Dietary
Medellin Elite Catering cooks vegetarian menus that stand on their own, for weddings, office lunches and birthday parties in Medellín. Our head chef builds them from Antioquia's beans, corn, plantain and fresh cheese, so a meat-free table still tastes unmistakably Colombian.
Some hosts book a fully vegetarian event, while many more need 10 or 20 vegetarian plates inside a mixed buffet. Either way, the vegetarian food is planned as a menu in its own right, never as the meat dishes with the meat lifted out.
Since 2019 we have learned to cook extra vegetarian portions, because meat-eaters reliably help themselves to the lasagna and the vegetable empanadas too.
Plan your event
We cater vegetarian events of every size, from a private chef dinner for 4 to a buffet for several hundred, and we add vegetarian plates to any menu we offer. Our vegetarian food contains no meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, meat stock or gelatin, while eggs and dairy appear unless you ask us to leave them out.
For mixed events, we cook vegetarian portions slightly above the number on your list, since a few meat-eaters always choose them. Office teams often order this way through our corporate event catering, with the vegetarian dishes tagged in yellow on the buffet so nobody has to ask.
Drop-off trays reach homes and coworking spaces across the city, and lunch orders for catering in Laureles usually arrive within 30 minutes of leaving our kitchen. Hot trays travel above 60 °C in insulated carriers, so the beans and lasagna arrive ready to serve.
Colombian cooking is easier to make vegetarian than its meaty reputation suggests, because beans, corn, plantain and potato already do most of the work. These are the dishes our vegetarian guests request most often.
The famous Antioquian platter keeps its rice, red cargamanto beans, fried egg, sweet plantain, avocado and arepa. We cook the beans with green plantain and hogao instead of pork hock, and replace the chicharrón and chorizo with crisp fried oyster mushrooms seasoned with cumin and garlic.
It is a generous plate, so we serve it full size at lunch and as a tasting portion at evening events.
Corn empanadas filled with potato and hogao, or with spinach and campesino cheese, fried in clean oil apart from any meat batch. They come with fresh ají, and a tray of 40 g cocktail empanadas covers about 10 guests at 3 or 4 pieces each.
White corn arepas are grilled on the plancha, then topped with warm hogao (slow-cooked tomato and onion) and crumbled quesito antioqueño. Arepas de chócolo, the sweet fresh-corn version, get a thick slice of soft white cheese melting on top.
Green plantain is fried, smashed thin and fried again, then served with guacamole, hogao or sautéed mushrooms and cheese. They make sturdy cocktail bites and sit well on our finger food catering trays.
Our ajiaco keeps the guascas herb, three kinds of potato and corn on the cob, all simmered in vegetable stock. Cream, capers and avocado are served on the side, the way Bogotá families do it.
Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs and dairy, while vegans eat no animal products at all. Most vegetarian guests at Medellín events are lacto-ovo, but it is always worth checking, because a vegan served cheese-filled buñuelos will go home hungry.
| Ingredient | Lacto-ovo vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Meat, poultry, fish, shellfish | No | No |
| Meat or fish stock | No | No |
| Eggs | Yes | No |
| Milk, cheese, cream, butter | Yes | No |
| Honey | Usually yes | No |
| Gelatin | No | No |
| Cheese made with animal rennet | Some avoid it | No |
If even one guest is vegan, we mark which vegetarian dishes also suit them, and our vegan catering page explains fully plant-based menus. Pescatarian guests, who eat fish but not meat, get their own note on the menu, since they are not vegetarian in the strict sense.
These samples show how a vegetarian menu fills a buffet and a plated dinner. Every dish can be swapped, and seasonal produce such as ahuyama (Colombian squash), mango and uchuva changes the details through the year.
A buffet like this suits 30 to 150 guests and pairs naturally with our buffet catering service, where staff keep the chafing dishes full for the whole meal.
Questions and answers
No, our vegetarian dishes use vegetable stock only, made in our kitchen from onion, carrot, celery, leek and herbs. We also skip commercial bouillon cubes, since many sold in Colombia contain chicken fat or extract. Beans for vegetarian plates are cooked without pork, and no lard goes into any vegetarian recipe.
Yes, and plenty are, from weddings and retreat dinners to office lunches where the host wants one shared menu. A fully vegetarian event also simplifies service, because servers have no separate plates to track. Meat-eating guests rarely miss anything when the menu is built around bandeja vegetariana, lasagna and arepas.
Reserve your date
Tell us your date, guest count and how many vegetarian guests you expect, and we will send an itemized quote within 24 hours. Menu questions can also go straight to info@medellincatering.com.