The holidays can be a little rough on all of us. With parties to plan, presents to get, relatives to see, and meals to prepare, it can sometimes feel less like a holiday and more like a marathon. And for vegans, it can be even more difficult. Given that most holiday meals involve an animal at the center of the table—whether it’s a Thanksgiving turkey, a Christmas ham, or a Hanukkah brisket—it’s hard not to feel a little excluded from the festivities.
Food has a special resonance during the holidays. We often return to the same tables we sat around as kids, preparing and eating the same meals our mothers and grandmothers prepared and ate before us, spending time with those we’ve known and loved our whole lives. Italians like to say that “food is love”—never is that more true than during the holiday season.
For many of us, going vegan may have thrown a wrench into all that—separating us from some of our most cherished holiday traditions. But never fear! There is a whole range of vegan meals to choose from that’ll help spread holiday cheer far and wide.
These recipes will make even your meat-loving uncle reach across the table for seconds. Now you can start your own holiday tradition that’ll have your great-granddaughter telling her own family, “This is my great-grandma Betty’s Tofurky recipe,” as they sit down to share a traditional holiday meal.
If you ever need something to measure how far our civilization has advanced, just take a look at vegan Thanksgivings. First came an extra pasta dish for the vegans. Then came mashed potatoes with margarine. Then, in the eighties, a breakthrough: Tofurky! Tofurky has been a loyal friend, leading the way in cruelty-free holiday feasts for vegan Bettys everywhere. But these days, we’ve got a number of vegan holiday roasts to choose from.
The Match vegan meats holiday roast is a perfect canvas for experimenting with glazes and marinades because it’s not a formed product—you make it yourself, like a meatball, so it can hold toppings and breading better than its smooth-skinned comrades. It’s all “white meat,” with Match’s signature sausage stuffing, and can be either grilled or baked.
Field Roast’s Hazelnut Cranberry Roast en Croute combines herbed seitan, tart cranberries, sweet curry powder, and candied ginger and wraps them all up in a butter-flavored puff pastry crust. It’s all comes in a box, ready to bake—so it’s perfect for Bettys who don’t want to meddle much. Whenever someone tells me it’s too hard to be vegan, I think of this holiday roast, which is an instant and impressive centerpiece.
Gardein Savory Stuffed Turk’y is perfect for vegan Bettys spending the holidays with not-yet-vegan families, or with a special not-yet-vegan someone. They come two to a package and are prepared perfectly. You just need to roast ‘em up and focus on your sides.
But even if these vegan holiday roasts don’t rock your holiday world, don’t worry: there seems to be a new holiday roast every year. Such is the continual progress of our civilization.
No doubt this recipe will be a scene-stealer on any holiday table. It’s tangy and savory, with a black pepper kick. I think this baste would be great over any kind of mock meat or tofu in a fajita or burrito, and I plan on testing that hypothesis soon.
MAKES A ROAST THAT SERVES 4 TO 6
1 Tofurky or other vegan holiday roast, defrosted
2 limes, cut into wedges
1 lemon, cut into wedges
cup Better Than Bouillon vegetable broth, made per the instructions on the package
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon dry white wine
¼ cup whole fresh basil leaves
¼ cup whole fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
¼ teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon celery seed
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Set aside the roast and lemon and lime wedges. In a large bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients. Add the roast and turn it a few times in the bowl so it gets a good coating. Put your roast in a glass loaf pan, and then pour ¼ to cup of the citrus-garlic baste over the top. Using a fork, remove the basil and cilantro leaves from the sauce in the baking dish. Gently lay the basil and cilantro leaves on the roast in an even coating that covers the roast completely. Press your leaves into the basted roast if you need to; they’ll stick to some roasts better than others.
Bake for 15 minutes. Then spoon another ¼ cup of baste over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Check the roast a few times to make sure the herbs aren’t getting too crispy and your roast is cooking evenly. Don’t worry if there’s still some baste in the dish when you pull the roast out of the oven. When you transfer your roast to the serving dish, pour some of the leftover baste from the baking dish over the top. Serve with lemon and lime wedges on the side—squeeze those over the top for extra flavor.
