ISO No-meat Thanksgiving dishes

[Java]

I'm planning the Turkey Day menu and my 2 sister in-laws are non-meat eaters. They will eat eggs and dairy (one will eat seafood) but nothing furred or feathered.

I'm looking for a good meal-like, "main course" dish I can make for them. I'm sure there's more out there than salad and rice and couscous. Something more substantial.

Thanks!

[brittone2]

Is there anything in this thread that would work?

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=37&topic_id=266173&mesg_id=266173&listing_type=search

[schatje1]

We have multiple vegetarians in our family so in addition to a regular turkey, we also serve a tofurky. I am not sure how to describe it but every one seems to like it. You can buy it at Tj's, Whole fields and some regular grocery stores. And don't stress about it too much because there are so many great sides they can eat.

[CiderLogan]

I am a vegetarian, and if DH and I are hosting, we sometimes get a tofurkey. But there is no need for something like that just for a couple of people, IMHO. Instead, if I were you, I would just make lots of great vegetarian side dishes (pretty much everything you would normally make can be veggie - just cook the beans, etc. without meat and make a vegetarian dressing instead of stuffing inside the turkey). MMMM, corn, beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, bread, mac and cheese - that alone would be plenty for a meal, don't you think! If you want a main course (that everyone else can eat too), how about stuffed squash or something like that?

When I am a guest at someone's house, I appreciate more knowing I can eat most of the other dishes rather than knowing someone went out of their way to make me one big main dish. But that's just me.

Jenny
Mom to Julia, 8/03
...and another one due 5/29/06!

[bostonsmama]

Speaking of squash, Giada de Laurentis just did a show on a great Butternut Squash Lasagna that would make a great main course. It's pureed squash layered with mozzarella cheese, a basil cream sauce (bushamel?), and no-boil lasagna noodles. We're going to make it this Thanksgiving (maybe even as a main course for lunch) because it looked so good DH & I nearly drooled watching the show. At the bottom of the page are other fabulous recipes she made (ciabatta bread stuffing...omit pancetta & sub veggie stock for chicken).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_29169,00.html

[brittone2]

ITA w/ Jenny-I was a vegetarian for 8 or 9 years and I actually always felt *terrible* when people felt like they had to cook something special for me (for any meal, not just Thanksgiving). I was happy to eat the side dishes :) It was actually the most stressful part for me when eating at a friend's house...I hated it when people felt like they had to cook something for me because it made me feel like I was making them go to these great lengths to feed me. If they were having chicken, rice, and string beans, I was more than happy to eat the rice and beans, kwim?

Of course, with family it may be different and perhaps they expect a veggie friendly main dish ;) www.vegweb.com always has a ton of recipes and they have a Thanksgiving section. Everything on there is actually vegan but you can adapt it to what they eat (as in you could use butter instead of margarine if they aren't vegan,etc.)

[caheinz]

I have a recipe at home for Pumpkin Lasagna which is oooh so yummy... (particularly if you have the time to make fresh noodles, though it's still very yummy with store bought...)

Let me know if you'd be interested. It is a savory dish, not sweet. Lightly spiced pumpkin layered with bechamel and cheese and noodles... I think there are some almonds in there, too.

[ErinMC]

Ooh, Cheryl, I want that recipe and I'm not even a vegetarian! :-) Pretty please post it.

Erin

Mom to Chase Feb. 2004
... and another coming in June :-)

[jesseandgrace]

We are ordering one vegan thanksgiving dinner from whole foods, it serves 4, and it costs $59.00. I can't remember exactly, but it has something squash, a rice dish, and a tofurkey dish, and some type of pear dish for dessert. I would love to cook it instead, but my MIL is very sick and everyone voted to just cater this year, so I threw one of these in with the traditional stuff, but if it is good I might do it every year!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Man, I wish my vegetarian son-in law felt the same way as you! Last Thanksgiving around 7 days post partum I did the whole meal with extra side dishes for him. He showed up with a Tofurky tht he wanted me to cook for him, which set the whole meal I had already made which was cooking nicely in the oven off by two hours or so. I was so tired I could barely cope with not one, buit two meals. I guess this year it is clear that I should cook a main dish for him (although next time I go to his house I may show up with a raw pot roast).


Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 ETA 05-22-06

[bostonsmama]

Sounds a lot like the butternut squash lasagna recipe I posted above. From the looks of it (as Giada de Laurentis prepared it), it looks like it's amazing and will make a great main dish. Pumpkin sounds like a nice alternative, too!

Larissa

[Java]

ohhh - that sounds delish! I will definitly put this on the menu. The problem we face is having one oven sowe have to juggle the turkey, the baked sides and any pies.

I may have to re-visit the Fried Turkey post. If only to free up the oven for 5 hours!

[bostonsmama]

This is a huge stretch, but if you have a decent sized toaster oven (or could borrow one), you might be able to bake it in a 9x9 glass pan and broil or bake it in the toaster oven. I've baked cookies and done steaks in mine, and it's really nothing more than a cheapie Proctor-Silex or Hamilton Beach...can't remember, but not more than $35! Your problem is the exact same one my family faces esp since we try to feed the masses. What I wind up doing is prebaking the pies the night before, baking out-of-bird stuffing in a microwave reheatable bowl (same w/ mashed potatoes) and then bring all that stuff over to my mom's house. Could you perhaps make the lasagna the day before and pass it off (uncooked) to someone to bake and take to your house? Just a thought...I understand the dilemma.

