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A Vegetarian Thanksgiving

© Allison Tyler

If you are the vegetarian host: If you and all your guests are vegetarian, problem solved. If however, meat-eaters will be in attendance, you need to decide if you want meat at your feast. If not, be sure to let all your guests know in advance that your event will be a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Proudly list some of the delicious dishes you’ll be serving to whet their appetites. Even meat-eaters can be satisfied with well-prepared, tasty vegetarian dishes. Besides, it’s about the company, not the food, right?
If you’d like your guests to bring a vegetarian dish and they are not vegetarian, you might want to provide some recipes or at least guidelines as to what is and what isn’t vegetarian (be sure to mention gelatin, marshmallows, chicken/beef broth, fish, etc.).
If you do decide to have meat dishes at your dinner, here’s an idea for labeling what’s what. Draw a big veggie – maybe a radish – (if you can’t draw, go here for some great printable veggie clipart from Arthur. Print (or draw) it 5 times, cut out the veggie shape (or just use the whole page) and write “Vegan” on one, “Lacto” on another, “Ovo” on a 3rd, “Lacto-Ovo” on a 4th and “Meat” on the 5th. Tape the labels to the front of your serving table (or counter or sideboard) and line up the dishes behind the proper label so everyone knows what is what. Depending on your guests, you might only need 3 labels (Vegan, Vegetarian, Meat). Even easier, cover the table with a paper tablecloth and write the labels on it with crayons or markers.

Here are some excellent vegetarian Thanksgiving recipe suggestions and information from the Web:

Allrecipes.com has posted a terrific article including an ingredient substitution list, a listing of items commonly found on a Thanksgiving table that are not vegetarian and some wonderful recipe suggestions. It can be found here.

Vegkitchen.com has posted a menu of 7 vegan dishes (but one contains honey and one lists olive oil in the ingredient list, but calls it margarine in the recipe directions – either way, it’s still vegan). It can be found here.

Here (at Thriveonline) you will find a menu containing 3 vegan recipes, 1 lacto and 1 lacto-ovo.

Here are some of the wonderful recipes from the late Linda McCartney. It isn’t specifically a Thanksgiving menu, but I think it would make a great one.