Compassionate Thanksgiving Recipes

Published November 21, 2008 @ 10:18AM PT

vegan stuffing A lot of you, I imagine, will be doing your Thanksgiving grocery shopping this weekend, so in advance of that, I'm going to share with you a roundup of resources full of animal-free Thanksgiving recipes. Having a vegan Thanksgiving--even a very traditional one, with minor adjustments to your own recipes--is as easy as can be. Neither sweet potatoes nor mashed potatoes require butter or dairy margarine--vegan margarine or olive oil will do. Stuffing (or dressing) does not need turkey broth or chicken stock--use vegetable broth instead, and you'll never notice the difference (and you can just leave eggs out entirely). And although there are lots of great vegan green bean casserole recipes out there, you can also stick to the super-easy version with the help of Imagine brand soups---the mushroom soup is vegan.

For the last couple years, between the two of us, my mother (who is decidedly not vegetarian or vegan) and I have supplied family members with vegan dressing, vegan mashed potatoes, vegan green bean casserole, vegan gravy, and vegan pumpkin cake with sugary cream cheese (Better Than Cream Cheese) icing, and none of the omnivores have been able to tell the difference between the veganized versions and the originals. And there are lots of delicious meat-free roasts available at stores, plus endless recipes for other meat-free main dishes. Even my initially skeptical family members have been impressed with the Celebration Roast. So when it's so very easy to leave animal products out of the meal and make it a truly Gentle Thanksgiving, what's the reason not to? On to the links:

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes from VegCooking (Featured are dozens of recipes in the categories of appetizers, soups and salads, entrees, side dishes, gravies, desserts, and beverages, plus tips on preparing faux turkeys as well as menus and recipes for entire meals: for example, classic holiday dinner, southern holiday feast, and easy holiday meal.)

Vegan Bits Thanksgiving Recipes (Vegan Bits readers contributed these great recipes for main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and beverages.)

Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes - A Feast by Robin Robertson (At Vegan.com, the much-loved Robin Robertson, author of such great vegan cookbooks as Vegan Planet and The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook, two of my faves, supplies recipes for a scrumptious eight-course feast.)

Gentle Thanksgiving Recipes (Want to know what delicious, compassionate Thanksgiving dishes Alicia Silverstone recommends? Well, here you go.)

Roundup of Thanksgiving Recipe Resources at Vegan Soapbox (In this post Elaine Vigneault features a roundup of links herself--check them out.)

More Thanksgiving suggestions and links in the days to come.

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Photo of gorgeous vegan stuffing courtesy of toffuti break.

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Author

Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.