Larissa

[Corie]

Cheryl,

I would love your recipe for Pumpkin Lasagna.
Sounds great! :)

[Tondi G]

Oooh my mom made something once that was fabulous and would be perfect for vegetarians!!! You cook up a Spaghetti squash in the microwave. scrape out the strands with a fork and season with salt and pepper. Put them in a pyrex dish and cover with mushrooms, butter and grated parm cheese! Pop it in the oven till the cheese melts and it's heated through! My mom said adding roasted garlic would be so yummy too! it sounds kinda strange but it tasted soo good and when I thought thanksgiving, squash came to mind!

otherwise i would think that all the other fixens would be enough... I find I don't eat that much turkey on Tgiving but load my plate up with everything else.... mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, green beans, candied sweet potatoes...... YUM.... I can't wait!

~Tondi

[caheinz]

OK, here's the lasagne recipe. I don't have time to type in all 3 recipes tonight -- I'll try to do the bechamel and noodles tomorrow night...

This book is a good one for more involved but really really yummy vegetarian dishes...

---
Pumpkin Lasagne
from The Vegetarian Feast, Martha Rose Shulman

Ingredients:
12-16 lasagne noodles, homemade or commercial
2 1/2 pounds fresh pumpkin cut in large pieces, seeds and membranes removed, skin left on
3/4 cup fruity red wine, such as Beaujolais or Gamay
1/2 cup toasted and ground almonds
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, preferable whole wheat
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage, or 1 teaspoon dried sage
2 teaspoons mild honey, such as clover or acacia
14 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt, preferably sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 recipe Bechamel
Up to 3/4 cup juice form the baked pumpkin
1 tablesppon butter or olive oil, plus oil for cooking the pasta

Note: This makes a spetacular main attraction for Thanksgiving or any special dinner. The pumpkin filling is based on one that is traditionally used in Northern Italian tortellini. Use homemade noodles for an incredibly sensuous dish.

Mix the pasta (if you are making your own), wrap in plastic, and let rest while you prepare the pumpkin and bechamel.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the pumpkin in a lightly oiled baking dish, cover, and bake 45 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, and cut away the rinds. Pour off any juice that has accumulated in the baking dish in a measuring cup and set aside. Puree the pumpkin in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, or through a food mill. You should have about 2 1/2 cups.

Combine the wine, almonds, 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs, the sage, and honey in a large saucepan and bring to a summer. Stir until the wine has been absorbed and no more liquid remains in the pan. Stir in the pumpkin puree and spices. Add salt and pepper to taste and heat through. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup of the Parmesan. Set aside.

Make the béchamel as directed, but substitute up to 3/4 cup of the liquid from the pumpkin for the equivalent amount of milk, and add to the milk before you heat it. Season the bechamel with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan after you remove the sauce from the heat.

Roling out pasta and assembling the lasagne:

Roll out the pasta to the number 4 setting. Cut in wide strips that will fit in a shallow 3- or 4-quart baking dish. Allow the noodles to dry for 15 minutes on a lightly floured board or kitchen towel. Meanwhile, heat a large part of water on the stove.

When assembling the lasagne you need to work fairly quickly, so geet everything organized before you begin. Oil or butter your lasagne pan generously, and have your bechamel, pumpkin mixture, and Parmesan within reach. Spoon a small amount of bechamel over the bottom of the dish.

When the water in the large pot comes to a boil, add a tablespoon of salt and a drop of oil. Cook the lasagne noodles a few at a time (enough for 1 layer), just until they float to the surface of the pot, which happens in about 10 to 20 seconds if they are homemade. Remove them from the water, plunge into a bowl of cold water, and drain on clean dish towels. (Don’t let noodles sit too long on the towels once drained, or they’ll become sticky.) Line the baking dish with a layer of slightly overlapping noodles. Spread a thin layer of pumpkin filling over this, and top with a layer of the bechamel. Use the back of your spoon or spatula to spread the bechamel evenly over the pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle on some Parmesan. Seat aside 1/2 cup of bechamel and 2 tablespoons of Parmesan for the top layer of the lasagne, and repeat the layers 3 more times: pasta, pumpkin, bechamel, Parmesan. Add a fifth layer of pasta and top this with the bechamel you set aside, the reserved Parmesan, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs. Dot with butter or drizzle on the olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to bake.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the top is just beginning to brown.

[Java]

So can I eat this seeing how it's made with wine? And my SIL is nursing her son. I'm not a drinker at all - in fact I get hives from drinking anything with alcohol in it but I have had stuff with a splash of alcohol and have been fine. I haven't tried anything with this much wine though. Will it cook off?

[caheinz]

Hmmm... it's both simmered and baked, so the alcohol should cook off. And even though it's 3/4 cup, it's spread out over a whole baking dish of lasagne!

I think you could substitute a not-too-sweet grape juice. It is supposed to be a fruity wine!

[caheinz]

Just a note on the sides...

Be careful if you're cooking for non-meat-eaters to not use meat broths! Veggie broth is readily available, and is naturally fat free! (I've watched DH's family cooking things like mashed potatoes and adding fat-free chicken broth... not that they would have told me -- and I am veggie.)

Also, stuffing can be either meat-free or not (sausage is a popular addition). Be sure to let your veggie guests know which is which!

[houseof3boys]

Lots of times people don't think about the broth! The first Thanksgiving I did with my in-laws, there were lots of veggies and I had nothing to eat since they were all made with meat broths, had pork fat in them or bacon sprinkled on top. :(