Tofu/Seitan replaces holiday ham/fowl
Nov 2018 — Vegetarian newbies face a dilemma for the winter holidays: what should be at the center of their festive meal? Some avoid the dilemma by becoming flexitarians for the holidays, especially if they don’t do the cooking, so they won’t offend the non-vegetarian host/hostess. Some opt to make reservations at the Loop Native Foods Cafe on Clark Street at the hefty fee of $29 per adult. Some stay-at-homers provide non-vegetarian options for their uncommitted guests. But adventurous cooks create tofu or seitan delicacies with the help of www.youtube.com demonstrations.
Australian www.cookingwithplants.com replaces a festive ham with maple-glazed baked tofu, which is scored for whole cloves and layered to accommodate stuffing. Connie’s Rawsome Kitchen offers a seitan, or vital wheat gluten, simple tofurky roll (even though it contains no tofu) while Miyoko’s Kitchen provides more complicated instructions for a well-seasoned, stuffed seitan turkey with legs and gravy. Animal activist www.awakenwithjp.com presents humorous instructions for a raw vegan holiday turkey with neck, wings and legs.
Most of the recipes for tofu turkey have no binder because they use cheesecloth to hold the crumbled tofu together while it drains: www.theyumyumyogi.com, Hawaiian www.downtoearth.org, www.allrecipes.com, and Earl Kapule. Then they add stuffing and add color with a soysauce-sesame oil basting sauce. Plant-based Judy uses nutritional yeast for coloring instead; she also mixes flour with the tofu in a food processor. HTME (How to make everything) makes all the ingredients from scratch – pepper, tofu, etc.; it’s also created by a curious non-vegetarian who returns to flesh.
Holiday Recipe Sources
For holiday sides refer to these sources for ideas:
30 Vegan Holiday Recipes with links to the website creators
30 Seriously Delicious Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
www.minimalistbaker.com quick
www.Omyveggies.com – 40 Vegetarian Main Dishes for Thanksgiving
www.Wholefoodsmarket.com/holidays/thanksgiving-menus/ – vegan or vegetarian
What vegetarian holiday specials have you created?