A vegetarian Valentine’s Day menu to bluff your other half

Usually, meat and fish are the stars of holiday meals. In recent years, these products have been featured a little less frequently. Indeed, for ecological, economic, health or ethical reasons, more and more of us are reducing or even abandoning meat consumption.
Problem is, when you are used to cooking a food, it becomes difficult to do without it. Especially since for a special evening like Valentine’s Day, the challenge is twofold. You have to both cook without meat, but also offer a romantic menu.

How to cook a meat-free menu for Valentine’s Day?

As an aperitif and starter, we offer vegetarian canapes and toasts, made with vegetables and cheese. If you want more lightness, then opt for a salad, a velouté to slip into aperitif glasses or a vegetable carpaccio. Well seasoned and elegantly presented on a plate, it will look great.

The highlight of the dinner is the main course in which vegetables and starchy foods will be the stars of the plate. Risotto, pasta, savory tarts… Here are recipes that can be made without meat, while still giving a gourmet look. Also, don’t forget that the refinement of a dish also lies in the art of presentation. Choosing beautiful tableware and carefully arranging each element can elevate the simplest of recipes to the status of a work of culinary art.

As for dessert, it should not pose any particular difficulty. We have rarely seen a Valentine’s Day dessert with chocolate and foie gras! The only point to watch out for is animal gelatin, as in the case of desserts, mousses and panna cotta. In this case, we advise you to replace it with agar-agar, a vegetable gelling agent. However, expect to change the proportions, because the latter is eight times more powerful than classic gelatin.

Your vegetarian Valentine’s Day menu

No more suspense, here is the menu without meat or fish, which we have specially concocted for a romantic dinner.

We suggest you start gently with beet and bush cannelloni. Peel a raw beet and then cut it into thin slices using a mandolin. Leave the slices to marinate in olive oil, then cut into strips of beetroot. Drop a tbsp. teaspoon or tablespoon (depending on the size of the strips) of bush on each slice. Roll gently to obtain cannelloni.
Place on the plate with cooked beetroot wedges, coffee vinaigrette and a few flowers for decoration.
Accompany this fresh and light starter with a prosecco martini and elderflower liqueur cocktail.

Then let’s move on to the main course. We have prepared pumpkin gnocchi, served with sage butter and pecorino, a recipe that is both gourmet and seasonal.
To make the squash gnocchi, cook and puree the pumpkin. Mix in the pecorino, flour and egg yolks. Season and knead until you obtain a homogeneous ball. Let it rest for 30 minutes under a damp cloth before forming rolls of dough, then cut into the gnocchi. Roll them on a fork to obtain stripes, then cook them in boiling water. Hint, when the gnocchi rises to the surface, it is cooked. Serve the gnocchi with sage-infused butter, pine nuts and pecorino shavings.

What’s better than ending dinner with dessert? Finish this dinner with two sumptuous desserts! You know the saying “Tell him with roses”? We prefer to tell him with apple roses. At least they won’t fade. As for the recipe, don’t panic. Our journalist Marjolaine Daguerre has put together a tutorial for you to make puff pastry apple roses.
And as we said that this menu lacked chocolate, we suggest serving a chocolate mousse with pumpkin seed praline. A recipe that is both classic and original for using the pumpkin seeds used for gnocchi.

That concludes this vegetarian Valentine’s Day menu. Good evening !