Thanksgiving tips?

[evilnumberlady]

I'm having my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian this year, and I will be eating at my parents' house (I'm a young single person).

I was wondering what advice people could give about what request to make of my mother and father (who will be preparing the meal) or suggestions about what dish I could bring to make sure I get enough to eat. I'm especially interested to hear about some kind of gravy substitute. My parents will be willing to do some simple things to accomidate me (I already asked them to keep the stuffing made inside and outside the turkey separate) but they won't do anything too complicated to help me out or make any new dishes just for me.

They always make the turkey with stuffing. Mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie are also staples. I doubt they will make anything else and if they do, there isn't a good way to know ahead of time what it will be.

[Lydia]

Since becoming a veggie, I've come to really love cranberry sauce as a gravy-substitute. It's not quite the same thing, but sure adds to the meal. My personal fav is miso gravy, but I can only find it here in Vancouver at a restaurant called "The Naam". Can I suggest looking on PETA's website under their shopping section and following the links to companies which make faux-meat stuff? I'll see if I can find any and post them here. Other than that, I've just researched and found yummy veggie recipies which seemed "Thanksgiving-y" or "Christmas-y" and made one of those for everyone to share... that way you're assured of an actual entree, and everyone else gets to sample the tasty goodness of the vegetarian lifestyle.
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So here's one of the links I found: VegCooking > Help Yourself to a Southern-Style Vegetarian Thanksgiving

[Coopdog]

I have a really yummy recipe for scalloped sweet potatoes with apples. If you want it, let me know. My whole family loved it!

[Susan9608]

Coopdog - I want that recipe! That sounds so yummy!

What I generally do for Thanksgiving is make a veggie counterpart to the things my family usually has. We now have 2 kinds of dressing (one made with disgusting turkey bits and the other totally vegetarian), 2 kinds of green beans, 2 kinds of gravy, etc. etc. If you don't mind cooking some stuff for yourself, that's one way to do it.

Of course, be sure and either label the veggie stuff or put it in a dish that you will recognize as veggie - you dont' want to have a nasty little surprise on T-giving day.

[Percy's Mom]

I'm not a vegetarian, but that sweet potato recipe sounds delish Coopdog. If you don't mind, please post it in Vegetarian Recipes, so we can all enjoy it. http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...recipes-2.html

[Coopdog]

OK...I added the sweet potato/apple scallop recipe to the recipe page! For years I made the standard sweet potato casserole with melted marshmallows on top, and it was never that big a hit (go figure, with 4 kids you would think one of them would have liked it, even if only for the marshmallows!). Then I tried this recipe last year and everybody loved it!

[JarBax]

My mouth is watering coopdog! That sounds a wee bit like a gorgeous recipe I have somewhere for red cabbage and apples. Yuuum!

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here - but it sounds a bit like our Christmas meal-time. I don't know if you can buy quorn? It is the best meat-substitute I have ever come across. For Christmas, I make a quorn roast - and always have tons of gravy. There are loads of vegetarian gravy granuals/stock cubes available. I use these to make the base for my gravy.

I gently fry an onion with some red pepper, and then add sunflower seeds and garlic. Then I add the stock (cube/granules plus a healthy spoonful of yeast extract) A good squirt of tomato puree never goes amiss, and a sprinkle of paprika adds a wee kick at the end. This makes a gorgeous, relatively rich gravy (though thinning with more water will lessen the intensity). I absolutely LOVE this over roasted quorn!

That is my gravy! I have never been good at following recipes - I always have to add a wee something here or there, and often go by feel rather than measurement! Thus the 'vague' quantities above!

[amptondooz]

Oh, JarBax you reminded me this is my first Christmas as a vegetarian!

Anyway, I love Quarn and I get some vegetable gravy. It's quite tasty and suitable for vegetarians!

[Sabriel]

I have seen cans of mushroom gravy at the grocery store. I am sure there is a brand out there that is veg.

What I usually do at holidays is make sure there is an easy to make, pop in the microwave meal on hand at all times. Then if something were to go amis I can still eat something. At my Mother in Law's house I have a good stock of vegetarian meals in the downstairs freezer.

But bringing a dish is rarely turned down by anyone. Maybe make a veg casserole that way there is a main dish other then turkey. If you go to vegweb.com and look through the Thankgiving section there may be something that will catch your eye. They are vegan recipies but you can always make them with milk and eggs if you want to.

And then on top of that you can load up on all the veggies people make with their meat and dessert tends to be veg too. I just tell people that I don't eat meat so I have more room for dessert.

[homeschoolmama]

This will be my very first Thanksgiving as a veggie too! We always go to my mom's house for Thanksgiving... my mom absolutely loves cooking huge amounts of food, so this is her annual crowning glory. This will also be by first year on a gluten-free diet, (Mom, my son & myself have all had to go GF) so we have a lot of changes in store.

Stuffing/Dressing will be made OUTSIDE of the bird this year, and we will have a regular & a GF batch... we're saving crusts all month for that.

My mom & I have been reworking her pumpkin pie recipe for a month now, working on a way to eliminate the eggs & still have it set up right. The crust is a "fun" challenge too, but I think we've just about got it right.

Mashed potatoes... I took over making these for Mom years ago, and they're now veggie (and heart) friendly. I just eat mine with a little vegan butter, and fresh chives from Mom's windowsill. Last year Dad copied ME instead of having Mom's famous gravy, so we might skip gravy altogether this year.

Most other foods either are, or could be made veggie-friendly very quickly. Just switching what kind of "butter" you use is a simple way to make all sorts of dishes healthier AND veggie.

There are so many foods for Thanksgiving, that I think it's the one time I'm NOT worried about what *I* am going to eat at my parents house. There's the veggies, raw & cooked, the stuffing... isn't that a food group unto itself? And there's fruit. Tons of fruit. The one thing I tend to have problems with at my parents' house is protein. Mom just doesn't "get" that there is protein outside of munching on flesh. So if you wanted to bring something along, I'd recommend something with protein in it. I'm going to be making a wild rice & quinoa dish to share that the kids & I absolutely love!
love,
mom

[fairysari]

A few years ago when I was still veggie, I had an 'orphan Thanksgiving' for my friends who were not going home for the holiday. One of the things we made was a Tofurky - the whole kit with the roast and all the fixins. It's a whole meal in a box. It's a little expensive, but if you don't mind splurging for the holiday, it is an easy thing you could bring that doesn't really require any preparation. It tasted pretty good, the non-veggies were eating it too!

[Coopdog]

Funny story about having a vegetarian over for Thanksgiving one year:
We, not being vegetarians ourselves, were having someone over for thanksgiving who was. So we were sure to have lots of veggie dishes for our guest. We thought we had done an excellent job, and our friend seemed quite happy until we served the tossed salad. When I reached for the bowl to pass it around, there on top, standing up for all to see, was a big, fat inchworm! Talk about a food faux pas!

[HowietheGreat]

I usually stick to the sides. I'm fortunate that there is plenty of vegtables, salad, mash potatoes and rolls that I'm never hungry afterword. I would imagine that vegans have a much more difficult time.