Thanksgiving is celebrated mainly by Americans and Canadians to pay gratitude for the harvest and other blessings they received in the yesteryear. Traditional thanksgiving celebrations are all about food. Thanksgiving dinner is generally a large meal, with roasted turkey as the central dish and side dishes like mashed potatoes, different salads, green beans, cranberry sauce and so on.
When preparing a Thanksgiving dinner table for your family and guests, you have to cater to the food requirements of everyone with no exceptions. As a good dinner planner, you first need to identify the food requirements of your guests and prepare the menu accordingly. For example, serving only meat and vegetarian dishes would not be fair for vegan family members and guests. If you are thinking of what to serve your vegan family members and friends, here is a list of vegan side dishes.
Easy Vegan Side Salads for Thanksgiving
Salads are an important part of the vegan menus. Almost all the vegans enjoy having healthy and delicious salads for Thanksgiving. Here is a list of creative side salad ideas that you can impress your vegan guests with.
1. Roasted Kale and Pumpkin Salad
This salad made with freshly harvested kale and pumpkin is loved not only by vegans, but also by all people who sit for the dinner table. Perfectly seasoned diced pumpkin and onions are first roasted in an oven and then mixed with kale in a large bowl with the salad dressing made with tahini sauce, Dijon mustard, honey, lemon, salt and pepper. Finally, fresh pomegranate seeds and roasted hazelnuts are added to the salad to enhance the taste.
2. Butternut Squash and Spinach Salad
Roasted and diced butternut squash, chopped spinach leaves, pecans, cranberries and pomegranate seeds blended well with a scrumptious dressing of lime juice, honey, poppy seeds and Dijon mustard is a great vegan side dish idea for a Thanksgiving menu.
3. Wild Rice Salad
This vegan and gluten-free salad made from harvested wild rice is an indispensable side salad for Thanksgiving dinner. Wild rice mixed with sautéed kale leaves, roasted acorn squash and garnished with pomegranate seeds and pumpkin seeds will be enjoyed to the maximum by your vegan guests.
Mouth-Watering Vegan Soup Sides for Thanksgiving
A bowl of soup is a great starter for any meal, and Thanksgiving is no exception. The following list features some of the best vegan soups prepared all around the world for Thanksgiving season. You can easily prepare these soups using the freshly harvested vegetables available in abundance during this season.
1. Roasted Garlic, Parsnip and White Bean Soup
The delicious and creamy soup made by pureeing roasted garlic and parsnips with some white beans and vegetable broth will make your vegan guests crave for more soup.
2. Cauliflower Soup
Finely chopped cauliflowers are boiled in vegetable stock with some garlic and thyme until the cauliflowers become tender and the broth becomes smooth and thick. Then the mixture is blended with a food processor and some light coconut milk is added. Finally, the prepared soup is seasoned with some salt and pepper and sent to the table after garnishing with some pomegranate seeds. This is a delicious as well as an eye-catching soup to start your meal with.
3. Vegan Mushroom Soup
First, mushrooms, onions and garlic are sautéed in olive oil. Next, they are added to the vegetable broth and cooked for about 15 minutes. Lastly, plant milk and cornstarch are added to make the soup smooth and creamy. The soup is sent to the table after garnishing with some parsley. This soup is as good as the dairy-based cream of mushroom soup and will serve as an appetizing starter for your vegan friends.
Delicious Vegan Bread Sides for Thanksgiving
Dinner rolls and bread are one of the most important side dishes on any Thanksgiving dinner table. Bread and dinner rolls go well with different soups and sauces you serve for the table. But, preparing vegan, gluten-free bread is sometimes troublesome. Here is a list of vegan bread you can prepare for Thanksgiving.
1. Gluten-Free Corn Bread
Fluffy vegan corn bread prepared with a less number of ingredients would be a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving. You can either sweeten it and serve it with maple syrup or accompany it with chillies if you crave for a savoury side dish.
2. Vegan Dinner Rolls
These super fluffy and buttery vegan dinner rolls with some sauce or jam are an amazing side dish idea to serve along with the main dish for Thanksgiving. These soft-centred buns are easy to prepare and ideal to serve for a small family gathering or a festive celebration with a large number of guests.
3. Vegan Spelt Rolls
Vegan spelt rolls made out of spelt flour and rolled oats. These bread rolls which consist of a blend of almond milk, olive oil, spelt flour, yeast, cane sugar and nuts of your preference are fluffy and smooth and would be the go-to side dish of many of your vegan friends. Spelt rolls can be served with either jam or vegan butter or both of them.
Conclusion
Thanksgiving is a special holiday celebrated by Americans and Canadians to pay homage to the harvest of the past year. Since this is celebrated in the post-harvesting season, people have freshly harvested vegetables in their hands. Therefore, this function is all about preparing and serving vegetarian and vegan sides, sauces, jams, mashed potatoes and many other different varieties of food. Food is prepared to serve the family members as well as for large gatherings. While roasted turkey is served as the main dish on every Thanksgiving dinner table, many sides that go well with turkey are also served. Among these sides, different salads, soups and bread rolls take a prominent place. This guide prepared after thorough research about Thanksgiving food will guide you through different side dishes and help you choose the best sides that go with your requirements.
