For our Vegan and Vegetarian friends, here are some ideas for a guilt (and meat) free Thanksgiving.

Raw Caponata Turkey

Here is the caponata recipe, and you can see how it is arranged on the large platter with assorted lettuce and cut mini sweet peppers. It took me a few days to eat the whole thing, but it would be a nice side dish to a raw Thanksgiving feast.

Raw Eggplant Caponata Recipe

Makes about 6 cups

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant, peeled, 1/4″dice approx. 4 cups 1 cup tomato, 1/4″ dice 1 sweet bell pepper, I used yellow today, 1/4″ dice 1 celery stalk, 1/4″ dice ¼ cup red onion, or more to taste, 1/4″ dice ¼ cup olives of choice, I used a mix of green and black, 1/4″ dice 2 tablespoon capers, optional, not raw

Dressing:

½ cup sundried tomato, soaked… or use 1/4 cup fresh tomato and 1/4 cup dried ½ cup olive oil ¼ cup apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons agave or 2 soaked medjool dates 1 tablespoon dried basil 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 clove garlic, or more to taste All organic if possible

Preparation:

1. Prepare dressing ingredients in magic bullet or blender.
2. Combine first 7 ingredients in a bowl and mix well with dressing.

Recipe from the Happy Raw Kitchen

Raw Vegan Turkey

This is a really quick idea for a healthy raw veggie platter for Thanksgiving. Your guests will be sure to gobble it up. Thank you to Raw Food Nation for featuring my lil’ turkey in their raw Thanksgiving round-up!

Here is how I made my raw vegan turkey. The veggies are purple cabbage, red, yellow, and orange mini sweet peppers, large yellow bell pepper, celery, and broccoli. The mini peppers were quartered for feathers, along with fresh broccoli florets and leaves of purple cabbage cut into feather shapes. It can be made with any veggies you like. Thin slices of green or yellow squash, carrots, cucumber, baby tomatoes, greens, cauliflower florets, or colorful root veggies would also work well.

The front of the turkey is made using a piece of the large yellow pepper cut into a pear shape with an orange pepper triangle beak and a red pepper cut into a long teardrop for the waddle. The eyes are black sesame seeds. The feet are pieces of celery.

The veggies can be arranged directly in a pool of creamy dip as pictured above, or they can be arranged on the plate, with the dip in a bowl. The eyes are black sesame seeds. The feet are pieces of celery.

The veggies can be arranged directly in a pool of creamy dip as pictured above, or they can be arranged on the plate, with the dip in a bowl.

This raw vegan turkey can be made as large or as small as you need. Stack the veggie feathers as high as you want to make it larger. Arrange the feathers in a semi-circle with the body in the center of the dip if making it large.

Vegan Turkey Loaf

Make your own vegetarian homemade “Tofurky”! Slice up this vegetarian tofu turkey and serve topped with vegetarian gravy for a vegetarian and vegan Thanksgiving entree, or, make veggie turkey sandwiches.

Ingredients

2 blocks firm or extra firm tofu, well pressed 3 tbsp. soy sauce 1 1/2 tbsps. sesame oil 1 1/2 tbsps. dry sherry 3 tbsps. water 1/4 tsp. black pepper

Preparation

Freeze the tofu overnight. Allow it to thaw, and then press well to squeeze out all the extra water.

Place the tofu blocks in a lightly greased loaf pan, squeezing them as close together as possible.

In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Pour about 2/3 of this mixture over the tofu, and refrigerate the remaining 1/3. Cover the tofu in the pan, and allow to marinade overnight, or for at least 4 hours.

After marinating, pour the remaining soy sauce mixture over the tofu, then bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, basting the extra marinade over the tofu once or twice.

Remove the tofu from the oven and carefully flip it over. Bake for another 45 minutes, basting occasionally. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Enjoy your homemade tofu turkey!

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