Beer can chicken is an American tradition. I mean, I never made one, or even ate one, before going vegan… but apparently people all over the country have. The second we saw this recipe, we began plotting our strategy for this ambitious grilling project. We discussed the challenges, such as stabilizing the Tofurky, and the differences between mock meat and, well, meat. We also developed a plan of attack for our “beer can rub,” and which brand of beer to use. A Shannon Offensive, if you will. The results speak for themselves. It has flavor and texture, and a unique smokiness. This recipe turned Tofurky—something we’ve eaten a million times—into something completely new and different.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
TOFURKY
1 Tofurky roast, defrosted
1 can beer (use ginger ale or lemon-lime soda if beer isn’t your thing)
BEER CAN RUB
3 tablespoons Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
½ teaspoon onion powder
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
Preheat the oven to 200°F. Start your grill per the instructions that came with it.
Find the end of your Tofurky roast where a bit of stuffing is peeking out; cut that end off about 2 inches from the seam. Using a spoon, remove the stuffing from your Tofurky. Make sure you don’t carve away any of the actual Tofurky, and be careful you don’t squeeze the Tofurky too hard and crack the side.* Take your time and be gentle.
After you’ve removed all the stuffing, gently place the open end of the Tofurky on top of the unopened can of beer to measure how much you’ll need to widen the opening to get the can to fit. Very gently, press the Tofurky down to make a slight indentation around the open end; this will be your guide to widen the opening. With a small, sharp knife, cut away the Tofurky along the indentation from the can, going about 1½ inches deep into the Tofurky. Cut a little at time, and test the Tofurky on the top of the beer can between cuts to see if it’s wide enough. You want it to be just wide enough to fit the can snuggly and form a seal.
Place the Tofurky in the oven, hollowed-out end down, for 5 minutes to harden it a bit.
In a bowl, mix the ingredients for the beer can rub with a whisk, making sure there are no clumps.
Remove the Tofurky from the oven and let it sit. Once it’s cool enough to touch, brush with the beer can rub, inside and outside.
Once your coals are ready to start grilling, open the can of beer, pour ½ cup beer into the bowl with the rub, and mix with a whisk. Gently push your Tofurky onto the top of the beer can.
Place the beer can with the Tofurky on top of it onto the grill upright. While the Tofurky is on the grill, periodically baste it with the beer can rub to keep it moist and add flavor. Be careful not to tip it over! The hole in Tofurky isn’t centered; one side will be heavier than another. We suggest using a pair of barbecue tongs to hold the can while you baste.
Drips of beer will start to roll down the sides of the can; this is good sign. You want the beer to vaporize and steam up inside your Tofurky. Eventually, you’ll see beer steam come through the top of the Tofurky.
Once you have steam coming out of the top, and the outside of the Tofurky is golden brown, use the barbecue tongs to remove your Tofurky from the grill. It should take between 30 and 45 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is. When you move your Tofurky, be careful not to spill the beer inside of it. The can and Tofurky are both very hot, so don’t touch them with your bare hands. While keeping the beer can upright with your tongs, use an oven mitt to pull the Tofurky off and into a large bowl.
To serve, cut the Tofurky into chunks, and maybe dip them in your favorite BBQ sauce. But to be honest, we loved it as is.
