Sunday, November 18, 2007

Thanksgiving Dinner – Fresh, Local, Organic, Contemporary Vegan Fare

Sunday night was Vegan Thanksgiving for Chase and me. I made a little bit of a lot of different foods. Our meals for two smallish people may seem huge, but please know that none of it is ever wasted. Chase loves to take home leftovers and my freezer remains full of desserts.

My goal for the meal was the usual Thanksgiving flavors with a modern flair. I believe the only thing I left off the traditional menu is stuffing, which neither of us cares for. I baked a day in advance and the rest of the dishes were easy to prepare the day of. The fresh produce made for a fantastic meal - Saturday’s Farmers Market was a gold mine. I found green beans, sweet potatoes, apples, peppers, sage, garlic, onions, broccoli, and kale.



Our completely delicious dinner in pictures:


Bourbon Mustard Glazed Faux Turkey Breasts and Gravy


Green Beans Bundles with Bac’n and Scallion “Butter”


Wild Rice with Apples, Onions, and Pumpkin Seeds


Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic Reduction




Steamed Broccoli and Curly Kale with Warm Pumpkin Vinaigrette



Cranberry Apple Sauce



Whole Wheat Herb Biscuits




Our plates:


Our table:


Cranberry Bars




Pumpkin Spice Layer Cake with Caramel Crème Cheez Icing



Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

38 comments:

LK Sisters said...

Wow! Your post looks fantastic. Can we get those recipes?

Especially the mashed sweet potatoes sound awesome, and the broccoli with pumpkin vinaigrette! The pumpkin spice cake looks so moist and flavorful!

We wish we could enjoy our Thanksgiving day on Thursday like as well as your vegan one! Ours unfortunately won't be pure vegetarian...

aTxVegn said...

Thanks, Sisters! My Thursday will not be very veg-friendly either. That's why Chase and I do our own.

I had 2 small and 2 large sweet potatoes I boiled and mashed. I added 1/2 cup plain soy milk and 1 T. margarine (make sure to warm them first), salt and pepper.

For the broccoli - get a steamer going. Add one head chopped broccoli and a clove of garlic and steam for 5 minutes, then add a bunch of chopped kale and steam 3 more minutes. The vinaigrette is so awesome we started pouring it on everything! Mix together 4 T. pumpkin puree, 1/4 c. cider vinegar, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 T. sugar, and a dash of salt & pepper. Whisk in 1/2 c. olive oil. It may thicken and you can add a little water if you want, but if you warm it, it's very pourable.

The cake was so moist it was like pumpkin pie. I'm very full!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Diann

Anonymous said...

May I have the all of the Thanksgiving Dinner Vegan style?
Please send to Stan Grier
qiyoga@earthlink.net

Anonymous said...

Let's try this again. May I have all of the recipes posted by ATXVGN for the incredible Thanksgiving Dinner.
Please send to Stan Grier
qiyoga@earthlink.net
Thanks.....:-)

Vegan_Noodle said...

Oh wow Diann, what a feast!! Those green bean bundles are the cutest!!! Did you get your faux turkey recipe from a book or did you make it up? I am thinking of just making some of the chickpea cutlets from vcon since they're so easy (plus we're having lots of other veggies on the side, no real reason for a "main course"). Looks like you and Chase had an amazing early thanksgiving :-)

Sheree' said...

Happy Vegan Thanksgiving, Diann!
Your meal looks devine. I am with everyone on the recipes. Did they come from a book or did you make them up. If you can share please email me. Thanks for the pumpkin vinegette recipe. Sounds perfect for my dinner table.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving! That looks GREAT!

Anonymous said...

Wow Diann! Incredible spread. Marty happened to see those turkey breasts and thought it was weird I wasn't reading a vegan blog. Hahah! What recipe did you use? They sound so intriguing.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh. That spread looks absolutely delicious! You are such a baker! Two desserts AND bisquits! That would freak me out. hehe! My Thanksgiving won't be totally vegan either. I'll be having a tofu-tempeh loaf while the rest of my family has roast chicken. BUT I'll be making all the wonderful sides and pumpkin pie which will all be vegan! Yay!

aTxVegn said...

Anon - I will send you all the recipes Monday night. Thanks for asking!

Amanda & Crystal - I used the turkey style seitan recipe from La Dolce Vegan, but doubled the broth.

Sheree - I'll send you the recipes too.

Kim - thanks! Have fun making your vegan sides and pie!

Ashasarala said...

This looks like an awesome Thanksgiving feast! This is the first year I decided to make my own from scratch. Usually I have some veggies and call it a day. These pictures are exciting me even more to get started. Everything looks so scrumptious and wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving! =)

Anonymous said...

Wow, everything looks amazing!

I would love to make those cranberry bars, how did you make 'em?

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

How fun that you and Chase celebrate Thanksgiving together, on your own special, designated day :0) do you still attend a "regular" Thanksgiving celebration, with other family members?

