Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

By Food & Wine
Updated March 08, 2017
Seasonal vegetables like squash, beets and mushrooms are key to making vegan-friendly dishes that are still festive enough for Thanksgiving. Add quinoa, pistachios and beans (like chickpeas or lentils) to create satisfying entrees that even non-vegans will want to try. From an inventive carrot osso buco to delicious vegan enchiladas, here are great vegan Thanksgiving recipes.
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Carrot Osso Buco

Credit: LUCY SCHAEFFER
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In Richard Blais’s playful vegan take on osso buco (braised veal shanks), he braises very large pieces of carrots in red wine and mushroom broth until tender. Ground dried porcini mushrooms give the dish rich, meaty flavor.

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Quinoa Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Apples

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This delicious, super-healthy salad is a great meal-in-one; it makes an ideal vegetarian option at the Thanksgiving table.

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Crudités à la Mexicaine

Credit: © Fredrika Stjärne
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Chef David Tanis created this raw vegetable platter, brightened with guajillo chile powder, lime juice and salt. He makes it year-round with whatever vegetables are in season, but he always includes crunchy cucumbers.

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Curried Carrot Soup with Tarragon Oil

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To make this healthy soup especially tasty, Naomi Pomeroy cooks the carrots with Madras curry powder, ginger and garlic. Before serving, she adds a little bit of Tabasco sauce and a drizzle of tarragon-infused oil.

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Curried Spaghetti-Squash-and-Chickpea Toasts

Credit: © David Malosh
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Jonathon Sawyer makes his own curry and cooks his own chickpeas for this vegetarian dish, but this simplified recipe calls for store-bought curry paste and canned chickpeas.

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Haricots Verts and White Beans with Shallot Vinaigrette

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At Thanksgiving, it’s always great to have a couple of dishes that don’t have to go in the oven. This combination of creamy white beans and slightly crunchy haricots verts makes an interesting textural mix, and it’s sturdy enough to stand at room temperature for several hours.

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Mixed Mushroom Ragout

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Stephanie Izard’s rich, chunky mushroom ragout is great on everything from seared halibut to sautéed scallops and pasta. Use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock for a great vegan sauce.

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Roasted Beets with Pistachios, Herbs and Orange

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Beets are a no-brainer for healthy meals since they taste great even when they’re simply roasted with a little oil. Naomi Pomeroy goes beyond that, topping red and golden beet slices with a lively mixed-herb dressing, pistachios and celery leaves.

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Vegan Enchiladas

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Akasha Richmond stuffs her enchiladas with squash, mushrooms, kale and corn, then tops them with a tangy tomatillo sauce and rich cashew crema.

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Roasted Carrot and Red Quinoa Salad

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Anna Zepaltas grew up preparing tamales in her mother’s Southern California kitchen, but she also loves Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. Cumin, coriander and cardamom punch up this salad, inspired by a favorite dish at Chloé’s French Café in Santa Rosa, California.

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Sautéed Cabbage and Carrots with Turmeric

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In this delicately spiced vegetarian dish, chunks of carrots and cabbage are added to the base and cooked until the cabbage is sweet and silky. Turmeric, the main seasoning, lends an earthy flavor.

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Lentil Soup with Broccoli Rabe

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Cook the broccoli rabe in a separate pan, not in the soup pot. That way, any excess bitterness from the vegetable goes down the drain with the cooking water rather than into the soup. You’ll find, though, that a bit of bite enlivens the lentils.

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Rosemary-Potato Focaccia Rolls

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These airy and perfectly chewy rolls just happen to be vegan.

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Spicy Raw Beet Slaw with Citrus, Scallions and Arugula

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There’s so much richness on the Thanksgiving table that a few tart and spicy things are necessary for balance, like this raw beet slaw.

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Pear, Pear, Pear

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This light, palate-cleansing dessert calls for poached pears, pear sorbet and a drizzle of pear syrup.

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Maple Root-Vegetable Stir-Fry with Sesame

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In Korea, cooks typically create stir-fries with just one kind of vegetable—lotus root, say, or potatoes. David Chang decided to break with tradition and stir-fry an assortment of vegetables, including Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips. Also unconventional is the maple syrup he adds to the dish; there are maple trees all around South Korea but not much maple syrup.

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Gluten-Free Winter Squash Gnocchi

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These gnocchi are fun and easy to make. They bring more than just good autumnal looks to the plate--expect a subtly sweet squash flavor with hints of fresh sage, complete with a delightful pillowy texture. No need for eggs here; squash puree and nutritious buckwheat flour partner well together, allowing for just the right soft structure. The gnocchi are gluten-free and can be vegan if ghee is substituted with coconut oil or vegan butter.

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Roasted Delicata Squash with Quinoa Salad

Credit: John Kernick
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To create a terrific vegetarian main course, Michael Symon tosses quinoa with arugula, apple, raisins and fresh herbs, then spoons the salad into a halved baked squash (a great source of iron and vitamins A and C).

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Green Bean Casserole with Red Curry and Peanuts

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Store-bought red curry paste and coconut milk put a Thai spin on this green-bean-and-mushroom holiday classic. For a vegan or vegetarian main dish, simply stir in cubes of tofu.

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