You know… how to have a dairy free, egg free, meat free, but not (at all) gluten free vegan thanksgiving day πŸ™‚ So, I know not everyone who comes to this space is vegan, which is totally cool, but some are or have family members who are and are looking for recipes…. so well, here we go: a pretty easy and super delicious vegan thanksgiving recipe list. The pie is probably the most intimidating recipe on this post, so if you’re scared of making pie crust, just buy a pre-made crust because I don’t recommend skipping the pie recipe, it’s really delicious. Even Marlowe, the sweet potato hater, loved it.  
If you’re looking to simplify your life, I absolute recommend making the gravy and cranberry sauce ahead of time, maybe the night before. And the pie? definitely make it the night before… not only does it cut out an extra dish the requires an oven, but also, this pie does really well if you allow it to set and cool, on the counter or in the fridge. 
We served all this food (plus one meat dish) to a table of omnivores (and one vegetarian) and everyone was  very pleased! Also, other than the pre-made loaf we bought, everything is pretty straight-forward ingredient wise— nothing crazy like silken tofu in your pie. We like to keep to the basics around here, not only for ease and taste, but also, because who really wants tofu in their pie? I don’t. 
You won’t be disappointed. 
Super Easy Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
-8 yukon gold or russet potatoes, peeled
-1 stick vegan butter (I prefer earth balance)
-2 cups almond or soy milk (I use almond)
-salt and pepper to taste 
-optional: garlic (maybe 3-5 clove sor so, peeled)
How to:
-place potatoes in large pot and fill/cover potatoes with water. If using garlic, add it in pot.
-bring water up to a medium boil and cook until you can pierce the full sized potatoes with a fork or knife and the potato slides off on its own
-drain water
-in a small pot, heat up milk and butter, until butter is completely melted
-in a mixer or with a hand mixer, slowly add butter/milk mixture with potatoes and blend until creamy smooth—- unless you like the chunks, then hand mash those babies.
-add salt and pepper to taste. 


Vegan Sweet Potato Pie

Filling Ingredients:
-2 1/2 cups cooked sweet potato. Roughly two medium sweet potatoes, pre-pureeing, and about 2 1/2 cups sweet potato after pureeing. Baked or boiled— I wrapped my sweet potatoes in tin foil and baked at 450 degrees for an hour, then peel off skin.
-1/2 cup sugar (you judge your sweetness level— feel free to add more, if you’d like)
-1/3 cup maple syrup
-1 can full fat coconut milk. You will mostly use the fat on top and a bit of the water also– but NOT the whole can. I recommend refrigerating your can at least 24 hours in advance to get the most of coconut cream that sits on top.
-2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-cinnamon for sprinkling on top (optional)

Filling How To:
-carefully open your can of refrigerated coconut milk and scoop the fat/cream (the thick white part that sits at top) into a food processor. add maple syrup and arrowroot and blend out all the chunks, until smooth.
-add all other ingredients (minus the coconut water left in can) and puree.
-add coconut water as needed. You want the filling to be a thick, but very smooth paste/cream.

If you’re using a store bought pie crust, I don’t blame you, especially when you’ve got a bunch of other things to make, if not, try this….

Crust Ingredients: 
-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-1 tablespoon sugar
-2 sticks cold/refrigerated “butter”—- I like earth balance best, but you can find a few different vegan butter/margarine brands out there these days. You can also sub butter for vegetable shortening if you like, but I personally like the ‘butter’ better. If using vegetable shortening, add 1 teaspoon salt.
-1 cup ice cold water.

Crust How To:
-in a big bowl combine flour and sugar (if using shortening, add salt here)
-slice sticks of butter into small pieces and add on top of flour mixture.
-with a pastry blender, food processor, or your hands, combine cold butter with flour. I used my hands, it’s cheap and is easy clean up πŸ™‚ The flour is going to clump together from the butter. Once you have itty bitty clumps, you’re good for the next step!
-pour about a quarter cup ice cold water over flour and with your hands, begin to work it around edges of dough. Add another quarter/tiny bit at a time and continue to try to form a solid dough ball. I don’t think I used more than half a cup total. Just add water slowly, you don’t want a mushy ball, and you don’t want it dry— almost kneading your dough into a ball.
-pat it smooth, wrap in plastic, and place in fridge to rest for at least an hour, or overnight if you’re planning on making pie the next day.