Oooh I like your modern flair on your Thanksgiving menu - and yay for fresh produce! :0)

Mmm, the Bourbon Mustard Glazed Faux Turkey Breasts, Green Beans Bundles (love the presentation!), Wild Rice, Mashed Sweet Potatoes (I've never seen sweet potatoes that weren't a deep orange color before! interesting!), Cranberry Apple Sauce, Biscuits (wow, I'd LOVE to have that recipe), cranberry bars, and pumpkin layer cake all look positively mouthwatering!! and you had such a gorgeous table set up as well!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Mmm, everything looks amazing! The bean bundles are an awesome way to display a side; so cool!

aTxVegn said...

Thanks, Asha... have fun prepping your Thanksgiving dinner!

a. - if you want to leave me your email address I'll send you the recipe. The bars turned out so good and are super easy to make. If you can wait, I'll probably give out the recipe on a holiday cookie post in a couple of weeks.

V.Girl - Chase and I will be joining my parents and brother for a "traditional" meal out, a buffet, hopefully with plenty of veggies unadulterated by butter and cheese! Our sweet potatoes were really orange when I peeled them and I thought they were a great color. They were the best sw. potatoes I've ever had. The farmer told me to get more cuz it was the last of the crop, but I didn't cuz I didn't know they were that good!

Thanks, Melisser! A compliment from you means a lot.

Kayla said...

What a fantastic feast you prepared. I think it's really cool that you and Chase did your own thing. It makes it really fun and special when you can concentrate on the food and the company, instead of dealing with all of the craziness. I feel really lucky this year that our Thanksgiving will be vegan (besides the turkey breasts), although it will be large. I hope Thursday isn't too terrible for you guys.

Kayla said...

Oh yeah, I also wanted to say the green bean bundles look really fancy. Nice job!

Judy said...

Wow, what a great spread. Are those red pepper rings around the beans? Brilliant!

Mmm, that cake at the end looks delish - maybe my favourite part of a meal I never even ate!

Anonymous said...

this loks awesome as always you are great!

i will like to know if the Pumpkin Spice Layer Cake with Caramel Cr�me Cheez Icing is a recipe you can share? :)

aTxVegn said...

Judy, yes, those are pepper rings. You could also use a thick strip of carrot tied into a knot.

Johanna, the cake is from Sinfully Vegan. I'll send it to you if you don't have it. It is soooo delicious!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! I especially like the desserts!

Jo said...

Looks awesome! Way to make me mega hungry so early in the morning, heh. Those green bundles look so delicious and full of texture. Thanks for the post!

Kumudha said...

Evertything looks so beautiful and delicious!

bazu said...

Sweet! Looks like you succeeded in your goal of fresh, local, seasonal, modern, vegan. Everything looks really appetizing. I'm taking note on the balsamic reduction on the mashed potatoes idea.
I have to admit, I couldn't live without stuffing, though! Then again, with your spread, I probably wouldn't miss it.

Emilie said...

Yay! Your meal looks so exciting and fantastic. I love the idea of balsamic reduction for the sweet potatoes--doesn't hurt that they look beautiful with it as a contrast. So lovely! I can't wait to do my Thanksgiving feast--you've gotten me even more psyched for it!

Anna said...

What a feast! Such variety and colour and tastiness...maybe Australia should start celebrating Thanksgiving. :)

Rose said...

Your meal looks great! Looks like you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner

Kate said...

Wow, you are getting me so souped on Thanksgiving. I am very inspired.

MeloMeals said...

What a beautiful feast!

Jen Marie said...

I'm not much looking forward to tomorrow, as it will not be a gluten or vegan friendly day with all of our relatives coming over... i'l probably have some mashed potatoes (i made my own with soy milk) and turkey, but thats about it... however, reading your post made me excited about possibly implementing some of these recipes in the near future for my own, personal Thanksgiving meal!

where can i get the recipes?

aTxVegn said...

Jen Marie - I'll be glad to email them to you. I've got them all together in a Word doc.

Tomorrow doesn't leave many food options for me either. That's why I did this meal, then tomorrow can be just about being with family.

Amy said...

Ooo I have to get my hands on La Dolce Vegan if only for those turkey breasts! They look amazing!!! (everything does but they really shine!)

The chickpea cutlets in V'con have been made Gluten free by a few people on the PPK if you meant you'd be the last person to make them because of the wheat gluten. They don't have the chewy texture and are softer but I've read they still taste good (it can be frustrating when the whole world is blogging about something you can't have hey?)

n/a said...

Your spread is georgous and I love the look (and sound) of the desserts!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

yes please send me the recipe. in writing it with spaces just delete them when you send me the recipe
email: jopas 3 @ gmail . com

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I would love to make this thanksgiving menu; could you please mail me the recipes? Thanks so much!
email: pwmwater @ telebyte . nl
(like Johanna3 did, I wrote it with spaces - just delete them)

Yvonne

Anonymous said...

If there is any way you could send me these recipes, I would be eternally in your debt!

d0tski AT gmail DOT com

Thankyou!

~*JenZ*~ said...

If you don't mind sending me the recipes for Thanksgiving, that would be much appreciated!! Thanks a lot in advance!! =D

endlessluv42 @ hotmail . com (remember to remove the spaces)