Our Vegan Thanksgiving

Tonight Chase and I made our "If I were in charge of Thanksgiving dinner" meal. Our menu was Breast of Tofu (posted by Bunnyfoot http://www.bunnyfoot.blogspot.com/), Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (from VwaV), Smashed Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Balsamic Mixed Vegetables, Cranberry Relish, English Toasting Bread, and Pumpkin Pecan Pie. Chase has been going through a rough time lately, so we enjoyed spending lots of time together this weekend and especially cooking together tonight. Before we ate I told him I was thankful he enjoyed spending time with his mom, and he said he was thankful his mom liked to cook good food for him.


Saturday I made some cranberry stuff, relish I guess. I cooked cranberries, an apple, a tangelo, and half an onion in apple cider with some ginger, raisins, and dried apricots. I spiced it with cloves and cinnamon. I didn't need to add any sugar. It was really nice with the bread.

I could only get one picture - I took it outside since the weather was so nice, but the bees came!




I also made English Toasting Bread. This was always one of Chase's favorites. I don't remember where I originally got the recipe, but you could find it on the web easily. It's a loaf of an English muffin. It doesn't taste great plain, but after a minute or two in the toaster, it's a homemade English muffin, only sandwich sized. It's a little messy with the cornmeal crust, but oh so worth it. These pictures are really just bad camera angle shots, but I never claimed to be a pro photographer and you can get the idea of the beauty of this bread from these pics. You can see the bread on the table later, toasted and perfect.

Veggies for roasting were cauliflower, broccoli, Brussells sprouts, carrots, purple potatoes, onions, and red bell peppers. I drizzled a little olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, rosemary, thyme, and salt & pepper on them. Here they are before and after roasting. I know I say this all the time, but if given the choice between these beautiful veggies and a McD burger, who could want the burger instead?!?

Chase was in charge of the Breast of Tofu. That child loves tofu more than anyone I know! I had marinated it all day, then he prepared the breading and did the panfrying. We tried really hard to do something risque with a piece of tofu and 2 chickpeas, but it just didn't work out. Chase said I was making cassette tapes, not breasts. Anyway, while he made the breasts, I made the chickpea gravy. It was my first time to try it, and yes, it is as awesome as everyone says it is. Perfect with the tofu and smashed sweet potatoes.




For our dessert, I decided to experiment. Chase couldn't decide if he would rather have pumpkin or pecan pie, and I think everything should be chocolate. So I decided to make Pumpkin Pecan Pie in Chocolate Crust. I made Wolffie's Pumpkin Pie from La Dolce Vegan and put it into a crust of crushed Newman's Own Chocolate ABC Cookies, chopped pecans, and a little sugar and melted butter. I usually don't bake cookie crusts so I was a little nervous. But OMG, the pie is heaven, and it doesn't matter what crust it goes into. No tofu, no cooking. Just mix it up and shove it in the oven. It has a crumb topping and is perfectly spiced. The recipe says to serve at room temperature, and it held up fine, but I like it a little firmer, so I put it in the fridge. It helped the crust hold together better too. Here's the crust.

Here's the pie ready to go into the oven.


Here is all the food we were thankful for tonight.




HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!