Water chestnuts, wrapped in smoked eggplant bacon, with a brown sugar, soy, ginger glaze. Rumaki is a mock-Polynesian hors d’oeurve that appeared around the 1940’s. It was always one of my favorites when I went to my Aunt Karens house. Here, of course, we make it vegan. If you haven’t tried rumaki, it might be your next party staple.

We’ll marinate king trumpet mushrooms, slice them into scallops, pan sear them, and serve them with some zesty cocktail sauce. Shrimp cocktail is a thing in supper clubs, but the scallop cocktail was even fancier. You’ll be feeling very retro when you’re eating your scallop cocktail, sipping an Old Fashioned, while listening to some Dean Martin. I’ll be sure to bring the tunes…

What more can be said? In the midwest, artichoke dip is always made with mayo. We’ll make ours with a cashew-based vegan cream cheese instead.

The classic ‘wedge’ salads often use iceberg lettuce, but we can do one better with little gem lettuces. Tofu misozuke is a traditional Japanese preparation where tofu is aged in miso for 1 – 3 months, which gives it a very soft ‘cream cheese’ texture, and a lot of umami. We’ll spike the dressing with some powdered sea vegetable to put it over the top. The salad will be served with green onion, fire roasted tomato, and fresh herbs.

We’ll fill the baked potato with melted cashew cheese, crispy seitan bacon bits, broccoli crowns, and a whipped cashew sour cream. Topped with chives! In the last ‘Vegan Iron Chef,’ I improvised a loaded (mini) baked potato, and it was a bit hit with the judges. This time, we’ll hollow out the potato, mash it, and pipe it back in with all the delicious ingredients.

Black beluga lentils, chickpeas, and a root vegetable mirepoix are rolled in a wheat dough, and baked. Sliced, seared, and served to you with broccolini and a red wine and beet sauce. More French than Midwestern, but roulades have made appearances in a few fancy Wisconsin and Illinois restaurants.

The ‘grasshopper’ is a classic after dinner drink made with Creme de Menthe. ‘Grasshopper Pie’ is a Midwestern supper club staple, and was always one of my favorite desserts. We’ll be making it with aquafaba, and a Newman-O cookie crust. Classic!