This year, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my boyfriend. Between us both being vegetarian and him having a handful of dietary restrictions, lots of substitutions were necessary when it came to creating our Thanksgiving feast. Having spent years at Thanksgiving tables asking “can I eat that?” and hoping that my relatives would be honest with me, I am so thankful (seriously but also pun intended) that we could make a meal together that we both could enjoy without hesitation.

We had:

 

Red quinoa stuffing (baked inside of zuchinnis, portobello mushroom caps, and an acorn squash), roasted vegetables, steamed kale, mashed sweet potatoes and cauliflower, and whole wheat rosemary bread. The avocado was for spreading on the bread along with roasted garlic. For dessert we had a pear-almond tart with a whole grain crust. (Bread and pie will be in a separate post)

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash:
3 sweet potatoes, cut into large cubes
1/2 a head of cauliflower, cut into large chunks
olive oil
fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
3 cloves of garlic
3 TBSP almond milk (unsweetened and unflavored. No one wants vanilla potatoes)
fresh parsley.

In a large pot, boil sweet potatoes until almost fork tender, about 6-8 minutes. Then add cauliflower and boil until everything is soft, about 7-8  more minutes. Drain.

Add garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper and mash the hell out of it until it’s uniform. Add the almond milk and continue to mash until creamy. Feel free to add more almond milk, tablespoon at a time, if it’s too chunky 4 u. Top with fresh parsley.

Red Quinoa Stuffed Vegetables:
2c red quinoa, cooked (4c water, 2c quinoa, simmer until water is gone and quinoa is fluffy)
olive oil
1/4 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
5 sprigs fresh thyme
small handful of sunflower seeds
small handful of walnuts, chopped
salt ‘n pepa
1 acorn squash
1 large zucchini (find the fattest one you can. If its size makes you uncomfortable, it’s probably perfect)
2 portobello caps.
1 tsp honey

In a pan, sautee onion and celery until soft, about 10 minutes (do this while the quinoa is cooking). Then add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes. Add thyme, rosemary, sunflower seeds, and walnuts to the quinoa and stir. Then add the sauteed vegetables, salt and pepper. Done with that step.

Now preheat your oven to 400.

Halve the acorn squash and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. Halve the zucchini lengthwise and scoop out seeds until it looks like two canoes. Clean the portobello caps and use a teaspoon to scoop out the insides (I think it’s called the gills? Disgusting. Scoop it out, whatever it’s called).  Drizzle them all with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add 1/2 a tsp of honey to the acorn squash halves.

Fill each item with the stuffing. Then, take a baking dish and place ONLY the acorn squash in the pan. Pop that sucker in the oven. After 20 minutes, add the zuchinni to the pan. Then 10 minutes after that, add the mushrooms. Let all that cook an additional 10-15 minutes, then remove from the oven. The vegetables should be fork tender and the quinoa should be a little crispy.

Ta da ! One dish done.

On to the next one. Super easy.

Roasted Vegetables:
1 small celery root
1 large watermelon radish
2 scarlet turnips
4 small beets
(peel and roughly cube all of the above)
1 head of garlic
olive oil
salt & pepper
fresh rosemary
1 bunch asparagus, ends cut off and spears cut in half.

Slap everything but asparagus on a baking sheet, coat with olive and oil, rosemary, s&p. I added them to the oven when I put the squash in. After about 20 minutes, I added the asparagus. The root veggies should roast for at least 45 minutes.

 

Part 2 COMIN’ UP. I’m not going to explain how to steam kale because I won’t forget and it’s easy enough that I don’t need to tell anyone.

-K