My Favorite Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes #veganthanksgiving #veganrecipes

Hello and happy holidays. It is almost Thanksgiving, so I decided to compile all my favorite

Thanksgiving dinner recipes into one video. So if you still don't know what you're making for

Thanksgiving, this video is for you. I will also leave links to all the recipes in this video

in the description below in case you want to follow along. There will also be time stamps in case you

you want to skip to a particular recipe. This recipe is hands down my most popular holiday recipe

which is my lentil loaf. It is a beautiful sensor piece for your holiday table

and it is also delicious. I make it for every holiday dinner

and I've already made it once this fall, so let's go ahead and get into that recipe now

We're gonna start by preparing the lentils. I'm using one cup of dry green lentils

so I'm gonna rinse them off, and then, cook them for five minutes longer than the package recommends. We want the lentils to be

really tender for this recipe. While that's cooking, I'm going to preheat my oven to 350

degrees and I'm also going to line my loaf pan with parchment paper. I'm using a 9 by 5 inch loaf

pan and this recipe will fill the whole pan. So if you're using a smaller pan, check the notes

at the bottom of the recipe. I do have some conversions there. So I'm going to put one piece of

parchment paper going each direction in the pan and I'm going to leave some hanging

over the edges so that way I'll have some handles to remove the loaf when it's finished. I'm also going to make a flax egg which is going to help bind the loaf together so it doesn't fall apart. So I'm just going to mix a quarter cup of ground flax seed with half a cup of water and then I will set it aside to thicken. Now over the stove I'm going to cook some vegetables. I'm heating my pan over medium heat with some olive oil and I'm going to add a finely chopped medium onion and three cloves of minced garlic. When you're chopping all your vegetables, make sure

they're finely chopped. Otherwise if the pieces are too big it's going to be harder for the loaf

to hold together. Cook the onion and the garlic for about five to seven minutes, you know, less or more

depending on whether you'd like the onion to be soft or a little bit crunchier. Now I'm going to add

one cup of chopped celery, one cup of peeled and grated carrots, and a quarter cup of raisins

If you're not a big fan of raisins, feel free to leave them out. It's not a big deal. So this is just

going to cook for another three minutes and then I'll remove it from the heat. My lentils are

cooked so I'm going to drain them and I'll put them in a large bowl to mash them. I'm not going

to mash them you know fully entirely into a paste. I do want to keep some of the whole lentils

intact so mash them sort of halfway. I have some finely chopped pineapple here and I'm just going to use my

fingers to really mash it up. A lot of people have questioned my sanity for putting pineapple in a lentil

loaf but it does add a really nice but subtle flavor to the loaf and most

importantly it helps with the tender texture it's really my secret ingredient

in this loaf anyway I'm gonna set aside half a cup of the mashed pineapple and I'm also gonna reserve the leftover juice for the glaze later on all right

now I'm gonna make my seasoning paste which is going to give the loaf a lot of

flavor so in my bowl I'm gonna add one and a half tablespoons of ketchup

half a tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce half a tablespoon of

of vegan Worcestershire sauce, which I can never say properly. One teaspoon each of dried thyme and dried oregano

Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, one and a quarter teaspoons of salt

and half a teaspoon of black pepper. And I'll just mix that up into a nice paste

and then I'll take my flax egg and mix that into the paste

All right, now we can mix up everything for the loaf batter

So in my bowl with the lens, I'm going to add my cooked veggies, my pineapple pieces, half a cup of rolled oats, half a cup of oat flour, and my seasoning paste with the flax egg

So I'm going to mix that well so that everything is evenly distributed

If you want, you can taste the mix here to see if it needs any additional seasonings

Just try to stick to dry seasonings because if you add too much liquid, it could prevent the loaf from holding together

And all of this is going to go into my loaf pan and I'm going to press it in so it's nice

and flat on top. The only thing left to do now is make the glaze and fortunately that is super

easy So I have my bowl here and I going to add three tablespoons of ketchup a tablespoon of maple syrup half a tablespoon of my pineapple juice left over from the pineapple one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and one teaspoon of low sodium soy sauce

And I'll just mix that up until it's nice and even. If you want to make this a day in advance, you can stop here and refrigerate the loaf and

the glaze separately and then take it out an hour before you're ready to bake it

But since I am obviously going to make this now, I am going to glaze the loaf

Now, you could use a spoon or a basing brush to spread the glaze over the top of the loaf

and then just bake it for 50 to 55 minutes. If you use the make-ahead option, you might need to add 5 or 10 minutes to your baking time if your loaf was still cool when you put it in the oven

