Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes: Thanksgiving Dinner Without the Turkey

Thanksgiving is the holiday to give thanks for everything we have. The way it has been traditionally celebrated is with a feast of food. The classic menu for the traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy or sweet potatoes, rolls, and cranberry sauce, to name a few items. If you ask almost anyone in the United States, the most important part of the Thanksgiving meal is the turkey. You'll find pictures of turkeys everywhere when you see Thanksgiving decorations, and turkeys being carved in homes across the United States on Thanksgiving day.

The turkey seems to be the centerpiece of the meal. American food has generally centered around a main course of meat, with vegetables as side dishes. You can find meatloaf and mashed potatoes, steak and potatoes, a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich. All of these have meat as the heart of the meal.

More and more Americans turn from meat, with evidence that healthier living can come from vegetables and other food items. Red meat is seen as a contributing factor to cholesterol build up and heart disease. However, turkey is a white meat and fares better on the health scale. Perhaps this is why it is so hard for Americans to give up the turkey as being the centerpiece of the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

If you're a vegetarian, you won't be putting turkey on your grocery list for Thanksgiving. So what are your alternatives? Here are eight vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes.

1. Hearty vegetable soup. Start out with soup as an appetizer. If you use fresh fall produce, you'll get everyone in the spirit of the Thanksgiving mood. Many fall vegetables have an incredible flavor, and mixed with spices, this will be a great way to start out the Thanksgiving meal. To make the vegetable soup, use a slow cooker. Cook the vegetables all day long. Use squash, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, green beans, and any other vegetable you wish to use. Cabbage is tasty addition. You want to add a can of tomatoes or some tomato paste to make the soup heartier and give it some flavor. Then, add salt, pepper and your favorite seasoning to give the soup its rich flavor. Cook the vegetables all day long on low heat, so that the flavors all sink in.

2. Fall fruit sauce. Instead of having boring applesauce, try using some other fall fruits to make a fruit flavored applesauce. Get together some apples, pears, and cranberries, and cook them for a little while. Then, let them cool. Put the fruit into the blender, and add some sugar or sugar substitute. You've got some great fruit sauce!

3. Vegetable salad. Have a fall inspired salad to keep the spirit of Thanksgiving alive. To make the salad, use green leaf lettuce. Add carrots, green peppers, orange slices without the peel, and some dried cranberries. Try a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. This gives an interesting fall vegetable salad.

4. Vegetarian Lasagna. This will be your main course. Get some lasagna pasta. You will need some type of marinara sauce. It can be store bought, or you can make your own with tomato paste and fresh tomatoes. Cut up your choice of fall vegetables, like squash, spinach, green peppers, onions, and any other vegetables. Layer everything together to make your vegetarian lasagna, and cook as you normally would a lasagna.

5. Mashed vegetable dish. This is an idea I came up with thanks to the help of my boyfriend. I had mentioned to him that I don't like cauliflower. So, just to make sure, he made some mashed cauliflowers that looked like mashed potatoes, and told me to taste it. I think if he had realized the look I would have on my face when I tasted something I didn't like, he would have thought twice before testing my taste buds. However, the point is that you can make mashed vegetables of any sort just like you can make mashed potatoes. You can make mashed sweet potatoes, mashed corn, mashed zucchini, or whatever. You can even mix them all together. You simply cook the vegetables first, and then put them in a mixing bold and use a mixer. Add some milk and butter, and salt and pepper. This is a very simple dish that gets really creative and keeps everyone in the spirit of the holiday meal.

6. Fresh vegetables and dip. Use any vegetables you like. To make the dip for the vegetables, get some ranch dressing, and add some balsamic vinegar. Put in a few red pepper flakes and a touch of lemon juice.

7. Pumpkin flavored milkshake. Take some vanilla bean ice cream and put it into the blender. Then, take a fresh pumpkin and obtain some of the inside of the pumpkin without the seeds. Add a small amount of the pumpkin, along with some milk. Then, add some ground cinnamon. You'll get a very interesting flavored milkshake.

8. Cranberry chip cookies. Make chocolate chip cookies the way you normally would, but add in some dried cranberries. This will give the cookies a Thanksgiving inspired feel and taste!