Every year people all over the country burn down their homes, patios, and sports-themed gazebos trying to deep-fry turkeys for Thanksgiving. Something so dangerous and reckless seemed like a great way to launch our Thanksgiving Parade of Food on our blog! So we kicked things off with a southern tradition that’s been called more dangerous than a fistful of illegal firecrackers and tastier than a house made of pie. Before you start, check out our tips for deep-frying Tofurky here.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
TOFURKY
6 to 7 cups oil
1 Tofurky or vegan holiday roast (make sure it is completely defrosted)
CAJUN MARINADE
½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
2 teaspoons Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Dash of liquid smoke
Dash of hot sauce
CAJUN RUB
2 teaspoons crushed black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
OKRA GIBLET GRAVY
1 (14-ounce) package Tofurky gravy (it comes in the Tofurky dinner set or can be bought separately)
1 cup dry white wine
¾ cup nutritional yeast
½ cup sliced okra
2 teaspoons Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
½ teaspoon poultry seasoning (most poultry seasonings are vegan, but some aren’t, so be sure to read the label)
Pinch of crushed black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 ½ teaspoons Bragg’s liquid aminos
Fill a large stock or soup pot with the oil and turn on high. Leave it uncovered. I know—crazy, right? But that’s what to do.
In a small bowl, mix all the Cajun marinade ingredients with a fork until thoroughly blended. Let it sit for a bit.
For the Cajun rub, in a large bowl mix the pepper, Creole seasoning, cumin, and nutmeg. Put the defrosted roast in the bowl and pour the oil and Bragg’s over it. Roll the roast around in the rub and use a brush to give it a nice even coating. Let it sit for 5 minutes, turning it every once in a while.
Now it’s time to grab your handy flavor injector. Fill the injector with marinade, stick it into the roast all the way to the hilt, and then remove it halfway before injecting—you’re making a little tunnel to fill with marinade. When you inject the marinade, stop when it starts to leak out of the injection spot. Repeat this process numerous times, using different injection sites, until you feel good about how much marinade you’ve injected into your roast. We used about ¼ cup to get a really juicy roast and flavorful stuffing. Something to watch out for: your needle can get clogged by spices or chunks of roast. If this happens, just use a clean safety pin or warm water to clean your needle, and keep going.
Check on your pot of oil. If you see bubbles forming, you’re ready. Using oven mitts and barbecue tongs, slowly lower your roast into the hot oil. Leave the roast in there for around 20 minutes, but if it the oil starts bubbling too high and showing signs that it might overflow, you have to abort: remove the roast, turn off the burner, let the oil cool, remove the excess oil, and start over. But if there are no signs of overflowing, let the roast hang out in the pot for around 20 minutes, 30 if you want it extra-crispy. When you remove the Tofurky, place it on a plate with some paper towels to suck up excess oil.
In a saucepan, mix all your okra giblet gravy ingredients and bring to a boil while stirring continually. Serve the Tofurky cut into slices with gravy on top. Enjoy!
Even if you don’t have time to spend all day cooking an enormous feast, you can use this shortcut to Thanksgiving that takes only 2 hours and ain’t too shabby.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning (most poultry seasonings are vegan, but some aren’t, so be sure to read the label)
2 teaspoons lemon pepper
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 Tofurky, defrosted to the point that you can stick a skewer all the way through
Olive oil cooking spray
3 cups dried corn bread stuffing (make sure it isn’t instant, and check for any special instructions like presoaking)
¼ cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons crushed raw walnuts
2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted cashews
½ Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped
1 cup Better Than Bouillon vegetable broth, made per the instructions on the package
2 tablespoons apple juice
cup margarine
In a small bowl, blend the poultry seasoning, lemon pepper, and lemon peel. Place the defrosted Tofurky in a large mixing bowl and rub with the lemon poultry seasoning blend.
Spray your cherished slow cooker with olive oil cooking spray. In the cooker, mix the remaining ingredients. Gently press the Tofurky into the stuffing, but not hard or deep enough that it touches the bottom of the cooker.
Cover and cook on a medium setting for 2 to 3 hours. Your Tofurky will be much moister than if you baked it, but the flavor is wonderful—and this recipe is supereasy.
Just about every single food that comes in a can is better when made fresh. But the difference is maybe the most obvious when it comes to cranberry sauce. Seriously—is anything more unappetizing than that cylindrical mound of goo, complete with ridgelines? Next Thanksgiving, make your cranberry sauce from scratch—you’ll never go back to the can.
