Our Thanksgiving Feast

We had a quiet Thanksgiving here at casa whitknits; just my husband and I. With my parents out of the country (my dad is teaching in Jamaica over the break), and my brother spending the holiday with his wife’s family, and with travel being so expensive in the first place, we decided to keep things small here at home. I’m so thankful that we have a lovely little home in which to spend our Thanksgiving together, and for our adorable kitties, for my friends, for President-Elect Obama, and of course, for my wonderful family, even if I’m not getting to see them.

As y’all might already know, my husband and I are both vegetarians. As such, much of the traditional Thanksgiving fare is not our sort of food. I thought it might be fun to share the recipes (or links to the recipes, for the ones we’ve found online) for the delicious vegetarian feast we prepared for ourselves this year. So, with no further ado, here you go!

The Entire Feast

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Lentil Nut Loaf:
(adapted from “Laurel’s Kitchen”)

• 1 onion, chopped fine
• large pinch salt
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube (we use Rapunzel Vegan Sea Salt & Herbs)
• 1/2 cup garlic panko
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• 1/4 tsp. sage
• 1/4 tsp. thyme
• 2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp. vinegar
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• some toasted sesame seeds (for crust)

Cook lentils with bouillon cube in the water for 30-40 minutes (until the lentils have soaked up most of the water). Sweat the chopped onions with the salt and olive oil. In a bowl, combine panko, flour, sage, thyme, vinegar, and soy sauce. Mix in the beaten eggs. Mix in the walnuts. Add the onions and cooked lentils, mix well, press mixture into loaf pan. Sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

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Rosemary Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

• 4 butter potatoes
• 1 cup half & half
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
• 1 bulb of garlic
• some butter and salt

Roast the bulb of garlic in the oven (we have a nice little ceramic “garlic roaster” for this). Peel the potatoes, and cut them into chunks. Put them in a pot with enough water to cover them, throw in a pinch of salt, bring the water to a boil, then drop to a simmer and cover. At the same time, simmer the rosemary in the cup of half & half. When the potatoes are cooked, send them and the roasted garlic through a ricer. Strain the rosemary from the half & half, and pour the half & half into the riced potatoes. Add some butter and salt (to whatever degree you like), and stir well for the creamiest, most delicious mashed potatoes ever.

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Green Beans:
These weren’t anything fancy. Just frozen green beans, warmed up with some salt and butter. Delicious and easy.

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Sour Cream and Green Onion Biscuits:
(recipe from Baking Bites)

These were the first biscuits I’ve ever made from scratch, and I’m delighted with how well they turned out, especially considering that we were a bit short on appropriate equipment…we had to makeshift a rolling pin out of a water bottle!

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Pumpkin-Apple Mini-loaves with Streusel Topping:
(recipe from Allrecipes.com)

These were amazing. We substituted applesauce for the oil in the original recipe, and put the batter into our pan with six mini-loaves instead of making muffins, and bumped the bake-time up to about 45 minutes (we kept testing until the toothpick came out clean).

I hope all of you here in the US are having a wonderful Thanksgiving break, and that the rest of you are having a wonderful week!