Early Thanksgiving Feast - Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegetarian Version

A full plate and more to go

Since we'll be out of town for the holiday weekend, Brian and I decided to get everyone together for a big early Thanksgiving feast this past Saturday. And because our oven is tiny, half the people in our house are vegetarian, and many of our friends are vegan; I got out of making a turkey - phew! We just had all the good stuff - all those amazing thanksgivingy side dishes. I wasn't sure what people were going to bring because I sent out the invitation less than 48 hours before the dinner, so I ended up making 9 allergy friendly dishes from scratch to make sure we had enough food.

There was more food than I could have ever imagined! Good thing too, because I think there were more than 30 mouths to feed! While I was a bit over-committed with this size of a menu, only one small oven and not enough baking dishes, the dinner was surprisingly stress free. And by the time all our wonderful friends arrived with all their delicious contributions, things were smooth sailing.

Michele could fit in the other half of the giant pumpkin

A lot of these dishes are pumpkin based because Rachel and Andrew had kindly picked up a bunch of pumpkins that Seeds at City Urban Farm was giving away after Halloween. They were the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen. Now, you know when I said the oven was too small to fit a turkey...well this pumpkin was so big that I couldn't even fit half of it in the oven. I did manage to roast about 1/3 of the pumpkin the night before, and it made pounds upon pounds of pumpkin puree for many of the recipes to follow.

Lauren crafted the top into a Hokie bird!

So here is the base recipe for making pumpkin puree: 

Giant pumpkins make giant serving dishes

Wash and slice the pumpkin in half (or in this case quarters).
Scoop out the stringy, wet pulp and seeds (wash the seeds and reserve for roasting separately)
Bake the pumpkin flesh side down in a pan at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until tender (the timing will vary greatly by the thickness of the pumpkin).
Then just flip it over, let it cool off a bit, and scoop the flesh out into a food processor and puree.


Here is the menu that resulted:

A Mostly Gluten free, Nut free, Dairy free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Cane Sugar Free Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

Appetizers:
Seasoned and roasted pumpkin seeds (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg, Vegan)
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dip (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg)
Dinner:
Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese (GF, DF, NF, SF, Vegan)
Traditional Style Stuffing (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg, Vegan)
Sweet Potato Casserole (GF, DF, SF, Veg, Vegan)
Pumpkin Soup (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg, Vegan)
Maple Roasted Carrots (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg, Vegan)
Green Bean Quinoa Casserole (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg, Vegan)
Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie (GF, DF, NF, SF, Veg)

Half of the Thanksgiving buffet

Maria's delicious gluten free, vegan casseroles 

And our friends, who are all fantastic cooks, brought all sorts of great dishes like artichoke dip, black bean soup, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls, celery and spicy cream cheese appetizer sticks, vegan green bean casserole, cranberry orange squash and quinoa casserole, spicy creamed corn and corn bread casserole, massaged kale salad, pumpkin pie, gluten free brownies, cookies, cheese and cracker platters, cranberry sauce, and of course, plenty of wine and beer.

Fireside meal by the garden

While they are a lot of work, and often quite expensive, holiday dinner parties always remind me of how blessed I am to have a house to host people in, a bountiful garden, weather that allows us to enjoy being outside year-round, more food than I know what to do with, kind, funny and vivacious friends, and most of all an appreciation for it all. Even though it's not Thanksgiving yet, I am so grateful to be surrounded by so many gifts, that I am compelled to give thanks to God every day. I hope your life is filled with as many things to be thankful for as well!

Arts and crafts fun with friends

Shared on My Sweet and Savory's Meatless Monday and Real Food Wednesday and What's Cooking Wednesday and Simply Sugar and Gluten Free and 33 Shades of Green Tasty Tuesday

Share this post