What's your plant based holiday food plan?

With the holidays coming up, I start thinking about what I'm making. I like a mix of old faithful and new experiments. Any suggestions?

ooh, I'm always looking for veggie holiday ideas! We're vegetarian, not vegan, but it's simple enough to make most of our traditional holiday fair vegan (we have in the past when sharing the holidays with vegan family and friends).
Our traditional solstice meal is vegan tamales, veggie posole,  and sopapillas. It's a bit out of place in the PNW where we live, but my wife is originally a New Mexican so we adopted her holiday tradition for this meal :) Desserts vary, last year we had a chocolate yule log cake.

We don't do Thanksgiving, but we do a Halloween harvest feast instead. I change this one up from year to year. Last year we had mini-pumpkins stuffed with a wild rice stuffing, roasted brussels sprouts with cranberries and walnuts, spinach stuffed yams, and lentil "meatballs" in mushroom gravy. A variety of pies and cobblers were available for dessert.

That all sounds wonderful, Jen!  I love your flexible, fun celebrations!  

I was talking to my parents about this today and I got a book from my mother who has been keeping track of the vegan holiday meals we eat. Here are a few notes from the book not in any order:

Thanksgiving
Seitan Turkey (home made)
Sweet potatos
Cranberry Salsa
Stuffing
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie

Christmas
Breakfast
Crockpot chipotle Grits (Not the instant type but as my father said "True southern grits". I have not been a fan of grits but this is now something we do. It is very good and if you eat this at 7 am or 8 am  you may not eat again the rest of the day!)

Portabella Wellington using flour tortillas cooked like a chimichanga (Funny story made this the first time with pastry dough and did not follow the recipe well. Used a lot of dough and after we ate check the fat content. I cannot remember the amount but  it was a lot! So flour tortillas are easier to use and work with and less fat in a tortilla.)
Green beans
Wild rice

Easter
Seitan Lamb
Wild rice
Salad
Pineapple upside down cake

Other holidays
Most of the time seitan is involved and trying new recipes. Between myself and my parents we have a lot of vegan cookbooks! I just counted and I have 21 vegan cookbooks. I think my parents have well over 40 vegan cookbooks.

Wow, I want to invite myself over for your food too, T! Can you share the recipe for Crockpot chipotle Grits? Sounds tasty and unique.

Sonja Draven wrote:Wow, I want to invite myself over for your food too, T! Can you share the recipe for Crockpot chipotle Grits? Sounds tasty and unique.

Here is the recipe: https://permies.com/t/167828/kitchen/Chipotle-Grits-Vegan

I am looking for ideas for an American Thanksgiving meal that I am hosting.  

I want to make sure they have plenty to eat while having them feel included in the meal.  I have a huge garden that I frantically trying to put up for the winter so I have options. I am struggling to come up with vegan dishes that don't clash with my medically necessary dietary restrictions.   I eat a low FODMAP diet and I have some additional allergies and  sensitivities that make vegan cooking really hard.   So what do you do when you have a vegan coming and the only grain you can eat is rice?  I also can't eat tapioca, corn, bulb garlic, bulb onions, cauliflower, almonds, legumes(except green beans), wheat, and 20 other common food and food additives.  
The non vegan part of the meal we will be cooking include a local pastured turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, honeyed pecans, and  various fruit pies.  The family will bring a bunch a bunch of food that  the vegan or I can't eat so I want to I am hoping to round out the rest of the meal with all vegan dishes that everyone will enjoy.  

I want to use our own garden produce and not buy anything that we wouldn't normally eat. Here are some of my ideas.  

Pureed parsnips made with coconut oil and a little salt and pepper
Brown Basmati rice with green onion, saffron, salt, and pepper.  I usually add butter to this but it still works without the butter.
Root veggie bake with sweet potatoes, carrots, celeriac, parsnips, and potatoes.   I will need to do a test run with different oils and seasonings to see which is best.  I have olive oil, coconut oil, garlic infused olive oil, and avocado oil.  
Roasted  blue potatoes made with garlic infused olive oil
Delicata and or butternut squash roasted with coconut oil and  a baking spice seasoning blend.
Hopefully I will still have kale and maybe some other greens to sauté.
We had an insanely productive green bean and carrot harvests so I will be serving some of them. I just haven't decided in what form factor.  
My highbush cranberry is covered in fruit  so I will be making sauce with that too.  We also have autumn berry ketchup that will go well with this meal.

