Thanksgiving Feast

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and spent some quality time with all of your friends, family and loved ones. After a rocky start (5.5 hour car ride that ended up being almost 12 hours!), and a broken phone (had no idea how I was going to call all my family that I don’t live around), I was a little stressed for the holidays, but all in all, it turned out to be okay! And aside from a few snarky comments from my anti-vegan, vegetable loathing father, it really wasn’t as terrible as I had imagined it could be. And, once he realized, after telling my man how “disappointed” he was in him for not eating meat three times and receiving no response, he finally gave up and decided to leave him alone. But, enough about big bullies who think they know everything, let’s get to the food!


I must say, our KIND food was absolutely delicious! My dad’s wife had invited her brother and his three kids, and they all tried and loved my super delicious vegan goodies…including my “turkey” roast, which I will be getting to today. The vegan spread included: Vegan Turkey Loaf, Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom gravy, Cranberries, Stuffing, Vegan Green Bean Casserole, “Butter” rolls with Earth Balance, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. A kind feast fit for a king!


I’ll be putting up the recipes as I have time this week, but I’m going to start with the Turkey Loaf, as it was my first time ever making anything like this, and it was absolutely delicious, and fairly simple, too! The recipe is from Ellen Degeneres’ website, and I hope it will be part of many of your celebrations to come!

Ellen Degeneres’ Vegan Turkey Loaf

Ingredients:
4 Cups vital wheat gluten
1 Cup bread crumbs (I make my own by toasting three slices of my favorite bread then throwing them in the food processor with some herbs)
1 Cup nutritional yeast
3 Tablespoon dried thyme
1 large onion small dice and caramelized
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ Cup extra virgin olive oil
4 Cups strong Vegetable Stock
1 full sheet of cheesecloth
Butcher's twine
Blackening spices
Earth Balance butter

Instructions:
Caramelize the onions over medium heat until they are golden brown. Add the onions to the dry ingredients and mix.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until a loose batter forms. Shape the batter into a loaf.

Unroll about 24" of cheesecloth on to a clean dry surface. Unfold the cloth completely and then fold it in half to form a two-ply piece of cloth.

Place the loaf in the middle of cloth and roll it up, leaving enough space to tie off at both ends.
Now tie two more pieces of twine over the center of the roast.


Place the roast into a large pot of boiling water and simmer for at least two hours (My dad’s kitchen is small and I wasn’t allowed to take up space cooking my “weird” food, so I was unable to use the stove for this part. However, I put it in a crock pot on high for the two hours and it worked just fine).

Carefully remove the cheesecloth and place the roast on a small sheet tray and rub the roast with Earth Balance butter and sprinkle with blackening spices. Bake roast at 350 for 20+ minutes or until golden brown (25 seemed to work well for mine). Allow roast to rest a few minutes before slicing.