vegan potluck picnic - princes park

Yesterday we went on a Vegan Pot Luck Picnic to Princes Park, just a short tram ride from our house. There were lots of Melbourne vegans in attendance, and this resulted in lots of yummy vegan food.

In an amazing turn of events for any picnic, most everyone arrived at or close to the start time. This was because Cindy had let us know that she would be bringing savoury ice cream, and as it was a picnic the ice cream would simply have to be eaten first, before it melted!

This was a lie. Although the weather was warm, it took the ice cream a good half hour to soften sufficiently for serving!



Opinions were divided on this new treat. Cindy provided us with two savoury ice creams to sample, one avocado and one tomato. The avocado was likened to eating frozen guacamole; the tomato, to frozen tomato soup. Cindy has blogged the recipe and process here.

In the meantime, as we waited for the ice cream to melt, we started in on the ample savoury goods.



It was awesome to meet Carla for the first time. She brought along a delicious roast carrot dip, and a great basil pesto. Both of these were amazing deliciousness.



Vicki brought along a muffaletta. I was really excited about this because I haven't had one in ages! It was really dense, and filled with pesto, sun-dried tomato, capsicum, olives, and artichokes, and I think perhaps some other things I have forgotten.



Tahn brought some wraps filled with hommous, avocado, carrot, lettuce and some other delicious things. They were tightly wrapped and soft and squidgy, which made them lots of fun to eat (and dare I say it, even more delicious than usual?). She also brought three children, Popeye, and a whole lot of fruit and some chocolate banana bread (which I didn't get to try! sadface). She's already blogged about the picnic here.

Other raw and refreshing foods were provided by Craigiepants (has a blog, refuses to use it), who brought along some rice paper rolls. He claimed that these were poorly rolled, but he lies, because these were well rolled and very delicious.



Bec made vol au vonts, and these were GIANT. Fortunately they were delicious (so delicious that Toby refused to share them). The pastries for these were store bought, so they do exist!



Kristy and Toby rocked in with a basket full of delights, starting with this vegan pate. Being a pate disliker from way back, I ended up passing on this veganised version, so I can't tell you what it tasted like! For the very first time EVER, Toby tried his hand at sushi. He used the recipe from Tempting Tempeh for the tempeh and avocado rolls, and then made a sushi version of a classic sandwich, cucumber and (tofutti) cream cheese. These were great, I love the idea! (also sushi)



I brought along some gado gado. I love making gado gado and lontong! It's all cold and squishy and delicious. I use the same recipe every time, which I've previously blogged here. Plus it gave me the opportunity to use up the yao chao guai that had been languishing in the freezer for two months.



For drinking, we had an assortment of picnic delights. Kristy made up some raspberry lemonade (with actual raspberries lurking in the pitcher) (recipe here), and then we ventured into alcoholic territory with some gin and tonics, and a whole lot of beers. I wished desperately that I had brought some pimms, but our picnic basket was just too heavy!



Utilising the recipes of others, Lisa brought some chocolate hedgehog slice (based on my recipe); and D made some oreo truffles, based on sj's recipe.



Continuing with the truffles, Kristy made some cheesecake truffles, recipe inspired by Tahn. Vicki made her own jam, and then made jam thumbprint cookies! This was inspired and excellent. More people should make jam! (and then give it to meeee)



Johanna made some more truffle-y things (awesome), and something sweet and fruity that I didn't get to try, I was so stuffed!

Did I miss anything? I'm not sure, there was so much food and it was so incredible. This was an amazingly delicious picnic, and I was so delightfully full at the end of it. There should be more awesome vegan picnics!