[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, unless otherwise noted]
A vegetarian Thanksgiving? Piece of cake. I don't care much for turkey, and my favorite stuffing has no sausage in it, and I have little need for bacon in my Brussels sprouts. Actually, due to collective turkey paranoia, more than a few Thanksgivings of mine have been incidentally vegetarian. It's been great.
Oh, you're vegan, you say? And you want a great Thanksgiving of your own? It's okay, we got you.
Yes, a Thanksgiving without dairy and eggs means you miss out on buttery mashed potatoes and custardy pumpkin pie. Creamy green bean casserole and crusty potato gratin aren't in the cards. But skipping out on cream doesn't mean skimping on the comforting, carby dishes Thanksgiving is best for. Actually, it means you get to focus on bolder flavors brimming with spice and explore a spectrum of textures wider than the usual seven kinds of creamy. Give this menu a peek and tell me you're not strapping on the fat pants by the end of it.
Starter: Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup With Harissa
I start my Thanksgiving meals with a good creamy soup, but a cream-less vegetable soup works just as well. When you simmer and blend carrots in vegetable stock you get a purée so creamy it doesn't need dairy. This number adds some spice with ginger, coriander, and harissa paste to kickstart appetites for the main meal. And best of all: the soup can be made ahead and frozen, then defrosted just before dinner starts.
Get the recipe for Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup With Harissa »
The Centerpiece: A Vegan Wellington
Thanksgiving is a meal of sides, but it still needs some kind of centerpiece. The traditional vegan option here is a loaf of Tofurkey, still creased from its plastic packaging, with all the texture and flavor of a rubber band. Hey, I love chewy seitan and tempeh when done right, but that pre-packaged "roast" ain't cutting it.
Instead, consider this deeply savory vegan take on beef Wellington, made with roast carrots, mushroom bacon (yes), cashews, and beans, all layered and wrapped in layers of cracky phyllo. Okay, it's a serious project—one that needs plenty of advance planning—but if you're not gonna haul out the showstoppers, the shut up, Uncle Carl, vegan food can be awesome dishes on Thanksgiving, then when will you?
Get the recipe for Vegetables Wellington »
So Long, Sausage: The Best Vegan Stuffing
Panzanella, a crusty bread salad featuring toasted croutons soaked in good olive oil, is one of the best things to do with a stale loaf of bread. This we know. Now meet the casserole version: a stuffing (okay, dressing) of bread enriched with vegetable broth and olive oil instead of turkey stock, butter, and eggs. It's a little lighter than the typical meaty stuffing, which means you can eat more of it, and nubs of cooked-down mushrooms and sage leaves deliver amazing bursts of meaty flavor that imitate—dare I say improve?—on the sausage in typical stuffing, while the toasted pecans you mix in add serious crunch.
Get the recipe for the Best Vegan Stuffing »
Better Brussels: Fried Brussels Sprouts With Shallots, Honey, and Balsamic Vinegar
If you're skipping turkey and mashed potatoes, you have some caloric leeway to play with, and also some room to show off. So: fry your Brussels sprouts! It's the fastest, tastiest, and most foolproof way to get crisp, nearly-burnt leaves with tender, creamy centers, and you can cook up a whole mess all at once while freeing up your oven for other tasks.
You could stop with plain sprouts, salted as soon as they leave the fryer, but they'll be even better if you fry up some shallots alongside them and toss them with honey, balsamic vinegar, and parsley. (Agave nectar works great if you don't eat honey.) Now you have a sweet and sour heap of vegetables full of burnished, browned flavors, all with just a couple minutes of active cooking time.
Get the recipe for Fried Brussels Sprouts With Shallots, Honey, and Balsamic Vinegar »
The Sweetest Roast Sweet Potatoes
The sweetest sweet potatoes don't need extra sugar. There's plenty of sugar in that spud already, and by parcooking the sweets between 135 and 170°F, you activate an enzyme that converts the potatoes' starches into maltose. Once you do so, you can then roast the potatoes to an exceptional crispness that stays crackly long after other sweets turn limp.
Get the recipe for the Best Roasted Sweet Potatoes »
Better Than Green Bean Casserole
Green bean casserole is often creamy to the point of gluey. If you actually want to taste the green beans, onions, and mushrooms that the dish is supposedly all about, here's a fresher way to do so: caramelize cipollini onions until they turn soft and candy-like. Brown mushrooms until they turn into firm, meaty nubs. And blanch and sauté green beans until they're just tender. Then mix all the parts together for a dish that has all the elements of a green bean casserole, but with more concentrated flavors.
Get the recipe for Sautéed Green Beans With Mushrooms and Caramelized Cipollini Onions »
A Smart Salad
This is no rabbit food. It has chickpeas rolled in cumin and paprika, then roasted until dense, crackly, and crispy. A dressing with tangy-sweet sun-dried tomatoes, a blast of hot sauce, and cooling cilantro and mint. Okay, there's kale too. It's 2014 and you're hosting vegan Thanksgiving and people are going to expect kale. This is how you prove that a) kale is awesome and b) kale salads aren't just for trendy restaurants.
Get the recipe for Roasted Chickpea and Kale Salad With Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette »
Jazzed-Up Cranberry Sauce
[Photograph: Josh Bousel]
I'm usually a traditionalist when it comes to cranberry sauce. Cranberries, sugar, orange peel—that's all for me. But this menu is building a kind of sweet-and-sour flavor profile, and there should be a cranberry sauce to round that profile out. This here sauce is straightforward but fascinating. Brown sugar adds caramel depth and a molasses twang. Pomegranate juice draws out cranberries' astringency and acidity all the more. And jewel-like pomegranate seeds, stirred in at the very end, have a juicy pop that cooked cranberries lack. This sauce doesn't rely on syrupy soda of sweet spices for depth: it's fresh, interesting, and somehow even more cranberry-ish than the the original.
Get the recipe for Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce »
Palate Cleanser
[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]
It's a smart move on Thanksgiving to serve a palate cleanser in between the main meal and dessert course. This intermediary pause lengthens the evening and slows down the feeding frenzy—don't you hate when you've spent all day cooking, only for your guests to devour everything in half an hour?
Let people retire to the drawing room and lay down for a reprieve on the couch. Then serve them scoops of this tart, sweet, and aromatic cranberry sorbet turned lipstick red by a slurp of Lillet Rouge, the lesser-known but more autumn-friendly aperitif cousin to Lillet Blanc. The wine's bittersweet botanical qualities add a clean, herbal finish to the cranberries—especially nice for a palate cleanser.
Get the recipe for Cranberry and Lillet Rouge Sorbet »
Dessert: Apple Pie à la Mode
Pumpkin and pecan pies are custard pies—not the most vegan-friendly. But with a handy vegan pie crust, apple pie is the star of your vegan Thanksgiving dessert spread. Fortunately, Kenji's easy pie dough recipe works just as well with shortening as butter—it's just as easy to work with and produces beautiful flakes. Whizz up a batch, chop your apples, and get to baking!
Get the recipe for Perfect Apple Pie »
[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]
But if you really want to knock peoples' socks off, make some ice cream to scoop on top of that pie. Yes, ice cream. 100% vegan ice cream, which, unlike all those other vegan ice cream recipes on the internet, uses the right amount of fat and sugar to mimic cream and eggs' creamy texture. The trick (if you can call it that) is extra-fatty coconut cream in addition to coconut milk, and some corn syrup for smooth, chewy elasticity. While the flavor is decidedly coconutty, you'll marvel at how well it pairs with clean, crisp apples.
Get the recipe for Foolproof Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream »
Now: fat pants, yes?
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