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup orange juice with pulp
Pinch of cloves
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cups fresh cranberries
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
In your Dutch oven or saucepan, heat the brown sugar, orange juice, cloves, and lemon juice to a boil over medium heat. Stir in the cranberries and boil for 5 minutes—the cranberries will start popping open, and your sauce will begin to thicken, so keep stirring. Once all your cranberries have popped, stir in the orange peel and remove from the heat. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.
I love the flavor of this sauce on Tofurky sandwiches, on biscuits, and on my sticky fingers. It’s so good it’ll make you understand how cranberry sauce earned its spot on the table during one of the high holy days of food. It also has so much vitamin C and antioxidants in it, I’m pretty sure it’ll make you live forever. Okay, maybe I’m not so sure.
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
1 (12-ounce) bag fresh whole cranberries
Seeds from ½ fresh pomegranate
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup orange juice with pulp
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
Wash the cranberries and get your seeds from your pomegranate.
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat the sugar, water, lemon juice, and orange juice over medium heat until it starts to bubble slightly. Add the cranberries and mix until blended. Boil for 5 minutes. Then toss in the pomegranate seeds and orange peel. Your cranberries will begin to pop. Keep stirring while the sauce boils for 5 more minutes. Cover and let cool for another 5 minutes. Move into another container and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until chilled.
We weren’t big on Thanksgiving at my house. To quote my mom: “Do we look like we came from Pilgrims?” (Insert a Sicilian shrug in there.) So my affection for this longtime American holiday classic didn’t actually develop till much later in life, after I was vegan and had a new appreciation for food. I’m glad it did, though, because I can say with complete confidence that I have never taken a green bean casserole for granted.
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
¼ cup margarine
¼ cup whole wheat flour
1½ cups Better Than Bouillon vegan chicken broth, made per the instructions on the package (you may need a little more)
2 tablespoons Bragg’s liquid aminos
Dash of liquid smoke
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup nutritional yeast (you may need a little more)
4 (14-ounce) cans green beans
2 leeks, sliced
1 (2.8-ounce) can French-fried onions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a saucepan, melt the margarine over low heat. Add the flour and whisk until it forms a roux. Whisk in the broth, Bragg’s, liquid smoke, and garlic until thick and bubbly. Add the olive oil and nutritional yeast. Continue whisking the mixture. Make sure it’s like gravy: if it’s too dry, add more broth; if it’s too wet, add more nutritional yeast. Pour into a small casserole dish. Mix in the green beans and leeks. Be gentle so the green beans stay intact. Bake the casserole for 10 minutes, top with French-fried onions, and bake for 10 more minutes, or until brown and bubbly.
We usually like a savory sweet potato around these parts, but we tried these babies out because we trust Betty Crocker—and because this is an American holiday classic, and no one messes with that. We ended up loving them, and now I make them all the time.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
4 large sweet potatoes, cubed
cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons orange juice with pulp
2 tablespoons orange peel
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
Olive oil cooking spray
1 to 2 cups vegan marshmallows
In a large pot, boil the sweet potato cubes in water for 15 minutes, or until they begin to get tender. Drain. In your festive cast-iron skillet or saucepan, heat the brown sugar, margarine, orange juice, orange peel, and salt over medium heat until bubbling. Add the sweet potatoes and stir gently until glazed.
Set the oven to broil.
Coat your 8-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray and fill with sweet potatoes. Spread the vegan marshmallows over the top in an even layer. Slide the baking dish into the roaster for the count of 10. This will give you a nice browned layer of marshmallows, as well as some crispy edges on top.
Is this the healthiest way to enjoy your veggies? Hell no. Is it an age-old American classic that you can enjoy once a year or so? Hell yes! And if you were missing these since you went vegan, I hope they take you back. My mission will be complete.
We enjoy this recipe year-round. Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta-carotene, and they also taste great with margarine. Why is that important? Studies suggest that a minimum of 3 grams of fat per serving of sweet potatoes significantly increases your intake of beta-carotene. What a great excuse to enjoy some “buttery” orange mashed potatoes.
