A vegetarian Thanksgiving

Vegetarian Thanksgiving. Do you find the combination of these two words confusing? Offensive? Or just plain ridiculous? For some of us – around 3.2% to be exact – a turkey-less Thanksgiving is very much a reality. According to a 2008 Vegetarian Times study, 7.3 million Americans follow a vegetarian diet. Of course this doesn’t preclude cheating, and even I must admit that for the first two years following my conversion to a meatless diet, I caved for Thanksgiving dinner.

But that’s all far far away in the past, and these days Thanksgiving is a beautiful bounty of seasonal produce, much as it likely was for the original Pilgrims.

The other day I found myself planning a Shabbat menu, and let’s just say inspiration struck. I realized that what I had in front of me was no regular Friday night meal, but instead a vegetarian Thanksgiving in all its glory. Brace yourself for what I’m unashamedly calling the perfect menu.

Starter: Spinach salad in a citrus dressing with blood oranges

Main: Pumpkin Galette, served with Brussel sprouts & chestnuts and homemade cranberry sauce

Dessert: Persimmon pudding with freshly whipped cream or creme anglaise

I already hear the intakes of breath followed by mutterings. No pumpkin pie? No stuffing? Here’s my dirty little Thanksgiving secret: I never liked stuffing. I’m not one for bready things – French toast, bread and butter pudding, not my thing. My solution: take the chestnuts from the stuffing and create the most amazing Brussel sprouts recipe EVER. Seriously. I challenge you to find the most virulent Brussel sprouts hater on the planet and serve them this dish. They’ll ask for seconds. I promise.

Excluding pumpkin pie. This really is a tough one. Anyone who knows me knows that I live for pumpkin pie. So the truth is, I’ll probably make one anyway and eat it after the guests leave. But I opted for a persimmon dessert for two reasons: First, persimmons are unfairly overlooked. They’re orange, seasonal, beautiful, have a unique flavor, and truthfully should be a Thanksgiving classic. Second, sugar pumpkins already feature in the main course galette (a fancy word for free form tart), and I’m concerned about pumpkin overkill. (A note on the galette. The original recipe calls for butternut squash. I’ll be substituting a locally grown pumpkin called muscat de provence. A sugar pumpkin should work as well, and result in the same deep orange color.)

Both the spinach salad and persimmon pudding recipes are from Fields of Greens, a cookbook from the renowned vegetarian Greens restaurant in the Bay area. The spinach salad is composed of baby spinach, filleted blood oranges or tangerines, and thinly sliced red onion tossed in a dressing made of fresh orange juice, rice vinegar, salt, sesame oil, olive oil, freshly grated ginger and soy sauce. But you can get creative with the salads. Any combination of winter greens and fruits (such as pears or apples) will add a light and tangy touch to your meal.

Leaving the green and getting back to the trademark autumnal orange, let’s talk about the most awaited course of the meal – dessert. Have you ever read a Victorian novel and wondered just what the heck plum pudding was? The basic concept is that the dessert is baked/steamed in a water bath, resulting in an incredibly moist and dark cake with a wonderful crumb. So too with this persimmon pudding. And in my humble opinion and judging from personal experience, it’s a lot better than the English variety. (Note: I don’t add the walnuts or raisins.) By the way, if conversation is dying and you’re looking for a party trick, try “Guess what’s in the pudding?” There’s the rest of your dinner conversation taken care of.

So what do you think? Impressed, right? But here’s the real question: Any chance this menu can convince any of you to abstain from turkey this year?