Veggie Alternative Thanksgiving
This is my second thanksgiving as a vegetarian. Last year, we got an Unturkey, and it was pretty bad. It was basically a solid lump of textured vegetable protein, wrapped in tofu skins. We decided it looked like a mutant stuffed cabbage. And it tasted like Hillel meal plan veggie deli.
I think I've gone a step(or several) better this year.
arctic_alpine suggested beans as a better veggie entree, but the problem was finding one that fits in with all the other thanksgiving food. So not chili, or barbeque beans, or tomato-lemon-sage garlic, or any of my usual bean recipes.
I tried looking for traditional New England bean recipes, but they pretty much all included ham as a vital ingredient. Not helpful. Finally, I googled the following: beans squash apples cranberry. And I got this.
I worked out a few adjustments, like substituting navy beans for the kidney beans and garbanzos, because I don't like either without tomatoes. And substituting maple syrup for honey, partly to be New England themed, and partly because I like excuses to cook with lots of maple syrup. And adding garlic, because it was too sweet (I think I overdid the maple syrup). And I made a big dish of the bean-fruit mix, but only some of it will be stuffed into acorn squash, because we couldn't get enough acorn squash. Apparantly, it's popular this time of year. Maybe I'll cut up some butternut squash into the rest.
Anyways, I kept eating it as I cooked it, and it's pretty darn good :)
Oh, and those two years as a vegetarian are destroying my ability to navigate a meat-and-dairy kitchen, including the one I grew up in. I started cooking the onions in a dairy frying pan before my mom caught the mistake. They are perfectly good, but useless for Thanksgiving dinner. So now we have a tupperware of sauteed onions in the freezer. Maybe I'll make soup for next week.
I think I've gone a step(or several) better this year.
arctic_alpine suggested beans as a better veggie entree, but the problem was finding one that fits in with all the other thanksgiving food. So not chili, or barbeque beans, or tomato-lemon-sage garlic, or any of my usual bean recipes.
I tried looking for traditional New England bean recipes, but they pretty much all included ham as a vital ingredient. Not helpful. Finally, I googled the following: beans squash apples cranberry. And I got this.
I worked out a few adjustments, like substituting navy beans for the kidney beans and garbanzos, because I don't like either without tomatoes. And substituting maple syrup for honey, partly to be New England themed, and partly because I like excuses to cook with lots of maple syrup. And adding garlic, because it was too sweet (I think I overdid the maple syrup). And I made a big dish of the bean-fruit mix, but only some of it will be stuffed into acorn squash, because we couldn't get enough acorn squash. Apparantly, it's popular this time of year. Maybe I'll cut up some butternut squash into the rest.
Anyways, I kept eating it as I cooked it, and it's pretty darn good :)
Oh, and those two years as a vegetarian are destroying my ability to navigate a meat-and-dairy kitchen, including the one I grew up in. I started cooking the onions in a dairy frying pan before my mom caught the mistake. They are perfectly good, but useless for Thanksgiving dinner. So now we have a tupperware of sauteed onions in the freezer. Maybe I'll make soup for next week.