TOGETHER:
-preheat oven to 350
-once dough has rested in fridge for an hour, remove from pastil and place on a floured surface, and begin to roll out— this should actually pretty easy. It doesn’t have to be perfectly round, just big enough to fit in your pie dish.
-place rolled out dough in pie pan and cut off extra around dish with a sharp knife or scissors
-scoop and even out filling mixture inside
-if you’d like, take over dough and re-roll it out and make shapes or lattice for the top. I went ahead and used a heart shaped cookie cutter, easy enough. If you’d like sprinkle some sugar and/or cinnamon on top.
-place in pre-heated oven and allow to cook until crust begins to brown. Anywhere from 40-60 minutes– depending on age of your oven.
-once golden brown, remove from oven and allow to cool. My pie didn’t come out of the oven until 1 am (I’m a night owl), so I just let it cool on counter overnight. But if you’d like to pop it in the fridge until mealtime, do it!, but only once it’s cooled to room temp! Cut and enjoy!


Cranberry Apple Sauce

Ingredients:
1 package fresh cranberries (7.5 ounces)
1 small peeled and diced apple (red, green, whatever)
1 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cinnamon stick

How to:
-add all ingredients to pot and bring to low to medium simmer.
-reduce water, after about 8-10 minutes, mix. If needed reduce down for another few minutes.
-serve hot, or make ahead of time and once cooled, refrigerate until ready to be served.


{No Rolling Pin Required} Vegan Biscuits


Ingredients:
-4 cups flour
-2 tablespoons baking powder
-teaspoon salt
-1 stick /8 tablespoons earth balance butter (or other vegan butter) (you can sub vegetable shortening for ‘butter’ if you wish)
-1 1/2 cups almond milk

How to:
-preheat oven to 450
-combine flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. please make sure it’s really well combined.
-dice stick of butter and place butter chunks on top of flour mixture.
-with your hands or pastry cutter, combine butter into flour, until flour has formed into itty bitty pea or smaller sized clumps.
-begin slowly adding almond milk into bowl and mixing together to form a dough ball. The ball will be sticky, but should not be overly moist.
-on a floured surface, knead dough ball for two to three minutes
-break off golf ball sized balls and place until un-greased pan.
-place pan in oven and cook biscuits until the begin to brown, usually 10-12 minutes


Mushroom Gravy


Ingredients:
-1 onion, small diced
-1 carton baby bello mushrooms, small diced
-2-3 tablespoons earth balance butter
-3 tablespoons flour
-almond milk (optional, just using stock is great too)
-vegetable stock or water
-4 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional, but highly recommended)
-chopped oregano
-chopped thyme
-salt & pepper to season

How to:
-heat pot to medium-high heat. 
-add ‘butter’ until heated/melted 
-add onion and mushrooms and sautΓ© until well cooked/soft. 
-add herbs
-lower heat to medium. Work quickly… There should be a bit of moisture in the pot from the butter and mushrooms. If there isn’t much, feel free to add a bit more butter into the mix… Add flour to make a roux-like mixture. Blend in the flour really well. 
-grab a whisk and start whisking in stock (or water), making sure to scrape off all the flour from the bottom and sides of the pot. The amount of liquid you add, will depend on the consistency you like your gravy. I prefer mine on the more liquid-y side. Just remember that the gravy will thicken as it cooks. You have room to play a bit here. Slowly add in more liquid (milk or stock) until you reach your desired consistency. 
-stir in nutritional yeast and salt and pepper to taste. 
-feel free to add more diced herbs, if you feel you’d like. 
-allow to cook on a low heat for another 5 minutes or so…. and devour.

