No Whey, José!

Pictured is Josh with Pearl the turkey from Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary. She fell off of a truck on her way to the slaughterhouse and she was found and taken to the sanctuary. If you live in the Virginia or Maryland area, you should go to Poplar Springs’ “Thanksgiving With The Turkeys,” a vegan potluck served amongst their rescued turkeys.

This will be our family’s 3rd 100% vegan Thanksgiving, and our few non-vegan family members (most of which are vegetarian) have been so supportive and enthusiastic about the idea, and most importantly the food!

Even though a large majority of my family is vegetarian or vegan, over the years my grandma would still cook a turkey for those who still ate meat. I can remember being over at my grandparent’s house on Thanksgiving and walking through the kitchen while everything was being prepared and seeing a huge turkey in the oven. Since I was raised vegetarian the only time I ever saw meat being cooked for a family dinner was Thanksgiving, and it was awful. It was even more shocking to me to walk around the corner into the kitchen and see my grandpa, a long time vegetarian and animal lover, carving the carcass of a turkey on the kitchen counter. A few years ago my parents and I decided that we didn’t want to have a turkey sitting in the middle of our otherwise completely vegetarian Thanksgiving table anymore. We talked to the rest of the family, and everyone agreed that it was time to cut out the turkey.

Since then our Thanksgiving dinners have been vegan. I find it funny how people are so astounded by the idea of a vegetarian or vegan Thanksgiving. Besides the turkey, mostly everything else that is spread out for Thanksgiving is vegetables and bread. Why is so hard to believe that you can have a fulfilling and delicious Thanksgiving without having the stuffed carcass of a turkey sitting in the middle of all of those amazing vegetable dishes?

We’re still coming up with ideas for our Thanksgiving dishes, but here is a preliminary menu that will be served at our 3rd vegan Thanksgiving:

Appetizers

Famous Hummus and pita bread

Spinach Vegetable dip and fresh veggies

Dinner

Shepherd’s Pie

Marinated Tofu Cutlets

Tofurkey Roast

Garlicky Mashed Potatoes

Creamy Mashed Turnip

Stuffing

Mushroom Gravy

Cranberry Sauce

Sweet Potato Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Creamed Pearl Onions

Breads

Oatmeal Bread

Sweet Potato Corn Bread

Biscuits

Dessert

Classic Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pie

(And one more that Josh and I have yet to create!)

This week we’ll be compiling all the recipes for the menu and linking to them, so make sure to check back for the full recipe list. All in all, it’s a pretty classic Thanksgiving menu, just remove all animal ingredients and replace with love and kindness Okay that was sappy, but it’s true.
Try not to stress too much about Thanksgiving. I know I’ve already started to stress because there’s so many things I want to make but my mom has requested a “traditional” Thanksgiving (in other words, she doesn’t want me to go crazy with new recipes and leave out the oldies-but-goodies). If your family isn’t having a vegan or vegetarian Thanksgiving, offer to make a few of your favorite dishes, that way you can prepare them vegan! They don’t need to know that there isn’t any butter in your delicious mashed potatoes, right? Besides, Thanksgiving is about family, togetherness, and giving thanks to what we have. In no way should that have anything to do with the brutal slaughtering of gorgeous birds.