On the 4th Thursday in November the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. In Canada and the Caribbean they celebrate this Holiday as well, but on different dates. In the Netherlands they don’t! So what is it exactly?
The first time I celebrated Thanksgiving with my husbands family, I remember thinking:” Wow, a feast all about delicious food! That’s MY kind of holiday!” Scroll down and you’ll find some great ideas for a delicious Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu.
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Thanksgiving History
The celebration of Thanksgiving dates back to the 1600’s. In general it is a feast to give thanks for the fruits and vegetables of the harvest. The harvest was celebrated by the Pilgrims (Dutch settlers of the Plymouth Colony-which is now Massachusetts, Spaniards and French). This feast lasted 3 days and was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims who were on the Mayflower ship.
It sounds like the Dutch had a big impact on the US history of Thanksgiving.
It spread through the country and was celebrated on different days. In 1863 president Abraham Lincoln declared the first national Thanksgivings Day each November.
Not all of the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, because they see it as an offensive glorification of a group of people who plundered and stole land and brought among other delights, like syphilis. For them it is a bloody history of conflict between Native Americans and European Settlers that resulted in the deaths of millions.
Thanksgiving now
These days Thanksgiving is about family and friends getting together and having a wonderful meal, saying thanks for everyone and everything around us. I think it should be like that, even though a lot of people still see it as something awful. We should live in the moment and be grateful today about family and friends and all positive things in our life.
The world is already full of hate and crimes. Invite people over who don’t have anyone near them or bring a meal to people in need.
In the last few years we’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving at our small house, squeezing about 15 people in, adding an extra table in our living/dining room. I always like to decorate the table with candles, leaves, small pumpkins and whatever else I can find, like cinnamon sticks or pine cones.
After we eat our food, we normally wait to eat our dessert, because we are soooo stuffed! We usually talk or watch a movie. People leave around 5 pm and we have the evening to ourselves.
Actually, not true! After cleaning up the kitchen and living room, we’re ready to go to bed. I wonder if more people are doing it like this?
Black Friday
The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. This was the most crazy thing I’ve ever seen people do, besides standing in a 2 hour line outside a popcorn store in Chicago.
People were sleeping outside of stores to be the first to get in as soon as the store opens it doors. TOTALLY NUTS!!!! This seems to be the best day for great deals on whatever you are looking for.
A month before M was born, we bought our van for a very good price on Black Friday, but we didn’t sleep on the parking lot of the store!
12 Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu ideas
Coming back to the food!
Because lots of our friends and family are vegetarian. We’ve been cooking a Vegetarian Thanksgivings meal for years now. A big thing in the normal Thanksgivings meal menu’s is a turkey. I made a real turkey once, a few years ago along with corn, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes, which are also normal dishes for Thanksgiving. But what can you make for vegetarian family and friends?
Here is our Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu:
1. Turky’ Roast: This is a mushroom based roll, that really does taste like turkey breast. For 10-12 people we use 2. If there are left overs, we use them for sandwiches the next day, but they’re so yummy with the cashew gravy…
2. Cashew Gravy: Mix 1 jar of cashew butter, 1 cup of water, 1 tsp dried rosemary and 1 tsp thyme, 1 stick of butter (8 tbsp) and 2 tsp of Bragg’s in a sauce pan and heat it up. Keep stirring. Add water to get the right consistency and add Bragg’s to taste. You can put the gravy in a blender to mix it up really well.
3. Green beans with slivered almonds: Clean the green beans and boil them in water. Drain them and sprinkle with slivered almonds and a pinch of salt.
4. Mashed potatoes: We always make 2 different kinds of mashed potatoes. One with sour cream and one with heavy whipping cream.
5. Cranberry sauce: Or I have to say “sauces”. Also with this dish we make 2 different kinds. One with orange zest and one plain. Boil cranberries (they usually come in a bag) in a sauce pan with 1 cup of water until the cranberries break up a little. Add 1 cup of sugar and stir. Add orange zest or even lime zest.
For appetizers we had different ones every year:
1. Asparagus wrapped in bacon: Boil sprigs of asparagus, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. We used the Morning Star Veggie bacon. Which we wrapped around the asparagus and fry them in a little bit of olive oil. Serve warm.
2. Dried apricots wrapped in bacon: This one is a little easier than the asparagus, because you fry the bacon for a little bit before wrapping it around the dried apricots. To keep them all together, just stick a tooth pick in the wrapped apricots.
3. Baked Brie: Make the crust of choice (or use the recipe below) to wrap around the brie (you can find the round shaped Brie at Aldi for a good quality and a good price).
Recipe for the crust: Mix 1 cup of unbleached white flour, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/3 cup chilled butter in cubes and 3 tbsp water. Knead it until it becomes a ball of dough. Refrigerate for at least 1 hr. Roll it out into a big circle. Place the brie in the middle and place 3 tbsp of cranberry sauce on top. Fold the dough around the brie and cranberry sauce. Bake the brie in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes in a 375 F hot oven.
4. Appetizer platter: I used a tray with with all kinds of crackers, cheeses, olives, fruit like grapes, pomegranate seeds, oranges and apples, dried fruit, like dates, cranberries, raisins, apricots and nuts.
Desserts for a Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu.
For desserts, people bring yummy stuff over to our house. One year we even had 5 pies and a cake. A little bit of a miscommunication there, lol!
- Apple Pie: A great recipe right here.
- Mini Bundt Cakes: For my birthday I got a cute mini bundt cake pan. This year I’m going to try to make these fun little cakes. Maybe Orange Cranberry ones and Eggnog Crumble.
- Pumpkin Pie: A basic and easy recipe you’ll find here.
Note: Finally, here are the mini bundt cakes. Very cute, yummy with a lot of possibilities:
Happy Thanksgiving and don’t forget to pin and share this vegetarian menu with friends!
Hello everyone,
Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.