Once it's baked, you really have to let this one cool properly to make sure it holds together

So let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then use your handles to transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for another 30 minutes

and we're done

And we're done

It's so good. This loaf is just the perfect centerpiece for your holiday dinners

It goes well with just so many other holiday sides like your mashed potatoes, your green bean casserole, whatever else you're having for the holidays

It just works. Okay, so our next recipe is a Thanksgiving classic, which is green bean casserole

This recipe is so good because it's made with all fresh ingredients

Nothing is canned and let me tell you it makes all of it. it makes all the difference

So let's get into it. So the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grease my casserole dish

and I'm gonna preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I have one and a half pounds of green beans here

This is two 12 ounce bags and I'm just going to wash them

trim the edges and then cut them into one and a half inch pieces

Now I'm gonna take my green beans and blanch them. This is an optional step

You don't have to do it, but it will soften your green beans a little bit, and it will also help them maintain their nice green color after they've been baked

So over on the stove, I'm boiling some water in a sauce pan, and I'm just going to add the green beans and let them boil for five minutes

We don't want to overcook them here because we don't want them to get too soft in the oven

Once the five minutes is up, I'm just transferring them over to an ice water bath

so they'll stop cooking right away. I'm also going to take one large onion and slice it and then cut the slices into quarters

Then I'll saute that with some coconut oil over medium heat until the onions are just starting to turn brown, which should take about 8 to 10 minutes

Then I'm going to add in an 8 ounce container of sliced baby bella mushrooms

You want to wash these first, make sure that there's no dirt. on them and just continue to cook that together until the juices from the mushrooms

have been reduced so this should be about another 68 minutes so now everything is

just about ready I just need to make my cashew cream sauce I have one cup of cashews

here that I have already soaked they just need to be soaked in water for two hours

or you can also boil them for 10 minutes but you can skip the soaking if you have

a high-powered blender I'm just gonna add my Cachus is to my blender along with one and a half cups of low sodium vegetable broth

1 and 3.4 teaspoons of low sodium soy sauce or you can also use coconut aminos

2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper

And I'll just blend that up until it's nice and creamy. Okay, so let's put this casserole together

I'm going to start with my onions and mushrooms. I'm just going to spread them out across the bottom of the pan

Then I will put my green beans on top of that just trying to get everything as even as possible And finally I will spread the cashew sauce over all of that And then I just going to take a wooden spoon mix everything up I want to make sure that all

the vegetables are coated with the cashew sauce. And now we bake. I'm going to put this in the oven

for 35 minutes and then I'll pull it out just to add one and a quarter cups of crispy

fried onions and I'll pop it back in for five minutes longer. And we're going to done. Mmm

This is so good. This vegan version is so much better than the original

For me personally anyway, because everything is fresh. It's made with fresh green beans, fresh cashew cream, no canned anything

And it just makes all the difference. This next recipe is a favorite among vegans and my

non-vegans alike, it is my butternut squash casserole. This dish is so loaded with flavor, but it is delicious too. So here is that recipe

The first thing that we need to do is roast our butternut squash. I'm going to preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

And I'm going to prepare baking tray with some parchment paper. I'm also going to get out my casserole dish and spray it with some oil

So I have a medium-sized butternut squash. It's almost three pounds, not quite

and I am just going to peel it and chop it into cubes

that are about an inch in size. Then I'm going to put those in a large bowl

and toss them with three cloves of minced garlic. Half a cup of chopped fresh parsley

A tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of black pepper

All of that is going to get spread on the baking sheet, and then I will bake it for about

35 minutes until the squash is forked tender. After it's done, make sure you reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

In the meantime, I'm going to start cooking my leeks over on the stove. I have four small..

smallish leaks here. Once I slice them up, we'll see if it's the right amount. So we are only

using the white parts of the leaks, so I'll start by cutting off the green tops and then I'll cut

the roots off of the bottom. And I'm gonna just slice the leaks in half so I can wash in between

the layers. Typically there's a lot of dirt and sand in between the layers. So I found that slicing

them in half is the best way to clean them. Once they're clean, we're just gonna slice them into

smaller pieces, you're going to want to end up with about four cups of leaks

So I have a large saute pan here and I'm just going to add one and a half

tablespoons of olive oil and heat it up over medium heat. Then I will add my chopped

leeks to the pan along with a tablespoon of fresh thyme, half a teaspoon of salt

and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. And you just want to cook that until the

leaks are tender, which should take about 10 minutes. So now we're also going to make a cashew cream

