Tofurkey Time!
By Jenn | November 12, 2009
We here at Team Tiny Choices try to cover all the bases; yesterday Kari wrote a post about heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving, and my contribution today is on turkeyless Thanksgivings for those who avoid meat.
There are many reasons folks may choose to forgo having a turkey at their holiday meal– they may be vegetarian or vegan for compassionate or environmental reasons, or cutting out/down on meat for medical purposes. Or, perhaps you’ll be attending a traditional Thanksgiving meal featuring a turkey, but you don’t partake yourself and would like to contribute an alternative main course. Thankfully we’ve got lots of options!
Tofurkey is the go-to turkey alternative! I’ve never actually had one, but just adore wishing everyone a Happy Tofurkey Day anyway. This may be the year I try it. The Tofurkey Roast is a soy “roast” stuffed with wild rice and whole wheat breadcrumbs. Or, you can just pick up a box of Tofurkey deli-style slices, and make yourself a sandwich with the rest of the Thanksgiving sides: sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, etc.
Get creative: who says the main course needs to resemble a bird? One year I made a Seitan Portobello Strogonoff (complete with homemade seitan!) and it was absolutely delicious. This year I’m considering an Eggplant Potato Moussaka, because if I’m already eschewing tradition I may as well introduce an entirely new ethnicity to the table.
Or, just take the easy peasy route, and just eat the various side dishes offered! There’s always more than enough of them at my holidays to completely fill up on. Granted, many may not be veggie/vegan (stuffing actually cooked in the bird, for example…) but with a flexible host/hostess, perhaps slight modifications to their recipes can be made for your benefit. As a wonderful example, my mom has taken to cook her (Passover) matzoh balls in veggie-stock, instead of directly in the chicken soup– this way everyone is happy!
I’ll also Adopt A Turkey again this year… be free and gobble, lil’ cuties!
[Image by Cupcakes Take The Cake via Creative Commons]
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Topics: Food |
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i make lasagna every year … the benefits include 1. vegetarian (could even be vegan) 2. easy to make in advance 3. left overs are yummy 4. most people like lasagna and 5. it is freezable!
;)
Christie, those are all great reasons! Most especially #5, as I’m a huge fan of freezing extra portions. Ciao Gobble Gobble!
Tofurkey roasts are actually really delicious. My husband and I (both of us vegans) started hosting Thanksgiving at our house last year and doing all the cooking. We were tired of going to 3 different places where we could only eat 1-2 things (that we usually brought ourselves), so we started inviting people over. For our main course, we have harvest chili (black beans, corn, tomatoes, etc. along with butternut squash), which is just yummy.
I had Tofurkey for Thanksgiving this year. My husband and I aren’t vegan or vegetarian but we do like to try new and different things. Since it was going to be just the two of us, why not try Tofurkey?
It was really good. It tasted more like turkey roll than 100% real from the bird turkey but not bad and I’d eat it again. I could tell that meat was missing from the gravey either which I suspect may creep out vegans/vegetarians because it taste too much like real meat.