The Easiest, 10 Minute Brussel Sprout Dish

Ingredients: 
-1 brussels sprout stalk or 2 packages of brussels sprouts.
-olive oil
-5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
-salt and pepper to taste
-optional: chile flake

How to:
-boil one pot water
-cut off brussels sprout stem, and halve brussels sprouts
-place brussels sprouts into boiling pot and blanch for 3 to 5 minutes until bright green
-drain water and rinse sprouts in cold water
-toss sprouts in oil, garlic, salt, and pepper (optional chile) on a sheet tray
-place under broiler for a minute or two until crispy brown, toss, and broil again. Voila.


Simple Homemade Stuffing


Ingredients: 
-1 large onion smalled, diced
-2 celery stalks, diced
-6 slices of stale bread, small cubed (we used wheat bread, but I’d recommend a sourdough)
-2 apples, diced
-2 cups vegetable stock
-toasted fennel seeds (optional)
-fresh thyme
-olive oil
-salt and pepper

How to:
-heat pan to medium heat
-add oil, onions, celery and allow to sweat out all moisture/cook
-once vegetables begin to become translucent, add apples, continue to cook
-add fennel seeds and thyme
-scoop into a mixing bowl, add bread, add stock, salt and pepper, mix together and place in baking dish
-bake at 375 degrees, approximately 15-20 minutes until golden brown.


Fancy Up That ‘Vegan Loaf’ 


So now, I’m not saying everyone should run out and buy processed fake meat, because truth be told, it’s not the best for you. But I truly live by the rule “everything in moderation”… and having a vegan loaf, once a year or twice a year for thanksgiving is not only cool in my book, but I think it’s a pretty good idea for that extra big meal dish…. and really, it’s not half bad, especially if you put a few minutes of extra work into it. A few different brands make a vegan loaf and you’ll notice around this time of year, they almost all go on sale. I don’t know which one is best, I haven’t had them all. Buy whatever one is organic or at least GMO-free. Also, a lot of them come with a pre-made, frozen gravy, if you’re not into mushrooms or don’t feel like making extra gravy, then you just saved yourself some work… our packaged gravy is still sitting in the freezer.

For an extra touch….

Ingredients:
-1 large onion, sliced
-2 carrots, peeled and sliced
-1 or 2 parsnips, peeled and sliced
-8 cloves garlic, peeled (halved if large)
-thyme, oregano, basil (any or all) chopped
-vegetable stock
-1/3 cup white wine (optional)
-olive oil
-salt and pepper

How to:
-in heat dutch oven (an oven safe pot) to medium high heat, add oil (make sure your dutch oven is large enough to fit your vegan loaf!!!)
-add onions, carrots, parsnips and allow to cook and brown for a few minutes
-add herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper, allow to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes
-add white wine, allow to cook for another 2 minutes and turn off heat
-place loaf in center of pot
-pour vegetable stock on top— enough to cover vegetables
-put lid on top and cook in oven as instructed on package.
-slice and serve!

Phew, drink wine, smile with friends and family, and enjoy! 

14 Comments

  1. Thanks so much for this post. I am Australian, thus no Thanksgiving meal for me, but this has given me some great ideas for Christmas.

  2. I totally justify buying fake meat once a year too! I just love tofurkey … although am unsure if I can justify giving it to my son now that he's old enough to eat it this year. ehhh, oh well! moderation, right!???
    ALSO, girrrrl! I make the BEST vegan green bean casserole. It is seriously the jam. It's been the first thing to disappear the last few years (even among non vegans)…. here is a link to a similar recipe:
    http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/11/best-vegan-green-bean-casserole.html
    <3 andrea

    • going to look now. I just got MORE green beans…. might be casserole time. Thanks!

  3. hey, drea! just wanted to add a thought to your mashed potatoes – I puree some navy beans beforehand, then mix them in (but use the other ingredients you did too). you can't tell any difference in taste, but you up the protein majorly! I even brought this dish to a friends thanksgiving dinner (not vegan) and had it as my main. Everyone else ate so much and were raving about them, too!

  4. We don't have Thanksgiving, but I can use these recipes anyway. How much coconut cream do you get from the top of the can? We can buy canned coconut cream, so I don't want to add too much. Not that too much coconut cream would be that bad πŸ™‚

    • I'm not sure exactly, but it's typically the top inch and a half of the can, that will become completely cream….. and you're right, not that coconut cream would be a bad thing…. mmmm.