Being vegan/vegetarian during the holidays can be hard if you’re new to a meat-free lifestyle, especially if other members of your family are not vegan/vegetarian. As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, here are some ideas of good vegan options for this food focused holiday.
- The infamous Tofukry
Tofurky is something most people have heard of whether or not they’re vegan or vegetarian. Growing up I always heard jokes about this fake meat and the continuous statement by my mom “Don’t bring a Tofurky to my Thanksgiving”. Probably because of what I heard growing up, the first time I tried Tofurky I didn’t like it. However, I had some last week at Sewanee’s “Thanksgiving” and it was honestly delicious! I wouldn’t buy it normally, but for the holiday it’s nice to have and resembles meat so you won’t stand out too much at the dinner table.
- Side dishes
Side dishes are extremely easy to make vegan and nobody in your family will know the difference! During my first vegan Thanksgiving my mom put me on “veggie duty”. When cooking green beans you can substitute butter for oil, when making mashed potatoes you can use an unflavored plant milk (I use almond milk), and by taking a few extra minutes looking at ingredients you can buy vegan bread rolls.
- Soup
Soup is a very easy part of a Thanksgiving meal for vegans because most soup recipes are vegan to begin with! This means no searching for vegan replacements.
Just by doing a quick google search for “Vegan Thanksgiving recipes” you can find hundreds of delicious recipes. Lately more and omre vegan options are showing up at grocery stores, making shopping for Vegan Thanksgiving even easier. I have seen entire vegan pies at Whole Foods which are a perfect dessert after eating loads of veggies, potatoes, and of course Tofurky!
Just for laughs, you should watch this hilarious and vulgar video of a grandma making a Tofucken, the vegan version of a Turducken (a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey):