Vegetarian Turkey Recipe Idea for Thanksgiving
Ah, Thanksgiving... that time of year when families gather together around the dinner table for the big ol' traditional dinner of mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and of course, the always traditional turkey roasted to perfection. Sounds great right?
That is unless you happen to be vegetarian.
What's a poor veggie to do?
Believe it or not, there are some great options out there to replace the traditional dead bird on the table for something tastes great and has all the flavor of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
This is Where Tofturkey Enters the Scene
One of the best options available on the market is Tofurkey. This kind of food is made from soy products such as tofu. Soy products are a perfect meat alternative and grow in popularity since the 1980's.
You can either buy a Tofurkey premade from many online distributors, at your local health food store, or you can make it yourself.
Here is an excellent recipe for making your own succulent Tofurkey that tastes every bit as good as the real thing.
Photo: Vegetarian Celebrations: Festive Menus for Holidays & Other Special Occasions Tag: Updated Ed...
The Traditional Tasting Tofurkey
Ingredients and Directions:
Start with at least 5 blocks of extra firm tofu. Put all of your tofu into a blender and blend it up until it is no longer lumpy and has a smooth consistency.
Add, either fresh or dried, rosemary, sage, parsley, basil, dill weed, and thyme or you can just use basic poultry seasoning available in any supermarket spice aisle.
Add all these to taste.
1-2 tablespoons of vegetable stock powder, such as Vegeta, and salt and pepper.
Fresh minced garlic is really good, but optional. Blend all this together well in a large bowl.
Next, line a medium size colander with cheesecloth and put the mixture into the cloth-lined colander.
Wrap the cheesecloth around the tofu mixture and squeeze out the excess liquid by putting a heavy weight on top of it---such as a gallon jug full of water.
Let set in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours or overnight if possible.
After the tofu mixture has been very well pressed, and while it is still in the colander, scoop out the middle of the tofu mixture leaving about 1-2 inches of the tofu all around.
(It should look sort of like a tofu bowl.)
Put your stuffing mixture inside this tofu 'bowl' and then put the tofu you scooped out back on top of the stuffing and press it all down firm.
Now, here's the tricky part, gently flip your formed tofurkey onto a greased baking pan, into a greased dutch oven, or into a greased wok.
(Make sure your wok has a lid.) Brush with herbed butter.
Pop it into an oven preheated to around 350-400 degrees and bake for about 30-40 minutes. Serves 4-6 people.
Photo: Turtle Island Tofurky Jurky
Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas
Here are a few links to sites that will provide you with ideas for vegetarian recipes to celebrate Thanksgiving.
The Veggie Table - Vegetarian Recipes and Info - Vegetarian Thanksgiving menu
About.com - Vegetarian recipes - Thanksgiving recipes
101 Cookbooks - Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes
Vegcooking - Celebrate a vegan holiday
Thanksgiving Recipe Binders
Do you collect holiday recipes? In this case you surely need a nicely decorated binder to store them. Here are a few ones that you will surely like; whether for yourself or to give to your loved ones as Thanksgiving gift.
