This question came up at dinner tonight, and I thought I'd put it to all of you: if you wanted, for some reason, to serve a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner, how would you do it?
This isn't the same thing, mind you, as serving a Thanksgiving dinner at which some vegetarians will be present. Nowadays, my folks get a free-range bird for Thanksgiving from Griggstown Quail Farm (they ain't cheap, but it's only once a year) so that I can partake, but before they started doing that, I used to manage quite nicely on the potatoes and veggies and dressing and cranberries and salad and, of course, pie. I never ran any risk of going hungry. But supposing that you had to accommodate a crowd composed mostly of vegetarians, or that you yourself didn't want to serve any meat, how would you go about it?
Would you try to create a new, vegetarian centerpiece for the meal to take the place of the turkey? (This is the approach a lot of vegetarian magazines seem to take, which gives them an opportunity to shoot gorgeous cover photos of some show-stopping dish.) Or would you have just the traditional side dishes that usually surround the turkey, as described above, but without the bird? Or would you throw out the whole idea of the traditional Thanksgiving meal and do something else entirely?
I think my favorite approach is a sort of middle ground. I wouldn't scrap the traditional Thanksgiving menu entirely, but I wouldn't be limited by it. So rather than trying to construct a meal with one big main dish and a bunch of sides, I'd serve several hearty, seasonable dishes that would complement each other: butternut squash soufflé, succotash, "half baked" potatoes (i.e., cut in half and then baked, so they get nice and crispy), and of course, cranberry sauce. Probably some sort of green veggie, too, like that wonderful sesame spinach someone brought to the last Folk Project Evening of Music (note to whoever it was: if you're reading this, please send me the recipe). I might do some sort of dressing (you can't call it "stuffing" if it's not served in the bird) in place of the potatoes, since that's normally my favorite part of the meal and I think I'd miss it if it weren't there. On the other hand, it's really not the same without any gravy. Perhaps I'd just make a mushroom gravy to serve with it.
What do y'all think?
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4 comments:
We call it "stuffing" because we stuff OURSELVES with it! One Thanksgiving, we just had homemade mac and cheese and a pumpkin pie for dessert. It was the first Thanksgiving no one got heartburn.
I'm happy to put together sides. But it is nice to have one slightly heartier dish made especially with the vegetarians in mind. The "you're not eating turkey, so let's do something nice to replace it" dish. Doesn't have to be a show stopper. Just something that said you thought beyond "oh, they can just eat sides" when preparing the meal.
This Thanksgiving, it's just me, so I may do candied yams or acorn squash stuffed with wild rice pilaf (that's pretty, and pretty easy).
We've been making a "show-stopper" from Vegetarian Times for the last many years and bringing it as an addition to the traditional turkey dinner. It's been very popular with the vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/8180
On the other hand, I never felt deprived before that, just eating everything but the turkey and gravy. I sometimes felt deprived if the only stuffing had bits of meat in it, since I love stuffing. My mom is going to look for a free-range turkey for Christmas for me! I'm very excited. I haven't had turkey in 20 years.
My first comment on this blog!
I sent Amy an email a while ago which basically said the same thing I'm hearing here: There should be one show-stopper, just so the meal does not seem "ordinary".
A large number of portabella mushrooms glued together with Gouda cheese? A large pot of stew? A quiche - but not cooked in a pie-pan in an oven - instead, heaped into a slow-cooker. The quiche should have broccoli, cauliflower, cheddar, swiss, heavy cream, and more eggs than you can count.
Still, I would like something to replace gravy. It just isnt the same without it. The gravy should be made from the drippings of the dish itself, so we need to think of something which will produce drippings.
Yeah, it does seem like some kind of gravy is called for. The best vegetarian gravy I know of is mushroom. I don't know that it necessarily has to be made from the "drippings" of the main dish, just as long as it's a compatible flavor. One Christmas I ate with a vegan friend who had cooked up a sort of meatloaf made from chopped mushrooms and walnuts. That worked pretty well with a creamy-type gravy over top.
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