I'm thinking of having a Paleo dinner party for my friends and while they all appreciate good meat they do like eating their veggies too. So, what sort of plant-based food would you think of as most paleo? The only things I can think of are yams and coconut.

I wonder if I can find African yams?

Am I right in thinking that you can eat root vegetables ?

If so; you could cook either carrots,rutabagas turnips, or parsnips. Thinly sliced and baked in the oven with oil s&p.

Yes, but what makes them most paleo, lets say as opposed to kale, endive or some other vegetable?

What I'm after is kind of making a dinner where I can explain how the foods I'm serving my guests are ones we evolved eating.

Root vegetables especially rutabagas are a blast from the past. A few years back they were far more common and standard vegetables as opposed to leafy or more exotic ones.

I'd say that they were associated with peasant food which in all was very healthy.

Wild Rice came to my mind.

Greens (either cooked or salad greens) come to my mind first, though I'm not as well-read as many others here. Seaweed and kelp, too.

Why yams? Can they be eaten raw?

People have been cooking (very conservatively) for 140,000 years which means that paleo food wouldn't necessarily have to be eaten raw. And yes, you can eat American yams raw. They're quite tasty.

I figured yams because they're frequently eaten by more modern hunter/gatherer groups like Kitavan, and tribes in Africa. But they're not like american yams.

I wish I had a paleo-botanist in my Monkeysphere!

I absolutely love wild rice, but when I was eating very clean last year I ate some and noticed a reaction similar to eating wheat, but milder. I am very suspicious of all grains.

Rutabagas are a cross between a cabbage and a turnip. Somehow that doesn't seem very Paleo to me. I think carrots, turnips and radishes are a little older. If you could obtain some wild carrots (i.e. Queen Anne's Lace), that might be a good conversation-starter.

Yesterday we had a dinner party with a vegan guest. I made beef kebabs for the omnivores and mushroom kebabs for our vegan. I can't vouch for their authenticity, but to me mushrooms are a much better meat alternative than beans. They may not have as much protein, but their mineral content is good, and I think they fill a similar niche in the food chain.

Are you thinking of just serving paleo food and not telling them? Or explaining the whole thing?

Nuts, seeds and eggs, too.

How about sweet potatoes? The Kitavans eat them. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 40 minutes at 400ºF. Delicious.

My favourite way to cook carrots: cut into .5in slices, put them in a pan with a little water, salt and coconut oil over medium low heat. When the water is boiling, cover the pan and cook until the carrot is soft. Uncover, keep cooking and stirring the carrots until they are browned and smelling really good.

I don't think they eat sweet potatoes, they eat yams. Yams are not sweet potatoes though the terms are used interchangeably in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_%28vegetable%29

Oh interesting, true yams like in Africa have to be cooked to be safely eaten.

Yeah, I'd explain that our dinner was based on the foods humans evolved eating.

Maybe it'll have to be symbolic. Sounds like African yams need a lot of careful processing to safely eat.

On Professor Staffan Lindeberg's website it says the Kitavans ate yam, sweet potato, taro, tapioca:
http://www.staffanlindeberg.com/TheKitavaStudy.html

You might like some of these recipes, Nancy: http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/recipes/index.php

Here are some ideas from back when I threw a party that included carnivores and herbivores:
- carrot bisque
- pumpkin soup
- roasted winter root veggies
- garlicky kale
- Celeriac and orange salad
- Mushrooms in a lemon marinade
-Asian cabbage slaw
I found all these recipes in my roommates collection of veggie cookbooks...including Vegan With A Vengeance. A lot of raw vegan websites and books have good recipes too. I used this recently http://rawepicurean.net/2010/01/12/...collard-greens/