How to Have a Plant-Based Thanksgiving

Sep 22

If someone was to ask you to name a holiday where you have a turkey dinner, your mind probably instantly goes to Christmas, and Thanksgiving. In the last few years, there’s been a lot of talk about how switching to a plant-based diet is not only better for you, better for the animals but also better for the planet. So you may be thinking, “how do I incorporate a more plant-based holiday meal into my life?”, or you may even have some family members that aren’t into the whole idea of eating plant based. Well, today’s blog is for you, as I’m going to give you some tips, tricks & ideas on how to make your Thanksgiving meal more plant-based that will appease everyone at the table.

Swap Butter for a Plant-Based Option

Whether it’s on your potatoes, green beans, or just sitting on the table for everyone to butter their own food with, swapping out the traditional dairy-based butter is an excellent way to start incorporating plant-based foods into your holiday meals. I can almost guarantee that no one will notice the difference, especially if it’s already cooked into the food that you’re serving.

Serve Mostly Vegetarian Side Dishes

I don’t know about you, but a lot of the main side dishes featured at my family’s holiday dinners are already vegetarian — there’s usually mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots. Those are already plant-based! If you usually add milk to your mashed potatoes, try swapping it for oat milk, or if you usually add bacon crumble to the green beans, omit the bacon entirely or swap it for a plant-based alternative like simulated bacon made from soy.

Find a Plant-Based Gravy

There are actually tons of plant-based gravy options out there now, and tons that you wouldn’t even know aren’t meat based! If all of your guests are open to the plant-based option, you could serve a mushroom gravy, and if you’re trying to be a bit more inconspicuous about it, you could easily find a plant-based brown gravy that only needs some added water.

Serve a Plant-Based Main instead of Turkey

This one might be the hardest of all, depending on what your guest list is like. There are some great plant-based options out there for turkey replacement, like Tofurky, however, not everyone’s going to be on board with that. If your guests are strongly against eating a plant-based main dish, opt for a smaller turkey dinner (like maybe a turkey breast), but also have the plant-based option on the table for people to try — you never know, you may change some hearts & minds!

Are you planning on having an entirely plant-based Thanksgiving dinner this year? It’s obviously a lot easier to do if you’re hosting, but if you happen to be attending a dinner where the hosts don’t usually make things plant-based, you can always make stuff ahead of time and bring it, or if they’re open to it, make a suggestion to try and swap out some traditional dairy/egg based items for plant-based ones instead, so that everyone can enjoy!