Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes – by Maddy Avena 

November 2010 
 
Maple Orange Glazed Sweet Potatoes and Apples 
Servings: 12

This is a fairly easy, yet utterly delicious harvest season vegan side dish

Ingredients:
1 lb apples, peeled cored and cut into chunks
3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled cored and cut into chunks that are smaller than the
apple chunks
4 Tbsp Earth Balance whipped buttery spread
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
salt to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Lightly oil a 9x13" Pyrex dish.

In a small saucepan, heat the maple syrup, orange juice, Earth Balance and
vanilla until simmering.

Toss the chunks of apple and sweet potato in the baking dish and evenly pour
the contents of the saucepan over everything. Mix well.

Bake covered for 30 minutes.

Remove foil or other covering and baste with the syrup mixture. Continue baking
for 20 minutes, basting after the first 10 minutes and again at the end.

Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 219.0
Total Fat: 3.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 48.2 mg
Total Carbs: 46.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.2 g
Protein: 1.9 g

 
Raw Kale Salad with Sliced Almonds and Asian Pear  
Serves 4

Bitter, creamy, salty and sweet. This raw kale is such a wonderful surprise.
Ingredients
4 cups Dino Kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
1 medium perfectly ripe avocado
1/4-1/2 tsp salt, preferably Himalayan pink salt
1/4-1/2 tsp raw sugar
2 Tbsp sliced almonds
1 Asian pear, sliced

Directions
To de-stem the kale, make a rip in the leaf on either side of the thick end of the
stem. While holding the stem firmly between your fingers on one hand, use your
other hand to rip the leaf from the stem by running your thumb and a finger on
either side of the stem from bottom to top. Cut your avocado into the kale, big
pieces or small. It doesn't matter. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp of the salt over the avocado
and kale. Using clean hands, begin to mush the avocado into the kale. Work
gently and carefully until all the kale is coated with avocado and salt. Taste a
leaf. If you don't taste much salt and want a saltier salad, add a little more salt
and distribute with your fingers. Set the salad aside.
Heat some canola spray in a a frying pan. Add the almonds and spread out so
they aren't layered on top of each other. Sprinkle a few grains of salt over
almonds. Then, holding your sugar bowl in one hand a fork in the other, fork up
the sugar, which will only come onto the fork a very little bit at a time, and
scatter each fork-full over the almonds. Do that 2 or 3 times.
Be careful not to burn the almonds. Let sit for a minute then toss to cook the
other side. They should be just beginning to get some color. Remove from heat,
pour onto a dish and allow them to cool for a few minutes.
While almonds are cooling, slice Asian pear into bite sized pieces and toss onto
kale. Once the almonds are no more than warm to the touch, toss them on as
well.
You can use a little balsamic or lemon juice if you've got to add some sour to
your sweet, salt and bitter, or just enjoy as is.

Mushroom Gravy 
serving size: 1/4 cup: 4 servings

Chanterelles are wonderful in this gravy. If you can't find chanterelles, use
creminis

Ingredients
2 cups thinly sliced fresh chanterelles*
1/4 cup minced onion
2 1/2 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine, divided
1 oz red wine
1 cup mushroom or vegetable broth
1/4-1/2 additional broth
2 Tbsp flour
salt and black pepper to taste

* if dried chanterelles or other dried, wild mushroom are an option, soak them in
warm water for at least 30 minutes, mince up and follow directions above, using
a strained 1 cup of the soaking water with 1/2 a bouillon cube as your broth.
* if wild mushrooms aren't for you, cremini or white mushrooms can be used.
(Shiitake is not recommended.)
Directions
Melt 1 Tbsp Earth Balance and gently sauté onion and mushrooms until
mushrooms have expressed their liquid.
Add red wine and continue to simmer for another minute.
Add broth and simmer, continuing to reduce liquid. Simmer about another 5 or
so minutes, adding additional broth if liquid levels fall to what looks like less than
one cup.

Strain and reserve mushrooms and onions if you want chunky gravy, discard if
you want a smooth gravy.
In a sauce pan, melt 1 1/2 Tbsp Earth Balance until bubbling. Whisk in flour and
stir constantly until roux starts to smell nutty.
Slowly dribble hot mushroom liquid into the roux, stirring constantly until all
liquid is incorporated. If it's too thick, add water, a small amount at a time.
If you like your gravy chunky, mince mushroom/onion mixture, return to sauce
pan and zip up with a wand.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 80.8
Total Fat: 5.8 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 323.0 mg
Total Carbs: 5.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 1.5 g

Wild Rice Bread Stuffing 
Servings: 4
This is my favorite stuffing recipe ever. It’s even easier if you can now find pre-
cooked wild rice. If you want to make it even richer and more interesting, add
1/2 cup chopped roasted chestnuts
Ingredients
1 small onion chopped
3/4 cup celery chopped
1 cup mushrooms sliced
3 Tbsp Earth Balance
3 slices stale cubed multigrain bread, (The Rudi’s bread in this recipe is 110
calories per slice, 1 gm fat, 2 gm fiber)
1 cup cooked wild rice (1/4 cup raw cooked in 1 cup strong vegetable broth)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp crumbled sage
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Cook the wild rice beforehand. Ratio is 1:4 rice to water or broth. Bring broth or
water to a boil, add rice, bring to simmer and simmer covered until all liquid is
absorbed, about 45 minutes.
In 1 Tbsp of Earth Balance, sauté the onions and celery on medium heat until
onions become translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are
cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside.
Melt the rest of the Earth Balance and quickly toss cubed bread around in melted
Earth Balance to evenly coat. Reduce heat and "toast" the bread a little. Add
back the vegetables, the sage and the vegetable broth and stir well so that all
the bread absorbs some of the liquid.
Stir in the wild rice. Season with salt and pepper.

