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.

When working isn't a problem

Things have taken off, and my schedule has stabilized. This may be, in part, due to roommates waking up insanely early even on the weekend to go showshoeing and mountain climbing and other alien pursuits. Also this cold hasn't helped, I've been waking up before my alarm from the sound of my tongue cracking (since my nostrils don't work).

The thing I am still having trouble with is getting things done around the house, and sticking to an exercise schedule. My new thought is that if I have fun new video games to play, it will get me down in the exercise area and function as a non-food reward (those are hard to find). Of course I can't afford to buy new games so instead I made a small investment so I can do a little h4x0ring. Stay tuned.

The other day, when the pantry was a bit bare, I decided to try cooking up some of this grain mix that's been sitting around forever. It's a combination of Trader Joe's harvest grains mix, some buckwheat groats, and assorted unknown dried beans, legumes and grains. Possibly rice? Who knows. Here's what it looks like:

 

So I cooked it up with some Italian spice blend (no salt when cooking lentils) and it came out tasting like mashed ass. After that initial disappointment, I decided it was a perfect time to make some burgers to freeze for quick protein. Lately my joints have been extra achy and my brain malfunctioning what with the cold, so I decided I might be low on Omega fatty acids. Hence this recipe:

Omega Burgers
Makes 10+ burgers depending on how big you make them. 

1 cup walnuts
4 cloves garlic
6 green onions, white parts only
3 cups mixed, cooked grains
1/4 cup ground flax seed
2 TBSP soybean oil (aka vegetable oil)
2 TBSP soy sauce
1/4 can beer
1/2 C chickpea flour (or other flour)
1/2 C cornflake crumbs (or breadcrumbs or panko)
olive or vegetable oil
season salt
black pepper

Combine walnuts and garlic in a food processor and run until fairly well chopped. Add green onions and puree. Scrape the sides and add grains, flax, oil, and soy sauce. Process until it starts to freak out or a large clump starts circling, then slowly pour in beer until it has a paste-like texture. Scrape into a bowl and mix in chickpea flour and cornflake crumbs, adding more beer if it becomes too thick to work, or more flour & crumbs if it's too wet. You're aiming for something that you can shape into a patty in your hand that sticks together, but doesn't stick too badly to your hand. 

It'll look about like this (note I used Busch Lite because it's not like I'm going to be drinking it or anything):

You can either panfry these or bake them. Panfried are squishy in the middle, but have a nicer color and a crisp crunch.

To bake, preheat oven to 400 (or maybe 425, I had them at 375 and it was too low). Brush a baking sheet in olive oil. Shape burgers by about a 1/3 to 1/2 cupful in your hand. You can squash them flatter on the baking sheet. Brush the tops with olive oil and shake on a dash of season salt and grind some fresh pepper on the tops. Mine looked like this:

Bake for at least 20 minutes and keep checking until they're firm, starting to brown on the bottom and hopefully will release easily from the sheet. It might take longer so adjust times/temps accordingly.

For panfrying, cover a plate with paper towels or torn pieces of a paper bag. Heat a skillet on medium heat and add enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Drop in a burger (I did mine one at a time but you can be daring and try more), and cook a few minutes until you can see the bottom edge starting to brown. Flip and cook the other side for a minute or two and cook until it's as brown as you like. Here's about the color after the first flip:

Put the cooked burgers on the paper-covered plate to absorb the extra grease. Use the leftover oil to caramelize onions, if you like.

I had mine with caramelized onions, salsa and avocado, or the next day with some ketchup and mustard on a cracked wheat sourdough roll. Both are good.


If you have a dog that does well with onions and garlic (they can be toxic), or you leave those out, get the dog to clean your hands for you:

Thanks Lulu!