5 Ways to Create a Plant-Based Holiday Feast Everyone Will Love

Whether it’s the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s or any other festive occasion, food plays a big part. In many households, food is typically the main event. Many of us can get slightly anxious when gathering around the table, as most traditional holiday foods center around animal-based dishes. For those of us who have decided to observe a plant-based diet, how do we navigate this time of year?

Just because someone no longer wants to eat animals, doesn’t mean they don’t love the holidays or want to spend time with their family while eating decadent food together! Family traditions, childhood memories and conditioned behavior through messages from society and the media all play a big part in how we feel about the holiday time. Family members might have certain expectations that can feel difficult to fulfill as we’re embracing a new way of eating. Lifestyle changes can be hard but are often even more challenging to explain to others.

How do we avoid upsetting, offending and making a big deal of the fact that we want to eat plant-based, even during the holidays?

Your most powerful tool in this situation is to learn to make some scrumptious dishes that are close in flavor and texture to the classic meals you’ve enjoyed together in the past, and not make a big deal about the slight changes in ingredients. Food is food, and everyone loves flavorful and satisfying feasts no matter what it’s made from.

Below are five tips that will make even the most skeptical meat eater want to dig in to his or her plate, and not even question a thing. The flavors are familiar, but with a plant-based translation. Try this out and you might hear what I’ve heard often “If I could eat like this, I would go vegan!”

1 It’s all about the gravy, baby

Think it’s the turkey that makes the meal? Not so. The gravy is what makes the meat tasty and brings the entire meal together. No animal products are needed to make a creamy sauce with depth of flavor. Gravy essentially is just a little fat (either butter or olive oil), flour and stock. In this case we use vegan butter and a vegetable stock. Add a little soy sauce for that extra ‘umami’ touch, and you’ve got yourself a winner!

Best Ever Vegan Gravy

1/3 cup olive oil or 5 tbsp butter
1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped fine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3-4 cups good-quality vegetable stock (not bouillon cubes!), preferably homemade
1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme, picked and chopped
2 tsp soy sauce
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Heat oil or butter in a large skillet, add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes until onions start to get soft. Sprinkle in flour and using a whisk, stir continuously for about 3-4 minutes until the flour starts to brown. Slowly add in vegetable stock, one ladle at a time, and keep whisking until smooth. Add in thyme and soy sauce, season with salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve warm over your vegan mashed potatoes!

*Alternatively, add some chopped, wild mushrooms to the gravy in the beginning with the onion for an even “meatier” feel, and finish with a few droplets of cashew cream (see tip #3) at the end and you’ll really wow your guests!

2 A Stuffing to Die For (but luckily nobody has to)

How many times have you heard people exclaim: “The stuffing is the best part of the meal”? How lucky for anyone who wants to eat plant-based, because stuffing is essentially composed of just onion, celery, and carrots, bread and seasoning! The key here is to use good quality artisan bread (preferably a couple of days old) that you slice yourself, because store-bought, pre-sliced bread simply won’t provide the same great texture and will give you a soggy mess. Make sure to caramelize the onions and other vegetables well to add a sweet, complex flavor, because nobody wants to chew on raw onions. Make sure to use enough stock, but not too much. Including some nuts like pistachios, pecans or walnuts will provide some added crunch to your stuffing.

Finally, you want to make use of all those fresh herbs that smell like Thanksgiving: thyme, rosemary, and sage to knock it out of the park.

3 Want decadent and rich? Think cashew cream!

Whether you’re making mashed potatoes, gravy, creamy soups or creamed spinach, your recipe might call for … well, cream. No problem! Just as dairy is the go-to for many, in the plant-based world our secret weapon is cashews. By soaking raw cashews a few hours in advance and pulsing them up in a high-speed blender with a little water, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice, you’ve created a rich, silky and thick cream you can add to any of the above-mentioned dishes. An added benefit: no cholesterol or saturated in this version, only healthy, monounsaturated fats with a dash of vitamin B and C, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and fiber!

Easy Cashew Cream

Makes a little under 1 pint.

1 cup raw cashews, soaked in cold water for a minimum of 2 hours
½ cup filtered water
juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp maple syrup (optional)
dash of kosher salt

Puree everything together in a high-speed blender for 2-3 minutes until thick and smooth. Add a little more water if you want the cream thinner. Taste for seasoning. Store in an air-tight container and place it in the fridge. Keeps for about 4-5 days.

4 Cook with lentils for your carnivorous friends and family members

This might not sound like a useful suggestion at first, but lentils, along with beans, mushrooms, oats and nuts can be pulsed together to form flavorful meatballs, meatloaf, burgers and serve as “ground meat” in sauces, stuffed peppers, tacos, Shepherd’s pie and stews. For every pound of meat, you will substitute one cup of uncooked lentils. Lentils hold their shape well and resemble ground meat both in look and texture, and because of their relatively neutral taste, it is a great receptor for any spices and flavors you want to add to the dish. Not to mention that lentils is a great nutritious and less expensive alternative to meat.

5 Win them over with dessert

It has never been easier to bake vegan pastries, and sweets are always popular with everyone. Gooey, soft chocolate chip cookies or brownies, flavorful apple, berry and pumpkin pies, cinnamon buns and bread puddings are just a few of the decadent sweets you can make without the use of dairy or eggs. With all the amazing vegan butter and milks out there, simply swap out the dairy version for plant-based versions. Eggs are also incredibly easy to edit out, as eggs simply work as a binder. Depending on what you are making, you can either use 1 tbsp ground flax or chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp of water per egg, mashed bananas, applesauce, baking soda, vinegar, cooked and mashed winter squash, arrowroot powder, and silken tofu just to mention a few options.

Spiced Holiday Loaf

1 stick plus 1 tbsp (150 grams) vegan butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup applesauce
8 1/2 oz all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare a loaf pan by lining it with parchment paper
Place butter, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip until light and fluffy. Gradually add the applesauce and combine it well. Add the rest of the ingredients and make sure they are well integrated.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake the cake for about 60 minutes. Check the cake half way through, if it starts to get dark on the top, cover it with a little parchment paper. Cake is done when a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before removing it from the pan and sprinkle with a little confectioner’s sugar if you wish.