the original non vegetarian ones.