For dessert I will make Needhams which is a chocolate covered coconut candy.  The are coconut shreds or flakes, confectioner's sugar, potato,  dark chocolate, and a little wax.  I want to try making it with our own beeswax but I need to find out the vegan's views on consuming bee products before I use that option.

Home made chocolate and peanut butter cups.    I use soy free and dairy free chocolate.  I would like to use honey to sweeten the peanut butter but I need to check with the vegan first.  I will use organic raw cane sugar if honey is a no go.  

 

Kate, that sounds wonderful to me! The last time I went to a group thanksgiving dinner, I brought myself a slice of my own homemade veggie loaf. Then had sweet potato, roasted root veggies, salad, cranberry relish that was the same as others ate... Just different toppings. Plenty of food, and the company was lovely. I brought my own dessert too.

I'm on a similar quirky diet so I'm used to feeding myself. Anything made by others that doesn't make me sick, is a true gift.

I like to do a seitan wellington - homemade seitan topped with stuffing and cranberry sauce and then wrapped in pastry. No pretence of a healthy meal here, Christmas is full-on indulgence as long as it's vegan! Thankfully my food sensitivities resolved after a long spell on a restricted diet that seems to have healed my gut.

Honestly, the simplest thing would be to ask those attending what there food preferences (likes, dislikes, allergies, vegan, gluten free, etc.) they would like to eat; perhaps an emailed list of options with room for special requirements?  

When I go to group meals I offer to bring things that can be consumed by others AND meet my special needs (allergies, not vegan, but same principle).  It has now become expected that I will supply the potatoes (two versions, vegan and non vegan), corn and a kick ass vegan gravy (compliments of a powdered product I get at Costco that you just add water to) that is preferred by carnivores AND vegans!  

The most recent meal (Canadian Thanksgiving) the host made six different veggie/vegan dishes, including a tofurkey, along with a regular turkey with "real" gravy.  Apparently the vegans there did not "like" several of the vegetables offered, and yet we ran out of my potatoes (I made 2 cups per person) and corn (1 cup per person)!  The only reason we did not run out of vegan gravy is because I brought 8 cups for SIX people.  

I would hate to see anyone specially prepare dishes that did not suit the attendee's palates; that is a lot of work, and a lot of "leftovers"...

Lorinne Anderson wrote:Honestly, the simplest thing would be to ask those attending what there food preferences (likes, dislikes, allergies, vegan, gluten free, etc.) they would like to eat; perhaps an emailed list of options with room for special requirements?  

When I go to group meals I offer to bring things that can be consumed by others AND meet my special needs (allergies, not vegan, but same principle).  It has now become expected that I will supply the potatoes (two versions, vegan and non vegan), corn and a kick ass vegan gravy (compliments of a powdered product I get at Costco that you just add water to) that is preferred by carnivores AND vegans!  

The most recent meal (Canadian Thanksgiving) the host made six different veggie/vegan dishes, including a tofurkey, along with a regular turkey with "real" gravy.  Apparently the vegans there did not "like" several of the vegetables offered, and yet we ran out of my potatoes (I made 2 cups per person) and corn (1 cup per person)!  The only reason we did not run out of vegan gravy is because I brought 8 cups for SIX people.  

I would hate to see anyone specially prepare dishes that did not suit the attendee's palates; that is a lot of work, and a lot of "leftovers"...

I appreciate your point of view.  All the recipe options I am considering are dishes that we eat in my household and many do well as leftovers.  I am waiting to hear back from this family member to figure out what are the best options that work for him.   For this meal in we are using  only fruit and veggies we grew this year.