MAKES 8 TO 10 SERVINGS
8 to 10 sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons maple syrup, plus a little more to drizzle over the top
2 teaspoons ginger paste
¼ cup margarine
2 teaspoons crushed pink Himalayan salt (you may want to add more)
¼ teaspoon hot sauce (you may want to add more of this too)
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Olive oil cooking spray
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork. Place the potatoes in a glass baking dish and bake until tender. It should take around an hour.
Chop up your baked sweet potatoes, skins and all, and place them in a large bowl. Blend the potatoes with an electric handheld mixer on medium until no lumps remain. You’ll need to scrape pieces of potato skin off the beater, but it’s worth it. Add all the remaining ingredients and continue beating until everything is blended in. Taste test it to see if you’d like more salt or hot sauce. Keep in mind, you’re going to drizzle a little more maple syrup over the top. Once you like the flavor, you’re ready to serve.
These good-looking fellas aren’t just eye candy: they’re a sweet, tangy, “buttery,” and filling Thanksgiving side. If you’re trying to work some vegan items into a nonvegan holiday meal, you can absolutely slip these guys in unnoticed. They’re this weird combination of obviously and secretly awesome at the same time.
MAKES 2 SERVINGS
1 acorn squash
1 Red Delicious apple, diced
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
2 tablespoons crushed walnuts
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon margarine
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cut your squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and fibers. Cut 2 to 3 little slits in the inside of the hollowed-out squash. Bake the squash halves for 30 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the apple, cranberries, walnuts, brown sugar, and margarine. Make sure you break up any clumps of brown sugar.
After 30 minutes, remove the squash and use a large spoon to fill it with the apple mixture. You’ll need to really pack it in there, and it’ll still be overflowing a bit. Once the squash halves are full, put them back in the oven for another 30 to 40 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready to take out when the squash is a nice golden brown and has crispy edges.
No matter where you live, you know that summer is over and it’s time to start planning your Thanksgiving dinner when you see “pumpkin spice” flavored things showing up at every chain restaurant and coffee shop. Pumpkin starts showing up in everything from lattes and pancakes to frozen yogurt. Thanks, corporate America, for giving us a universal symbol of fall! Don’t forget to make a batch of Whipped Coconut Cream (here)—no pumpkin pie is complete without it. Please note, you’ll have to prep the whipped cream the night before you want to serve the pie.
MAKES 1 PIE
CRUST
2 to 3 tablespoons chilled water
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more to flour your workspaces
1 teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
FILLING
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1¼ cups raw cashews, soaked overnight
1 teaspoon arrowroot
1 cup maple syrup
2½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of crystalized ginger
Pinch of crushed pink Himalayan salt
Refrigerate the water for your crust for 20 minutes. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender until your dough looks like small pebbles. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until all your flour is moist and you have a solid dough that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. You can add 1 to 2 teaspoons more water if your dough is too dry.
Using your hands, form the dough into a ball. Shape the dough into a flattened round on a floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until the dough is firm and cold, yet still pliable.
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a round flat disk that is 2 inches larger than your glass pie plate. Fold the dough into fourths and transfer it to the pie plate; then unfold and press it gently into the plate. Use wet fingers to seal any cracks that appear in the crust. Trim any overhanging edges of crust to 1 inch from the rim of your pie plate. Use your fingers to pinch the edge of the pie to create a nice rolling wave along the crust’s edge.
In your favorite food processer or blender, mix all the filling ingredients until smooth. Pour into the crust and use a spatula to smooth out the top. Bake for 15 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. and bake the pie for 45 minutes longer, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
I actually never had a pumpkin pie like this when I lived in Georgia, but I did enjoy making vegan pralines. The candied pecan topping on this pie is something any southern baker would be proud to have on his or her Thanksgiving table. We added a little heat to our topping for more of a Savannah-style praline, making this pie unique.
