Vegan/vegetarian Thanksgiving ideas?

[NuclearDem]

So I've officially been put in charge of Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I'm the vegan of the family, and my sister has a series of diet restrictions, so we'll be colluding together to make the food.

Any DUers know good veg options for Thanksgiving dinner? I've got a few ideas already, but I'm open to suggestions.

[eissa]

1. I'm making this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/115733014

Other ideas:
Vegetables in a curried tomato sauce (thick-slice eggplant, potatoes, and squash, sautee them in some oil, layer them in a dish and drench in a tomato sauce spiced with curry and garlic. Serve over rice.)

Pesto lasagna (lasagna layered with pesto sauce and spinach)

Roasted root vegetables sprinkled with parmesan cheese and pine nuts

Whipped sweet potatoes

[NuclearDem]

5. Already had sweet potatoes on the radar.

I'll give the pesto lasagna a test run this week!

[Tiggeroshii]

2. Lifelong vegetarian here, here's a couple of my favorites:

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/q65al0ez/vegetarians-special-k-loaf.html

http://eatfreshinthecity.com/wordpress/?p=781

[NuclearDem]

4. Oh wow! The faux meatballs look good.

[cbayer]

3. I had this situation a couple of years ago.

I made a turkey, but I made all the side dishes vegan. All the traditional stuff - mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc.

I did stuff the turkey but labeled the two kinds of stuffing so people could tell which had been in the bird.

I did not make a separate main dish to substitute for the turkey and the vegans/vegetarians were very happy with what they got. If you need a protein, you could do beans.

Best of luck.

[NuclearDem]

6. I'm actually thinking about making this fake-sausage-and-egg pasta casserole

The tofu sausage and the quinoa pasta I use have a ton of protein as it is, so that's not necessarily an issue.

[cbayer]

7. That sounds good.

My goal was to not have separate dishes for different people, so everyone would feel like they were eating the same thing for the most part.

Seems important at Thanksgiving.

But I just couldn't skip the turkey.

[Retrograde]

10. I've done similar, everything vegetarian except the turkey

Actually, except for the stuffing that wasn't in the bird and the pumpkin pie, everything else happened to be vegan. There was more than enough for everyone, and since people could pick and chose what they wanted it didn't feel like certain groups were being singled out.

One of my favorite fall dishes is Zuni stew, made of corn, beans and winter squash: an All American dish that goes well at Thanksgiving.

[pinto]

8. My friend's a vegan. She usually joins the family for T Day. It's bring a dish dinner.

She's added -

Quinoa, some veggie stock, root vegetables, green bean casserole, topped with crumbled vegan bead, olive oil and finished in the broiler to toast the top.

Mixed green salad with cranberries, almonds and cubed tofu. Some kind of oil and fruit compote dressing.

There are others, but these two stick in my head. Really tasty.

Have a great meal.

[Retrograde]

9. A dessert suggestion

If you can find medjool dates and pecans, try this: pit the dates and shove a pecan half in each of them. They taste like a hit of pecan pie - but without the eggs and milk.

I don't know where you live, but if you can get a fresh stalk of Brussels Sprouts, a simple way to prepare them is to cut them off the stalk, halve them, roast for about 10 minutes, then toss with a good balsamic vinegar. Or just cut them off the stalk into boiling, salted water. When I served fresh sprouts at a Thanksgiving dinner the vegetarians wouldn't let the meat-eaters have any!

[TreasonousBastard]

11. I'm not a vegan but I do love most vegetables and...

hate it when people try to make veggies pretend to be meat. To each his own with that, but I prefer the veggies look and taste like what they are.

(End of rant)

I'm kinda short on family lately, so I'm doing side dishes for a local church's annual free to the public Thanksgiving dinner.

Planned so far...

Pumpkin soup. I never remember what I did last year, or where I put what I wrote down, but it's usually a stock (I use chicken, but you can use veggie) pureed squash, and chunks of squash added toward the end so they don't dissolve. Seasonings include a little cinnamon, a lot of basil and parsley, some dry mustard, garlic, a little chipotle, a little adobo, curry powder... And anything else I have lying around that seems good at the time. I also throw in slices of red and green peppers for color and general interest. Cranberries can work in there, too.

And I serve it in a hollowed out a Halloween pumpkin. The squash, btw, is any variety that you happen to have on hand.

Root veggies...

Sliced and baked golden beets with a maple syrup/butter sauce and walnuts. I might have some white turnips hiding in there.

Brussels sprouts quartered and roasted with a butter sauce and sliced almonds. (Vegan, eh? Does that mean no butter, too? If so, you probably have your own list of sauces or could just fox up a plain white sauce.)

Yams, maybe. And maybe mashed with cranberries and walnuts.

It's late in the season to find proper Hubbard squashes, but if I do find any, or something else that works, I'll cut them in half, roast the veggies in them and use them as edible serving dishes.

Precise recipes I'm not good at, but you get the idea. Always remember that recipes are not that important-- if it tastes good it is good.

[Texasgal]

12. Lot's of veggies

Love me some Brussels spouts, veggie stuffing and cranberry. Mashed potatoes and sweet yams, plus broiled asparagus. I never seem to go without.

I too am a veggie in a meat eating family. they will have turkey while I gorge on the veggies!