So if you don't have a high power blender, if you have an old one like mine, then you're

going to want to pre-soak your cashews. So you can either soak them in water for two hours or you can just boil them for 10 minutes

So you're going to take a third of a cup of cashews and two thirds of a cup of water, blend

it up till it's nice and creamy. And then you're just going to add a tablespoon and a half of nutritional yeast for a little

bit of nice cheesy flavor. I'm also going to make a flax egg to help bind everything together

a bit, so that's two tablespoons of ground flaxseed with a quarter cup of water. And we'll just

need to let that sit for about five minutes to thicken up, and then we'll mix it into the

cashew cream along with a quarter cup of breadcrumbs. So now we're almost done. I'm just

going to add my butternet squash, leeks, and cashew cream sauce into the baking

dish and mix it up a little bit and then put it in the oven for about 15 minutes

While that baking I going to chop half of a cup of pecans and I going to set aside one and a half cups of chopped green kale for the top of the casserole Now that the 15 minutes are up let finish this dish off I have some treeline sea salt and pepper cashew cheese

This cheese is absolutely amazing. It tastes very similar to goat cheese and it goes amazingly

well with the butternut squash. So I just want to add this so that it is a little bit crumbly

I'm not adding the whole thing. I'm only adding about two-thirds of it. So I am going to

going to use a fork to kind of break it up and add it in

And I'll add a cup and a half of chopped kale as well and then I'll just mix it up a bit to get the kale and cashu cheese nicely distributed

And then I'm just taking my pecans and sprinkling them on top here before I put everything back in the oven for another 10 minutes

And we are done. So good. This one is a bit of work, as you can tell, but it is so worth it

This is one of those recipes that just feels super indulgent, but it's actually pretty healthy

There's so much good stuff in here and it tastes amazing. Last up, I personally think no holiday dinner table is complete without mashed potatoes

For this recipe, I used Kite Hill Sour Cream and Chives to really amp up the flavor

This is a really, really easy recipe, so let's check it out. So for this recipe, you're going to need three pounds of potatoes

I am using Yukon Gold, which I really love because they're just, they have this creamy, rich

flavor that's delicious. But you can also use a russet potatoes if you prefer those

And I am using Kite Hill vegan sour cream, which is the one that I recommend

I have tried a couple of others. And honestly, this one is just absolutely

the best like it is spot on with its taste and texture and we're also going to need some plain

unsweetened almond milk vegan butter chives and salt and pepper so let's get started the first thing we

need to do is peel and chop the potatoes into one inch pieces so by cutting the potatoes into small

pieces what we're doing is enabling them to cook a little bit faster when we boil them

which coincidentally is the next step. So I'm going to put my potatoes into a large sauce pan and cover them with water

And I'm just going to turn the heat up and let them boil for about 15 minutes or until their fork tender

Once they're soft, we're just going to drain the water out and return the potatoes back to the pot

I actually like to save my water for my potted earths because they seem to really like my leftover cooking water

and I am just taking a potato masher and mashing the potatoes up until they're nice and soft

And I'm adding in half a cup of the vegan sour cream and three tablespoons of vegan butter as I continue to mash

Eventually you should have a nice creamy texture. I'll also add some salt and pepper to taste here and you can add some more sour cream or vegan butter if you want to

Now I'm just going to add some of my almond milk. This is optional, but it will give you an even creamier texture

So I am starting with a quarter cup and you can add up to half a cup of the almond milk until you reach the texture that you want

So we're basically done here. I have transferred the potatoes into these two bowls

I couldn't find my bigger bowls. So I've got two smaller bowls

What are you going to do? Anyway, to do now is just mix some chives in there. I have a quarter cup of chopped chives here and we're

going to take three tablespoons, so about three quarters of that and mix it in. The other

tablespoon is going to be reserved for garnish on the top. This is so good

All right, well, that was the last one for this video, but if you still need more ideas for

Thanksgiving sides or desserts don't worry I've got you in the next couple of days

I've got two more videos coming out so make sure you subscribe if you want to catch

those thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one