Giving Thanks, Tex-Mex Style

Here’s a representation of a typical Turk family Thanksgiving. This was our 2006 T-day menu! For the last 3 years, the Thanksgivings have been totally vegan, and for about 4 or so years before that they were vegetarian. So hopefully this will give you guys some help, or at least some inspiration, on what to serve or bring to the meal if it’s your first or 50th vegan Thanksgiving! In addition to this menu, Jo and I have/will be posting some other dishes that would be delicious and perhaps we’ll even include them in our own future holiday meals..but here’s what we’ve had in the past. It is a bit on the Tex-Mex side of themes, but not every holiday has to be traditional right?!

Breakfast:

Cinnamon rolls
Fresh fruit and juice

Thanksgiving Meal – usually a late lunch/early dinner:

Basic greens salad with a little lemon, olive oil, and herb dressing
Black Bean Tamales with Pico de gallo
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Sautéed Mixed Veggies (Broccoli, peas, spinach, red bell pepper, carrots, etc)
Blue Texas Cornbread Dressing
Mashed potato house rolls
Chianti Classico

Dessert:

Pecan Pie
Blueberry Tart
German Riesling

Some of these recipes are already posted, others are coming, and we get the tamales from Texas Tamale Company. For some people (maybe just South Texans like us), tamales are a big part of the Christmas holiday, but we decided to have them for our Thanksgivings as well since we were no longer participating in the cruelty of having a turkey. I don’t have photos because we weren’t blogging and taking pics of food back then..but I’ll be sure to take tons this year!!

Other years we’ve made a red chile enchilada-like sauce (but a bit thicker, like a chili with some diced tomatoes added in) for the tamales, used yellow cornmeal for the dressing, etc..but one thing that remains constant is the mashed potatoes! We always have mashed potatoes – and we make about a ton of them! Other ideas that we’ve posted up to this point that I think would be yummy at a T-day meal: Jo’s Cranberry-Almond Green Beans, New Potato and Green Bean Salad, Potato Gratin, Roasted Thyme Potatoes, and if you’re going for a Tex-Mex theme offer the Tomatillo Salsa in addition to Pico!

Happy Cooking!