Vegan Thanksgiving recipe rundown

Last night was a Thanksgiving success, which is amazing considering my oven BROKE with an hour left on the turkey and five dishes uncooked. The nice thing about Thanksgiving with friends who live nearby is you can scatter to two different kitchens with working ovens and reassemble into a Thanksgiving Voltron of Deliciousness. This year I am thankful for friends, planning ahead and alcohol.

We also played a hilarious game: everyone gets a sheet of paper and a pen. You start by writing down a phrase on the top of the paper (I chose "bitches ain't shit but hos and tricks"), then pass it to the person next to you. That person draws a picture illustrating the phrase. Then they fold the paper so the phrase is hidden, and all that is showing is the drawing. Then they pass that to the person next to them, who writes a phrase that describes what they think is going on in the picture. Then they fold to cover the picture and pass their phrase on, etc. Continue until the page is filled up and then pile them all in the center of the room. When all the pages are done, everyone grabs one at random, unfolds it, and passes them around to read.

It's basically like visual telephone, and depending on people's creativity and drawing skills (or lack thereof) you can get some pretty hilarious results. We were laughing so hard that a couple of people felt sick. I think the winners were Ganja Santas and Steaming Choirs of Shit, plus the squirrel-raping tree stump.

Now, the recipes!

For breakfast the day of, while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Purina Dog Show:  Pumpkin Waffles (G Free and Vegan) from Girl Makes Food (this is a great blog by the way).

Cranberry Sherbert and Praline-Topped Sweet Potatoes from my earlier post.

Apple Fauxsage Pecan Stuffing

• 2 lb Field Roast Apple Sage sausages, sliced into 1/4" - 1/2" rounds
• 2 carrots, peeled & finely cubed (1/8") *
• 1 Tablespoon sage
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 10 cups cubed stale bread/unseasoned stuffing mix
• 2 onions, sliced*
• 2 apples, cored & cut into small cubes 
• 1 1/4 cups veggie stock
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped (optional)*
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• salt and pepper

1. Cook sausage in 1 TBSP oil, about 5 min, stirring often.
2. Add onions and carrots, cook another 3 minutes.
3. Stir in apples, sage, thyme, and marjoram, cook another 5 minutes.
4. Add 1 cup of stock, and bring to a boil.
5. Remove from heat, stir in bread, pecans, parsley, salt and pepper.
6. Spoon into a lightly greased casserole dish.
7. (This recipe can be made ahead to this point, it will keep in the fridge for 2 days or in the freezer for 2 weeks. If frozen, thaw in fridge before baking).
8. Bake, covered, in 325°F oven for about 40 minutes. Halfway through cooking time, drizzle with the remaining stock.
9. Remove the lid and bake 10 more minutes, until the stuffing has a crusty top and is heated through.

*I hate celery so I swapped carrots in for it, but if you like that kind of thing feel free to swap it back out, or have both. I liked the color the carrots added.  I used 1 1/2 large onions and used the leftover half for the gravy. I also didn't have any fresh parsley so I didn't add it. It was fine without, but would be tasty with. 

Adapted from: roxanne's recipe at Food.com

Vegan Gravy*

• half a large onion, minced
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• Pacific Foods mushroom broth (or 2 cups veggie broth)
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp sage 
• salt & pepper

1. Sautee onion in Earth Balance on medium-low heat for 10 minutes. 
2. Mix in flour to make a roux and stir constantly for 5 minutes, or longer as desired, until it's well combined into a smooth paste/thick sauce
3. Slowly add 2 cups broth while stirring (whisk recommended) 
4. Add spices and salt & pepper to taste
5. Simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Reduce heat if it's really boiling, a low simmer is ideal. 
6. Reduce heat to lowest heat and let sit until ready to serve, stirring occasionally. Add water if it's thickened too much. Serve hot! 

*this is an approximation of what I made up on the fly without measuring. You can cook the onions longer to caramelize them more. Also, you can do a white roux in five minutes, or you can keep cooking/stirring to get a golden or darker roux. Just add the broth when it starts to stick or seems like it will burn. As for cooking time, with the Voltron Thanksgiving it ended up sitting on low heat for an hour, and was fine, though I did have to thin it.

