Vegetarian for Thanksgiving? It's soooo easy.

In Whole Foods the other day, I saw a Thanksgiving offering by Field Roast that you can slip in to any holiday menu to satisfy - and I mean truly satisfy -  the vegetarian in your guest list. I mean, go ahead with your normal omnivore menu, but serve one of these right along side. Just be careful if you have a true ‘vegan’ attending - since they don’t do dairy or eggs either. But most vegetarians I know - do eggs and dairy.

Now, I could swear that the one I saw was actually called some kind of Turkey Roll, but it really looked yummy, and I would have liked it. Make it and serve with a vegetable broth based gravy, thickened with a roux.

Another thing you could do, is take a couple of those mini pumpkins or fancy squashes - and stuff them with a great mix of whole grain bread, brown rice, cooked barley, nuts, seeds, raisins or dates, dried fruit, celery, onions and other veggies. Why not roasted veggies? Or do an Italian artichoke and tomato sauce theme? Then bake it to tender goodness and serve.

Savory squash stuffed with millet.

Vegan stuffing tips and tricks

Quorn - a pretty yummy meat substitute - also has a turkey loaf type product out.

See, there are options beyond a Tofu Turkey.

Field Roast: Lots to love for vegan or omnivore

I’d bought a package of the Field Roast loaf a couple weeks ago - don’t get all worried, it’s a tightly sealed cryovac package. But, anyway I put it into the meat tray and thought I’d try it on the two more passionate omnivores in the house at some point.

I put it off, and off. You know how that is. But, we are headed not toward being vegan all the time, but really to more of a vegan version of a ‘flexitarian’ - as Michael Pollan would put it. We’re all disgusted with the factory meat model. It’s dirty, cruel, unhealthy and environmentally unsustainable. We would like to be more vegan, and supplement that with sustainable, humanely raised meat.

Mr. Maven, for all of his almost 80 years and seriously old time down east New England-ness is remarkable for his willingness to embrace a lot of this. It ain’t his mothers’ pot roast. Natacha hasn’t had a lot of exposure to vegetarian culture, coming so recently from Africa. They still raise sustainable meat there, and it’s considered a  tasty luxury to be enjoyed and savored, but she watched Food, Inc., and like us, was horrified. It’s changed a lot of her ideas, forever I think.

Tonight, we were doing a complete vegan dinner -  roasted eggplant and yellow squash in an Indian sauce with fresh tomatoes, and some of the most awesome okra from the Sunday Farmers Market out here on the corner of Foothill and South Virginia. Natacha pronounced them as good as she would get back in Africa. She simply boiled them to al dente, then quickly sauteed them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Bing, bang, boom. YUM.

Hmmmm. What to go with it? Ah, try the Field Roast.

I told Natacha what it was, and she’s willing to try most anything with an open mind. Mr. Maven is a different story. I told him it was ‘loaf’ mumble, mumble. I had pan-fried slices of it and put it along side all the rest.

They loved it. Mr. Maven told me, repeatedly, that I could serve Field whatever it was any time. LOL. Natacha enthusiastically loved it, and said so more than once.

This stuff isn’t your typical fake meat substitute that you’ve probably tried and sighed “oh, well, at least I tried it” as you scraped it into the trash.

Field Roast actually cuts and chews like meat. It isn’t dry and cardboard like. I swear. Put a dash of ketchup on it and tell the kids it’s a new kind of baloney. $10 says they’ll bite.

I’m serious. This is good stuff. I will be trying all of their other versions.

We’re Field Roast fans.

Period.

I bought the Field Roast loaf at Whole Foods, over in the chiller by the produce section, as you’re headed to the fish section. It’s with the Tempeh and similar.