Vegan Thanksgiving 2009

Apple pie in a spelt pie shell (dessert pictured first, of course)
Butternut squash soup
Delicato squash risotto
Roasted sweet potatoes with orange zest and cinnamon (a little blurry)
Clockwise from the top left: 1. delicious, sweet cashew cream sauce to pour over the roasted sweet potatoes, 2. herbed stuffing made with sprouted grain bread and fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley and celery and carrots, 3. cranberry sauce sweetened with date sugar.
Close up of the cranberry sauce, which was ever-so-slightly tart. I love the brilliant red jewel color.
Close up of the stuffing.

My nutritious, vegan Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success. Some of the toughest, non-veggie loving critics paid me kudos for days afterwards and even took home doggie bags. I was in complete shock and of course, pleased to pieces! Eveything was made from scratch, from fresh, organic ingredients except the pie shell, which was store-bought from Wegman's but was organic, vegan and made from spelt (never fear). It's all about quality ingredients and loving preparation. The proof is in the pictures (and the fact that three of my smoke detectors went off while I was cooking)...

Thanksgiving Menu

In case anyone is wondering, or even if you weren't, here is my veg-friendly Thanksgiving menu...

*organic herbed stuffing (from Wegman's) with celery and shallots

*organic yams sweetened with maple syrup

*cauliflower with fresh lemon sauce/dressing (I really wanted organic lemons since I will be using the rinds but Wegman's didn't have any today)

*my famous (or is it infamous?) vegan chocolate mousse pie. Yum.

Recipes

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I wanted to post some veg-friendly recipes that you can use on Turkey Day (or Tofurkey Day, as it may be).

Maple Pumpkin Butter

This recipe is very loosely based on one I found in last Sunday's paper, in Parade. I prepared this yesterday and loved it.  My preparation is way healthier though, due to my ingredient upgrades.   It is also simpler to prepare and that's purely by happy accident (some people may call that accidentally skipping a step, but hey, it worked out fine. Tasted delicious.).

One 15-oz. can organic, unsweetened pumpkin puree

1/3 cup each agave nectar, organic unsweetened applesauce and pure maple syrup

3/4 tsp each cinnamon and ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F.

Put all the ingredients in a large, heavy ovenproof casserole dish and stir to blend. 

Once the oven is pre-heated, slide the casserole into the oven and cook for 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin butter has thickened and there is no liquid around the sides of the pan.  

Cool the pumpkin butter, then cover and chill.  Enjoy!

Makes approx. 4 servings.

More to come...stay tuned.