The holiday season can present challenges for those of us who eat plant-based. Those challenges come from two directions.
First, there’s the food. Traditional foods—turkey, eggnog, cheese trays, cookies, giblet gravy, dairy-based pumpkin pie—are off our menus. That’s actually the easier of the two challenges to solve, and below I’ll share my ideas for a plant-based holiday meal.
The harder challenge? Your relatives. Some will be supportive, some will simply mind their own business (as you do), but you know there’s going to be someone who has to question your health, make fun of vegans, mock the plant-based food that you eat as boring and tasteless. Let’s call him Cousin Morton. Morton can’t imagine a meal without meat, Morton knows that milk builds strong bones (scientific fact: it doesn’t); Morton believes that gentle animals were created to be slaughtered for people food.
Comments like Morton’s present a more difficult challenge because you might feel like you’re being attacked. I’ve been there.
Remember three things:
For Morton’s entire life, the animal agricultural industries have pounded marketing messages into his head and he has absorbed them as truths.
Arguing will upset you and not change his beliefs. No wins there!
Smile a Mona Lisa smile and say only, “It works for me.”
I try to be the example that proves my case. I prepare and eat delicious food, I enjoy good health, and have plenty of energy. I may have planted a seed for change and Morton might get there on his own. Or not. It’s out of my control.
By comparison, the first challenge – what to serve at a holiday dinner – has a happier solution.
Given the bounty of plants, you can make holiday dinner dishes that are flavorful, filling, simple, and 100% plants. Without resorting to a Tofurky roast. Here are some tried-and-true ideas.
Appetizer. Recently I gave an appetizer party, and one of the easiest items on the menu was a Belgian endive leaf filled with a scoop of fennel-apple salad. Belgian endive is the prettiest little vegetable: about the size of a large pear, its leaves are tightly wrapped, white faintly tinged with green. They are crisp and taste slightly bitter, like radicchio. I disassembled the endive into individual leaves, like boats, and added a scoop of the salad to each. The salad consisted of a fennel bulb, chopped and a large apple, chopped, mixed with a dressing made from 1/3 cup silken tofu, the juice of a lemon, a garlic clove, a teaspoon of mustard, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper—blitzed in a blender. It was crisp, fresh, flavorful from the licorice taste of fennel and the sweetness of the apple. The presentation, all those endive boats lined up on a tray, lured my guests.
Entrée. One of my favorite holiday dishes is a stuffed acorn squash. Cut the squash in half vertically, scoop out and discard the seeds and fibrous part. Dab each half with a little olive oil. Bake, cut side up, at 400 degrees for 50 minutes, until the squash is tender. Then fill with stuffing like cooked quinoa or brown rice, to which I add any or all of these ingredients: chopped and sautéed onion, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, golden raisins, pecans, apple. It’s the perfect holiday entrée dish—comforting, nourishing, gorgeous. How many should you make? Not everyone will eat an entire half, so you might plan on one whole squash for every three people. Maybe one more for leftovers!
Sides. A mix of boiled white and sweet potatoes, mashed with some plant milk, can be topped with a gravy of sautéed mushrooms, garlic, and white wine. Season with salt and pepper.
Dessert. Pumpkin pie can easily be made plant-based. The recipe on the Libby’s can calls for eggs and evaporated milk to create the custard. Replace those with a container of soft tofu. Since the pumpkin, spices, and sweeteners stay the same, and those are what give the pie its flavor, no one will even know the difference. If you buy frozen crusts (hey, we’re busy people!), be sure to read the ingredients label, because many frozen crusts are made with lard. I buy Mrs. Smith’s or Marie Callender’s pie crusts.
Let me know — what time’s dinner?