'via Blog this'

Vegan Thanksgiving

I may update this later with a post-mortem, but thought I'd go ahead and put all of my recipes in one place for selfish reasons.

This year I'm hosting and cooking 90% of the dishes for myself and 7 other people, one of whom is vegetarian. I'm paying extra for a $1.99/lb free-range fresh turkey rather than a $.39/lb frozen Butterball. My friend Tyler, who lives a few blocks away, has graciously offered us the use of his Big Green Egg to smoke the sucker, which will leave our oven free and generally be less of a hassle.

Other than that, I picked up a lentil-sage and a wild-mushroom Field Roast as the protein since I'm making lots of stuff. A chopped salad with romaine hearts & assorted veggies, choice of dressings; basic mashed potatoes (Yukon gold + soymilk + margarine + salt & pepper); Pillsbury crescent rolls, and canned cranberry sauce. Approximating the stuffing recipe on the back of the bag, 1 with turkey juice and 1 vegan with pecans and apples.

Pre-dinner noshes will be Safeway salsa + chips, assorted veggies & dip (dressing or I might make a hummus or onion/tofu dip), leftover cheese and crackers.

Others are bringing a lemon cream pie, pfeffernusse cookies and fresh cranberry sauce.

Here are my recipes for everything else:
Gram's Cranberry Sherbert
4 cups fresh cranberries
2.5 cups water
1.5 cups of sugar
Juice and zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon.
1 teaspoon of gelatin (I used 2 teaspoons of vegan cherry-flavored jel dessert)

1. Cook berries in water until berries stop popping and strain into pot, saving juice.
2. Using food mill or a fine metal sieve, a flat metal spoon and a lot of effort, smash the pulp out of the cranberries into the pot, keeping the skins out.
3. Add sugar, cook on low until dissolved.
4. Add gelatin; cool.
5. Stir in juice and zest.
6. Pour into freezer tray.
7. Beat with mixer 2 days prior to serving, refreeze and serve on Thanksgiving.

Evangeline's Brussels Sprouts, Apples and Walnut Salad
I sliced the sprouts in half and steamed them (I cooked mine for too long, they should be just underdone). Then I pan-seared them in olive oil and a couple cloves of crushed garlic, really letting the sliced sides get crispy. Just before removing them, I stirred in some maple syrup (1 tsp? 1 tbsp? a little goes a long way) and removed them from the heat before the sugar burned too much. Actually, it got pretty smoky. Good luck. I added chopped fresh apple (I used half a medium-sized apple, something tart, sweet and crispy but I don't remember what kind) and walnuts pan-roasted with a pinch of salt and a little maple syrup. I can't remember if I added shallots, but they would be good in this. I made a dressing out of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lots of thyme, a pinch of cumin, 1-2 tsp of brown deli mustard and something sweet, either a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup again, I'm not sure which.

Praline Topped Sweet Potatoes
3 one-pound cans of yams in light syrup, DRAINED
1/2 c. margarine, melted
1/2 c. cashew cream (equal parts raw cashews to water, blended)
2 Tbsp milled flax seed mixed with 1/2 cup water (i.e. 2 large eggs)
1 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 c. chopped pecans
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla

1. In a food processor, puree yams with 6 Tbsp. margarine and 2 Tbsp. cashew cream.
2. Add flax/water and 1/2 c. brown sugar, process until blended.
3. Pour into 2 qt. baking dish.
4. Preheat oven to 375.
5. In a small saucepan, combine remaining ingredients EXCEPT for vanilla. Bring to boiling, simmer 5 mins.
6. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
7. Spoon mixture over potatoes.
8. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly.
Serves 6-8.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie
(adapted from this recipe
9" store-bought graham cracker crust (because pssssh)
2 cups canned pumpkin or puréed home-cooked fresh pumpkin (see note)
1 cup low-fat soymilk or rice milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar cane syrup
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 Tbs. dark molasses or to taste
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. In large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until smooth and blended. Pour into prepared crust and smooth top. Bake 10 minutes.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 350F; bake until filling is set, about 50 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool, then refrigerate overnight. Top with your choice of dessert topping if desired.