Thanksgiving

I always try to make a lot of sides for Vegan Thanksgiving. That way, the focus isn't on the "turkey" (which is usually a poor substitute for the real thing).

Here is my Thanksgiving menu (see below for recipes and a discussion of various brands of fake Turkeys):

Corn bread

Mashed potatoes
Savory Herb Gravy
Maple Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

Seitan "Turkey," baked in a phyllo dough "skin"

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Carrot Cake (from Cafe Indigo)

Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

Assorted Chocolate Truffles (from Butterfly Bakery)

Silk Nog

Hot Mulled Cider

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Sweet Potatoes and Apples:

2 lbs. sweet potatoes
2 medium green apples
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup orange juice
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 tbsp. soy margarine
1/3 cup sherry

Cook the sweet potatoes then slice, remove skin and layer in a casserole dish with thin slices of green apples. Heat all of the other ingredients in a sauce pan to make the cinnamon butter sauce. Pour over the layers of sweet potatoes and apples and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.

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Stuffing

1 loaf bread, toasted and cubed
1 small onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tbsp. poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
Soy milk (enough to moisten the mixture)
Soy margarine

Mix ingredients in a bowl. Add enough soy milk and soy margarine so that you can knead the mixture into a loaf. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour.

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Cranberry Sauce

1 bag cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup OJ

Combine ingredients in a sauce pan and dissolve sugar in OJ. Heat on stove until the cranberries start to explode. Allow the sauce to thicken slightly (should become red and syrupy) before removing from heat. The dish turns out best when about half of the cranberries have exploded and the other half are still in tact. Serve warm.

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Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Add 1/3 cup of canned pumpkin, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 tsp allspice and an extra TBSP of cornstarch to the vanilla creme brulee recipe from my "Cheesecake and Creme Brulee" entry (before heating the mixture). Note: in this recipe, don't add vanilla beans to the white sugar.

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Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

1 stick (4 oz.) soy margarine, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. finely chopped rosemary

1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 "eggs" (use 3 tsp. Egg Replacer plus 6 TBSPS water)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking power

1/4 tsp. salt

Turbinado sugar for decorating

Beat sugar, butter, rosemary and lemon zest until creamy. Beat in "eggs" and vanilla. Whisk together flour, baking power and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture and beat until just combined. Shape into a 1-inch wide log, wrap in wax paper and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray baking sheets with cooking spray. Slice cookies into 1/3 inch-thick slices. Cover the top of each cookie slice with turbinado sugar, then place sugar-side up on baking sheets and bake for 10-13 minutes (until the sides of the cookies just start to brown).

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A note about "Turkey":

I used to buy an UnTurkey every year for Thanksgiving until Now and Zen stopped making them. For the past two years, I have had to settle for a Tofurkey, which have a spongy texture. This year I decided to order a seitan turkey from Cafe Indigo, which I baked inside of a phyllo dough crust (to resemble skin). The seitan turkey was delicious!