A simple and delicious potato side dish that goes great with a lot of different meals.
Green Bean and Sweet Corn Casserole
This is a new take on an old favorite. What is Thanksgiving without green bean casserole? I suppose it is still Thanksgiving, but somehow this casserole will make the meal pop with flavor. And speaking of pop, I’m not exactly sure what the magical equation is with this recipe, but the green beans… Continue reading Green Bean and Sweet Corn Casserole
Brussel Sprout Salad with Filberts & Dijon Dressing
Earthy brussels,citrus, dijon and creamy shallots punctuated by crunchy roasted nuts. Another hit from the Native Foods Celebration Cookbook.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Home-made cranberry sauce is simple and quick to make. Our current favorite recipe comes from the Native Foods Celebration Cookbook. This recipe, featuring a mix of fruits in a port wine reduction is richly flavorful, a one-pot job, and comes together in under 30 minutes. All the ingredients are commonly found in grocery stores. If you use dried… Continue reading Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Cream of Sweet Onion Soup with Sautéed Mushrooms
This recipe is a play on an old family holiday tradition: creamed onions.
Chanterelle Mushroom, Carrot, and Sage Stuffing
This stuffing will hug you from the inside. If there was ever anything that would make you feel good and comforted, it is this stuffing. This dish is a must have for Thanksgiving dinner or any meal where you feature stuffing. My family would routinely have stuffing as a side dish when I was a… Continue reading Chanterelle Mushroom, Carrot, and Sage Stuffing
Thanksgiving 2016
Thanksgiving
Hello and welcome to animalssaythanks’ first official blog post! A vegan Thanksgiving dinner probably seems like a lot to tackle as a first project, but one of our goals is to illustrate how easy and fun vegan cooking is, so with that said, let’s begin!
Planning the menu
Shawnna and I build our menus together. Each of us brings different ideas to the table. For a holiday dinner such as this, we come with different family traditions that we’ll each riff on. Sometimes we faithfully recreate our mom’s old favorites using vegan ingredients. Other times our memories of those traditional dishes inspire us to try something new that fills the same place in the menu. In all our menus, we strive for nutritional balance. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner in particular illustrates an iconic balance of protein (turkey), carbs (stuffing) and fats (gravy). As vegans, we can easily achieve the same balance, making meals just as satisfying (or more) to our bodies and palates.
Here’s our 2016 Thanksgiving Menu:
Appetizer:
1) Cream of Sweet Onion Soup with Sautéed Mushrooms
Main Course:
2) Lentil Loaf
Side Dishes:
3) Green Bean and Sweet Corn Casserole
4) Puff Pastry stuffed with Sweet Potatoes
5) Golden Gravy
7) Brussel Sprout and Filbert Salad with Shallot & Dijon Dressing
9) Chanterelle Mushroom, Carrot and Sage Stuffing
8) Dessert: Something we try to be conscious of when planing a meal, is to not choose so many items that it becomes overwhelming. There’s only so much time in the week, so much room in our kitchen and so many burners on our stovetop that to plan to make more than the available resources allow would make it frustrating. This year, we are buying an Apple Pie from our dear friend, chef Meredith Klein, and our family is bringing a Pumpkin pie from Real Food Daily. We’ll supplement it with store-bought vegan ice-cream. If there’s time we’ll top it with a home-made whipped Cashew Cream.
Animals Say Thanks 