What can a vegetarian eat on Thanksgiving?
I know Thanksgiving isn’t for a few more months but I’m planning ahead because I truly have no idea what to eat. This will be my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian. My mom usually cooks dinner so it can’t be expensive or complicated because I am the only vegetarian in my entire family and my mom isn’t going to go out her way to make me a meal.
Aww I love these troll answers…
October 30th, 2010 at 9:48 am
omg planner ahah x
October 30th, 2010 at 10:18 am
anything ask your mom to cook up a meal just for you thats simple x
October 30th, 2010 at 10:41 am
why can’t mom just make everything she usually makes, not using any animal juices or anything, and you have teh whole deal except for the turkey? That’s what we do.
October 30th, 2010 at 10:43 am
A lot of the sides at thanksgiving are vegetarian. Yams, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, etc. Rather then asking your mom to make anything extra I would volunteer to help her, and perhaps provide an extra dish for yourself, but to share with everyone. Google recipes for stuffed pumpkin of stuffed squash; that’s my favorite vegetarian main course for Thanksgiving.
October 30th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Butternut squash
-chop squash in half
-sprinkle with cinnamon
-bake face down on a cookie sheet @350 F for like 30-45 minutes (you still want it to be semi-firm and not entirely mushy) *this isn’t the exact recipe, but it is close*
Carmalized Carrots with Pecans
Chop some carrots & simmer/’slow cook’/steam-fry them in a sauce pan with a little oil (olive, sunflower or canola work)
after the carrots have softened a bit add some brown sugar (like 1/4 to 1/2 cup) with a bit of water to dissolve.
Reduce heat and simmer until the sugar begins to caramelize
add a 1/2 cup of pecans stir, simmer for 5-10 minutes & serve.
Wild rice casserole:
wild rice
cream of mushroom soup
fresh mushrooms of your choice
chopped celery
cook the rice until soft/desired texture, add mushroom soup & extra veg, pop in the oven for 15-20minutes to spread the flavours.
what about a three bean salad or something?
if I had my cookbook on hand I’d be more help!
October 30th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Most stores carry Tofurkey. (tofu turkey.) Its really good! 😀
October 30th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Haha troll answers are pretty great! They keep YA amusing lol
Anyways…there’s usually a lot at a thanksgiving table that a vegetarian is able to eat. You could make a sweet potato casserole(here’s a link to the recipe: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/12/sweet-potato-casserole-with-pecan.html ) or you could marinate tofu for yourself(sooo good!!)
here’s a few links with recipes and menu ideas for a vegetarian thanksgiving!
http://www.helium.com/items/84278-vegetarian-thanksgiving-menu-ideas
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061112095052AAteQ7Q – this one is great. It is someone asking the same question, and the person who answered pretty much planned the whole dinner!
Enjoy!
October 30th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Here are some examples of things you could do:
1) Purchase one or more of the meat replacement products. Things like tofu faux turkey come to mind.
2) Eat only those things that are vegetables. This would just about just every thing else but the main dish. Although many can be made with animal parts (e.g. ham in the beans). In this case help make it, or make some separate.
3) Thanksgiving is more about the family and giving thanks then the food you eat. Simply make an exception for this holiday and eat what everyone else does. You won’t be kicked out of the vegetarian club if you do.
October 30th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I don’t know where you live, but here in Toronto, they sell Tofurkey – a tofu dish that they sell instead of turkey for vegetarians. You can buy yourself one of those and have that for Thanksgiving. My nephew had that last Thanksgiving, he is a vegan.
Then just eat whatever veggies you want to have with it.
October 30th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Well I’m thinking of going vegan so it will be even tougher for me lol. I’ve been thinking about this a lot too. More than likely I will just eat the stuffing, the rolls, and the noodles. That’s all I ever eat at Thanksgiving anyways so it will probably not be too big of a deal lol. Good luck!
:]
October 30th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
I wondered about that too. I will just be eating: The salad course, the stuffing set aside for me (I checked, its vegan), the cranberries, and I’m going to make a chickpea-rice-veggie type dish too, so I’l eat that. Good luck:)!
October 30th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Ask your mom to make all the sides vegetarian, leaving aside some stuffing for you that she cooks in a casserole dish instead of the turkey.
Here’s a recipe for stuffing: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7116.0
And for gravy: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6966.0
VegWeb might also have some good “loaf” recipes. There’s also a website called Vegetarian Loaf Studio where you can pick your ingredients to make your loaf.
I’ve tried Tofurkey, and I’m not a big fan. It’s a bit too salty for me and just not my cuppa.
You might want to offer to help your mom cook to make things easier.
October 30th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
http://www.vegcooking.com/f_holiday_cooking.asp
October 30th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
I’m vegetarian, but not a solid vegetarian. I eat vegetarian for health reasons, not just to save those poor animals and the environment, for religious reasons or what not. If there is anything religious involved in my eating habits, it would probably be the pork I gave up due to my Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends’ influence.
In answer to your question, every Thanksgiving I make a traditional Thanksgiving meal with my mother at home. It has always been that way in our household. In fact, Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday, because of this meal complete with the turkey.
No thanksgiving is complete without the turkey. One Thanksgiving, my father purchased a Costco already cooked chicken and we ate that with store bought canned cranberry sauce and some sides. I really missed the turkey that year and actually cried about it that night. Then I was over it, because there’s always next year.
Although I would prefer to eat vegetarian, I love whole baked turkey with stuffing (my favorite), homemade cranberry sauce made with fresh cranberries and honey with orange zest, sweet potatoes mashed (simply bake and mash. they are sweet enough by themselves, but if you wish, add heavy cream, a bit of orange juice, orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a bit of brown sugar), green beans, gravy (made with turkey giblets), and the works! Because we are a Korean American family, my mother and father always add the kimchi side dish. Kimchi is pickled, fermented Chinese cabbage with garlic, red pepper powder, salt, and some other stuff.
Well, hope that answers your question, and thanks for letting me talk turkey and talk Thanksgiving, my most favorite holiday!
As a side note, Christmas doesn’t even compare at my household, because in my home there are no special Christmas food traditions. We just eat whatever. It’s Thanksgiving where we pull out all the stops and make it a big show with all the works!