NOTE: If you are going to bake this, a step not included in this recipe, add
another 1/4-1/2 cup broth, spoon stuffing into an oiled baking dish and dot the
top with more Earth Balance. If you have made this in advance, bake covered for
20 minutes, then remove cover and bake an additional 10 minutes until top
starts browning. If you put it in the oven right away after making on the stove,
just bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes until top starts browning.

Nutritional Info
(does not include chestnuts or additional Earth Balance and broth for baking)
Calories: 219.0
Total Fat: 9.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 303.7 mg
Total Carbs: 28.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.4 g
Protein: 5.7 g

Garlic Steam/Sautéed Green Beans 
serves 4
Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, crushed
3/4 lb Blue Lake or other green beans
1 vegetable bouillon cubes
1-2 oz water
or 2 oz strong vegetable broth

Directions
Prep the beans by snapping off the stem end. French cut into 1 1/2-2" pieces on
the diagonal.
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add garlic and sauté for one minute. Add beans and
sauté, flipping or moving the beans around with a spatula just to get a little oil
on most of the beans.
Add bouillon and water, mashing the bouillon into the pan with the water. When
water starts simmering, lower heat, cover and simmer until beans are tender but
still have a little crunch, about 5-7 minutes.

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 8
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 41.2
Total Fat: 1.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 197.2 mg
Total Carbs: 6.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
Protein: 1.6 g

No Bake Pumpkin Pie 
servings: 16

Rich and decadent. The perfect conclusion for a holiday meal.

Ingredients
Crust:
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup flax seeds
1 cup raw pecans
3 oz (about 13-14) prunes
2 Tbsp agave
pinch of salt

Filling:
2 cups raw cashews, soaked at least 4 hours to overnight in the refrigerator
1/3 cup raw virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup food grade cocoa butter (if you can’t find this, just use 1/2 cup total
virgin coconut oil)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup agave
5-6 oz water
1 Tbsp molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Directions
This is one of those "I can't believe it's vegan!" recipes! Have fun and just have a
little. It's VERY rich!

In this order, place into mini processor: prunes, nuts, seeds and pinch of salt.
Pulse several to may times to break down the prunes and the nuts, then let it
run until there are no big chunks of anything. Add agave and pulse a few more
times to fully incorporate. The end result should be somewhat sticky. You should
be able to pinch some between your fingers and have it hold together. If this is
not the case, add a little more agave, pulse and test again.
Spoon "crust" into a 9" deep pie tin. Using your fingers or the back of a spoon,
press the crust evenly across the bottom of the tin and up the sides as far as you
can go without making holes. This should be enough crust for this sized pan.
Once finished, put in the freezer to set up and begin making the filling.

Place into your blender in this order: coconut oil, cocoa butter, agave, lemon
juice and cashews. Remove plastic cap from the center of the blender. Cover
with remaining part of cover. Pulse many times to start breaking down the nuts.
This is going to take a while, so be patient!

With your blender on Blend, turn it on and let it run for a few seconds. Shut it
off, use a rubber spatula to push unchopped nuts down towards the blades. Turn
blender on again. Keep repeating this until the nuts have been well broken up.
The resulting mixture will still be very chunky and the intention is to keep
blending until it is very smooth.

Put blender back on blend. Add 2 oz of the water. Let run a few seconds. Turn
off. Scrape down. Help your blender incorporate the water. Keep repeating this
until all 6 oz of water have been used. At this point, the contents of the blender
should be circulating on its own, but older and less powerful blenders will still
need some help. If this is the case, keep turning it off, moving things around
with your rubber spatula, turning back on and so on until the contents start
looking very smooth.

Once things are very well combined and very smooth, while blender is running,
add molasses, pumpkin, vanilla extract, pinch of salt and all the spices.
You may have to re-employ the stop/start method until everything is very well
combined.
This total process can take up to 10 minutes. Taste for spicing. If you like a
spicier pie, then add more in small increments, blending well and tasting before
adding any additional spice.

Remove pie tin from the freezer. Pour contents of blender into tin, cover, place
in the refrigerator and refrigerate AT LEAST 4 hours. Overnight is best. The
coconut oil, which got warmed up quite a bit in the blender needs lots of time to
harden back to a solid state.
To serve, cut pie in half and cut one half into 8 thin slices. Enjoy as is or with a
scoop of coconut, rice or soy frozen dessert.

Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 300.3
Total Fat: 21.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 24.0 mg
Total Carbs: 21.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.1 g
Protein: 5.4 g

Pantry List for Vegan Thanksgiving 

Wild Rice and Chestnuts: Trader Joe’s sells pre-cooked wild rice in a package. If
you want to make your dressing with chestnuts, you can buy prepared chestnuts
in a jar. I find these two convenience foods invaluable with all the cooking that I
do for Thanksgiving.

Canned pumpkin: I have used fresh pumpkin for pie, but really prefer organic
canned pumpkin. The texture and consistency are just right all the time. Also a
big time saver.

Raw cashews: Raw cashews can be turned into so many things: salad dressing,
pie and vegan “ricotta”. I always have some raw cashews on hand.
Vegetable bouillon, Better Than bouillon, broth in a box are also conveniences to
help with a monster cooking day. I prefer Rapunzel No Salt Added bouillon cubes
for cubes.

Earth Balance Butter sticks work great in lieu of butter. If you don’t like Earth
Balance, I recommend using canola oil in its stead.

Pecans, walnuts, sliced almonds, flax seeds are staples that I always have in my
refrigerator. Several of the recipes in this class use a combination of these things