How to Host The Best Vegetarian Thanksgiving

The Ultimate Guide to a Delicious Thanksgiving with everything you need to know to How to Host The Best Vegetarian Thanksgiving.

Do you have vegetarian guests coming to Thanksgiving? Here’s the ultimate guide to How to Host The Best Vegetarian Thanksgiving with help!

Be a GREAT host!

How to Host The Best Vegetarian Thanksgiving – from appetizers, to side dishes, including gravy and cranberry sauce, to main dishes and desserts. Everything you need to serve The Best Vegetarian Thanksgiving.

Whether you need the full menu, or simply some dishes to serve to vegetarian guests who are attending with meat eating guests, everyone will love these menu options.

And, of course, these menu options will be great at any holiday gathering like Christmas or Easter.

What does a vegetarian eat?

When I became a vegetarian (more than 30 years ago!) people would ask me what I ate for Thanksgiving.

It was really a foreign concept, that people wouldn’t eat the turkey. I would answer simply that I just didn’t eat the turkey, but I ate everything else.

Now, that answer is a little simplistic. I don’t want stuffing that’s been cooked inside the bird.

Or stuffing that’s been made with chicken stock. And, neither do your vegetarian guests.

But, with a few easy tweaks, you can have delicious vegetarian offerings.

Everyone can enjoy vegetarian food

And, the nice thing about it is that your meat eating guests can partake of all the vegetarian offerings as well.

My mom says she can’t even tell that there’s no meat in things like my stuffing.

Part of the appeal of Thanksgiving is the variety and sheer amount of delicious foods offered on the Thanksgiving table.

So, in keeping with that, I bring you tons of great recipes and offerings!

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A few tips

If you’re making a turkey, please be sure not to cross contaminate the rest of the food by using the same utensil on the turkey or in the turkey gravy or stuffing and then into the vegetarian stuffing.

Besides keeping your vegetarian items meat-free, not using the same utensils in multiple dishes will help with food safety and will help keep everything bacteria free.

Keep in mind, as well, that these dishes can be incorporated into a regular thanksgiving menu.

I usually make a turkey and turkey gravy, and then the rest of the dishes are veg-friendly. So, I can eat everything. And those who eat turkey can still enjoy the full offerings.

And, like I said, my mom (who eats meat) tells me she doesn’t even miss the meat stuffing (and a bonus I don’t have to worry about salmonella in the stuffing).

Many of these dishes are either already vegan, or they can easily be made vegan. Take a look at the list and if you have vegan guests, keep them in mind as well.

And, here’s my time saving, sanity saving tip: if you run out of broth or bouillon, mix up a batch of my Vegetable Broth Mix in an instant! It’ll save you lots of headaches!

Appetizers

Start out with a great selection of appetizers. People are often hungry when they show up to a party, and want to start nibbling right away. Also, I love to have healthy appetizers that won’t weight people down early in the party.

• Marinated Cheese
• Blue cheese with fig jam and pecans
• Apricots with basil cream cheese and almonds
• Crock Pot herbed almonds
• Smoked garlic almonds
• Crisp pecans
• Butternut squash chipotle dip
• Blue cheese spread
• Balsamic Onion Jam
• Pepper jelly cream cheese pinwheels

Bread & biscuits

Sure, you can buy some rolls, but homemade ones always taste and smell so good. All hot and fresh from the oven. Serve them in a basket or a big wooden bowl that’s lined with a soft towel to keep the warmth inside.

• Parmesan Garlic Buttermilk Biscuits
• Skillet buttermilk butter swim biscuits
• Whole grain Dakota bread
• Buttermilk dinner rolls
• Cranberry rosemary cornbread
• No knead bread

Cranberry Sauce

• Roasted cranberry sauce
• Cranberry sauce with cherries and red onions

Stuffing

• Vegetarian Stuffing
• Crock pot vegetarian stuffing
• Zucchini stuffing casserole

Gravy

• Vegetarian gravy recipe
• Country gravy mix
• Creamy mushroom sauce

Potatoes

• Mashed potatoes
• Mashed potato casserole
• Savory mashed potato puffs
• Twice baked potatoes
• Veggies baked in apricot thyme sauce
• Skinny potato and onion bake

Vegetable side dishes

• Oven roasted vegetables
• Maple roasted carrots
• roasted sweet potatoes
• Creamed spinach gratin
• Butternut squash gratin casserole
• Cucumber and onion salad
• Garlic Parmesan cauliflower
• Chipotle maple sweet potatoes
• Roasted green beans
• Carrot orzo
• Cranberry pecan broccoli salad
• Green bean casserole
• Also, be sure to check out my collection of Classic Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Vegetarian main dishes

• Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie
• Lentils with winter vegetables
• Baked barley with mushrooms and onions
• Broccoli wild rice casserole
• White bean gratin casserole
• Lentil pot pies
• Vegetarian Pot Pie
• White bean gnocchi

Dessert

• The best Pumpkin Pie Recipe
• Pecan Pie
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Cranberry Cheesecake Dream Bars
• Pecan Pie Muffins
• No Bake Peanut Butter Pumpkins are a fun project that you can eat when you’re done making them!
• Pumpkin Custards

I hope your Thanksgiving, and all the holidays afterwards, are fabulous! Eat well, love your family, forgive people who make mistakes, and above all, be happy and healthy!

Looking for other last minute Thanksgiving ideas, I’m here to help you out!

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