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 Italian Sausage Recipe

via the Everyday Dish TV

Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages
Makes 8 links

2 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup chickpea flour
2 tbsp Bills Best Chik’Nish Seasoning (if using another brand which is salty, or saltier than Bill’s Best, you’ll want to greatly reduce the amount you use)
2 tbsp granulated onion
1 to 2 tbsp fennel seed, optional
2 tsp coarsely ground pepper, preferably freshly ground
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp dried chili flakes, optional
1 tsp ground smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground allspice
2 1/4 cups cool water*
6 to 8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce

1. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. Whisk together the water, garlic, olive oil and soy sauce and using a fork, gently stir into the dry ingredients. Stir just until ingredients are mixed. If dough mixture is too dry, you can add another tablespoon of water or as needed.
2. Scoop 1/2 cup dough mixture at a time and shape into logs. Place logs on piece of aluminum foil and roll up, twisting ends. Place sausages in steamer and steam for 30 minutes. Once sausages have cooled, remove from foil and refrigerate until ready to eat. After cooling, the sausages may feel a bit dry on the outside. Don’t worry, as they will soften and firm up considerably after chilling.

Variation: You can shape the dough into little patties instead of links. If you don’t want to use aluminum foil, you can wrap the links in damp muslin or tea towel and tie ends with cotton twine.

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There was exactly a 1" strip of aluminum foil left in the box (WTF?!) so I tried it with cheesecloth. What a freaking pain that was. We'll see if they explode or not.

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Edited to add: This recipe is GREAT. Easier and definitely better texture than the last time I tried - I think it's using chickpea flour instead of mashing the beans. The cheesecloth worked but is a pain in the ass to take off - definitely wrap with wax paper or similar next time before putting the cheesecloth on. Or just use foil!