31 Days of Menus: Thanksgiving 1

Thanksgiving can seem to be one of the hardest holidays to cook for on a plant based diet. After all, the main feature of the meal is traditionally, a turkey. However, the rest of the meal is quite easy to adapt.

Here are some suggestions for a substantial plant based meal to celebrate your Thanksgiving Holiday.

Bryanna’s Breast of Tofu Slices, this recipe used to be available on her blog, and it may be again (I hope). She is currently revisiting the recipes to make them printable, etc. and I’m hoping that’s why it is not available.
Alternatively, you could use Oven Roasted Tofurky Deli Slices.

Cranberry Sauce (of course)

3 cups cranberries
3/4 cup honey
1 cup water

Simmer honey and water until well combined. Add the cranberries and simmer as the skins pop and the berries soften, about 5 minutes.
Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve.
This is not a really thick sauce, it’s more on the runny side. However, it is delicious!

Stuffing – use any bread based stuffing recipe that doesn’t call for meat and substitute vegetable broth for the stock

Rolls – use this recipe, except up the oil and sweetener for the holidays. Try 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 to 1/3 cup honey or agave.

Tossed salad

Mashed Potatoes (this is a small recipe, you may need to double or triple it)

2 potatoes, in 1″ cubes, skins intact (I prefer Yukon Gold, use 2 large or three smaller potatoes if using this variety)
1/4 cup non-dairy milk
Sea Salt
Pepper

Boil or steam the potatoes until tender, drain and place in a bowl. Beat with a hand mixer adding milk (cooking water or vegetable broth could also be used) as needed. Or use a potato masher. if you go with the blender option, which is what I use, be sure to blend briefly so the potatoes don’t resemble glue when you’re done. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Some olive oil could also be added, or a salt free seasoning mix used.

Gravy – there are a lot of options here, I like the Chicken Style Gravy from Passionate Vegetarian. You could also try, Tammie’s Simple Basic Gravy recipe.

for dessert…

Try This Pumpkin Pie Brownie (scroll down for the link to her Thanksgiving dinner menu/recipes – including this pie).
You could serve it with Coconut Bliss Vanilla as Angela suggests, (and I do love this brand) but if you’re more into ice cream than I am, you might have other favorites.

C