By Megan Grigorian

This month we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, and the first days of Spring in the global north, by setting a very green, DefaultVeg table for family and friends. Food is such a central part of our celebrations, faith-based and otherwise, and meals often frame our time together in community.

We took the opportunity to make this Sunday during Lent a little extra special this year, trying some new plant-based recipes and foods from Irish culture like colcannon–creamy mashed potatoes with cabbage, garlic, and lots of vegan butter–and a whole wheat Irish soda bread baked with nuts and dried fruits in a cast iron pan. It was a cozy, celebratory Sunday that we offer to you as you make preparations for setting your Easter table this year. Here’s one way to make new traditions with your favorite Spring-time dishes.

St. Patrick’s Day Plant-Based Table

Irish Soda bread, recipe printed in local paper for the holiday. Replaced eggs with plant-based powder egg replacer. You can also use the recipe, and others, printed by VegNews here.

A Green Table, including Matcha Lemonade (a couple tablespoons of Matcha mixed with your favorite lemonade recipe makes this refreshing and festive beverage) and Tempeh Bacon

Green fruit salad with kiwi and honeydew, sweetened with agave syrup.

Spring Veggie Salad with Lemon-Chive Vinaigrette; a Frittata made with JUSTegg product and herbs from our garden and Beyond Sausages. You can use the base recipe here and add any veggies or proteins you like; Colcannon; Carrot Cake cupcakes with walnuts and coconut

Every time we set our table, we have the opportunity to live in alignment with our values. Setting a DefaultVeg table honors the lives of all of God’s beloved creation–human and nonhuman–in the food we serve and eat. Whether you’re planning a fun celebratory meal, bringing a dish for a potluck, cooking dinner for family, eating by yourself or with loved ones, DefaultVeg is accessible and available to you. Checkout the CreatureKind cookbook for some of our favorite plant-based recipes, and submit a plant-based recipe that’s important to you here if you’d like to share with our community.

With love and liberation for all, we look forward to seeing more of your DefaultVeg tables this Spring.