By, Tracy Hulick
The first vegan holiday meal I cooked was Thanksgiving 2019. I was nervous, to say the least! Every Thanksgiving I had experienced prior to that was centered around a huge turkey and many side dishes that usually incorporated cheese, butter, or both. Two years ago I had just decided to adopt a plant-based diet and I have experimented quite a bit in the kitchen since then.
If you are new to plant-based food or are looking to incorporated just a few options into your holiday menu this year, let me help! Here are some of my favorite recipes and pre-made foods I have cooked up over the past two years.
Breakfast
I have had a tradition of baking cinnamon rolls every holiday morning for quite a few years now. Thankfully you don’t even need to make these from scratch since Annie’s does such a good job for you!
Quiche is something my mom would make on special occasions growing up and I was really happy to see that I could recreate them easily with Just Egg! I rely on frozen pie crust since I don’t own a rolling pin, and also don’t have a lot of patience for things like that. 😊 I used the recipe found here for the quiche and have played around with some different ingredients like mushroom and spinach. (There are two recipes in the link – I tried the spinach dill tomato one.)
Banana bread is versatile enough to be a breakfast, snack, or dessert, and there’s one recipe that I love and turns out well every time!
Main
It doesn’t get any easier than this. I have tried five or six different roast options for a plant-based roast as the main dish and there is one that by FAR is my favorite. It’s made by the 365 brand you find at Whole Foods and is only available for a limited amount of time right around the holiday season. It is delicious, comes with its own gravy packets (which are also delicious), and will be light years easier than making any kind of turkey or ham.
Speaking of Gravy
I mentioned that the roast above comes with its own packets of frozen gravy which taste great. If you want to make your own gravy to go with it, I highly recommend this super easy Mushroom Gravy recipe. I sometimes use dried thyme when I don’t have any fresh thyme on hand, but using the fresh version is much better in the final product. This is also great as a sauce on noodles or rice!
Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are a holiday staple, and I rave about this mashed sweet potato recipe. A food processor comes in really handy for this one – which you can see from my photo. A great picture of the final product is in the linked recipe.
Salads
This fresh Winter Fruit Salad is easy and delicious to have on hand and pairs well with almost anything. (I substituted agave for the honey listed in the recipe.)
This Roasted Brussels Sprouts Farro Salad is also great to have on hand and is heavy enough to be the main dish for lunch. I like to add dried cranberries in place of the pomegranate seeds. (I went a little heavy on the brussels sprouts in the version I photographed here.)
This Citrus Avocado Salad with Orange Tahini Vinaigrette is one of the best cold salads I’ve ever had. Violife brand feta is perfect in there, and I highly recommend putting in the leg work to find blood oranges to use. It really adds a great flavor.
Dessert
Dessert can be where people can make a lot of assumptions about vegan baking. They may think it will be flavorless and dry, but I can guaranty that these two cake recipes are not! They are both the absolutely best-tasting desserts I have baked and even your most meat and potato-loving guest would never guess these are vegan.
It has been a meaningful process for me to choose plant-based recipes as I celebrate with friends and family knowing that the choices are rooted in health and compassion for all living beings. I hope you enjoy these ideas and feel inspired to try some of them in your own kitchen!
- Tracey, Volunteer Harmony Farm Sanctuary!
