A meat-free Thanksgiving

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A vegetarian feast can hit the spot By Jamie Gumbrecht HERALD-LEADER CULTURE WRITER Charles Bertram/Staff Vegetarian and aspiring Thanksgiving cook Jamie Gumbrecht tested a dinners worth of Thanksgiving recipes. She found it to be less expensive and less work than a traditional turkey feast. More photos The trouble with cooking a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner isn't recipe-hunting or product availability. (Veggie lovers have turned the Internet into their personal cookbook, and Central Kentucky is bursting with organic produce and dairy-free milk.) No, the trouble is that you can't beg for mom's advice -- at least not my mom's -- when your whole-wheat vegan pie crust is crumbling and your soy turkey might still be frozen in the middle. She might sympathize, recalling that first Thanksgiving, when she cooked the giblets inside the turkey or sliced off her thumbnail while chopping sweet potatoes, but

she won't know how to get rid of the tofu flecks from your pumpkin pie. And that's nothing compared to your next challenge: persuading people to eat it. There are plenty of defenses: • It costs less. Buying a small faux-turkey roast costs less than the big bird people are used to. • It takes less time. You don't have to thaw a bird or spend time in the emergency room after your poultry deep-fry turns ugly. Yes, it's more time-consuming than grilling a plate of Boca Burgers, but it's just long enough to let you know you've accomplished a significant culinary task. • It's not that different from your usual meal. Most Thanksgiving side dishes are meat-free already, so it's not too hard to adjust to a veggie meal. Cook the stuffing outside the turkey and use vegan butter. Stir vegan sugar into your homemade

cranberry sauce. Make gravy with mushrooms and vegetable broth. • It's tasty and sometimes even healthy. Many people who go meat-free are conscious of how much protein, sugar and fat is going into their bodies. A vegetarian meal gives you more control; mix a pie crust with whole-grain flour instead of white flour. Cook organic sweet potatoes instead of canned yams. • It tastes good. You might never break old meat-eaters of their habits, but if you slip a little slice of fake turkey on their plates with some non-stuffed stuffing and some soy milk mashed potatoes, they might never know the difference. Here are some recipes adapted from traditional Thanksgiving recipes, suggested by local vegetarian potluck lovers and favored at local veggie hot spots. If you really can't cook, consider making a pop-it-in-the-oven soy turkey for veggie potluck with

friends. You also can order a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal from Good Foods Market and CafŽ or Wild Oats, or attend the Turkey-Free Thanksgiving Feast at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at Unitarian Universalist Church, 3564 Clays Mill Road in Lexington. Tickets are $5 with a vegan dish to share or $10 without, available at Good Foods. Call (859) 219-0599 for more information about the feast. . Peter H

 

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