MAKES 1 PIE
CRUST
2 to 3 tablespoons chilled water
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more to flour your workspaces
1 teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
FILLING
1 (14-ounce) package silken tofu
1¼ cup packed brown sugar
1½ cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 teaspoon arrowroot
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of crushed pink Himalayan salt
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
PRALINE TOPPING
cup packed brown sugar
cup chopped pecans
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon margarine, softened
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Put the water for your crust in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender until the dough looks like small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until all the flour is moist and you have a solid dough that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. You can add 1 to 2 more teaspoons of water if your dough is too dry.
Using your hands, form the dough into a ball. Flatten your dough ball on a floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until the dough is firm and cold, yet still pliable.
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a round flat disk 2 inches larger than your glass pie plate. Fold the dough into fourths and transfer it to the pie plate; then unfold and press it gently into the plate. Use wet fingers to seal any cracks that appear in the crust. Trim any overhanging edges of crust to 1 inch from the rim of your pie plate. Use your fingers to create a nice rolling wave along the crust edge.
In your food processer or blender, mix all the filling ingredients until smooth. Pour into the crust and use a spatula to smooth out the top. Bake for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix all the praline topping ingredients until crumbly.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. and bake the pie for 35 minutes longer. Sprinkle the praline topping over the pie. Bake for about 10 more minutes, or until a bamboo skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a little pumpkin and praline topping on it. This pie will be a little softer than store-bought pumpkin pies because of the topping.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Vegan pumpkin cheesecake is actually one of the first recipes I ever tried out on nonvegans. This recipe has evolved a lot since that first Thanksgiving cheesecake, and while I have fond memories of that one, I’m willing to admit that it was a pale shadow of this version of the recipe. This is a firm and creamy pie, which means you can make the always impressive New York–style cheesecake (with no crust). We made ours mini by using four 4.5-inch springform pans, but you can also just make one standard-size cheesecake by using a 9-inch pan. If you are making the large cheesecake, you’ll want to check out the baking instructions in our original New York Cheesecake recipe here. Or you can put this filling in a regular old piecrust and not sweat the springform pan. Either way, it’s delicious.
These little fellows need to chill out in the fridge for at least 7 hours before serving so you might want to keep that in mind when you make them.
MAKES 1 LARGE CHEESECAKE OR 4 MINI CHEESECAKES
CRUST
Vegetable shortening to grease your springform pans
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup margarine
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon applesauce
PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE FILLING
3 (8-ounce) packages vegan cream cheese (we recommend Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese)
1¼ cups sugar
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of crushed black peppercorn
¼ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
3 tablespoons applesauce
2 tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not made per the instructions on the package
¾ cup pumpkin puree
VEGAN SPICED CREAM CHEESE FROSTING TOPPING
½ (8-ounce) package vegan cream cheese (we recommend Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese)
cup margarine
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla almond milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease your 4 mini springform pans with vegetable shortening.
In a bowl, mix the flour margarine, sugar, and applesauce with a fork until a dough forms, and then gather it into a ball. Separate the dough into 4 equal portions. One at a time, press two-thirds of a portion of dough into the bottom of a springform pan. Then press the remaining third up the sides of the pan to create a shallow cup. Once you’ve done that for all the springform pans, place all the pans on a cookie sheet. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the crusts are a light golden brown; remove from the oven and let them cool while you make the filling.
Preheat the oven to 475°F.
In a bowl, mix all filling ingredients on low speed until blended. Using a ladle, fill the pans a little more than three-quarters of the way to the top. Don’t fill to the brim, because your cakes will bake over.
Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°F. Bake for an additional 30 minutes. The cheesecakes may not appear done, but if a small area in the center seems soft, it’ll become solid as it cools. Don’t do the toothpick test. Turn off the oven; leave the cheesecake in the oven 30 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool in the springform pans on a wire rack. Without releasing or removing the sides of the pans, run a small metal spatula or a butter knife carefully along the sides of the cheesecakes to loosen.
In a mixing bowl, beat the vegan cream cheese, margarine, cinnamon, brown sugar, almond milk, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer on low until smooth. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, on low speed to prevent one of those messy blowbacks. Mix until smooth. This is really soft frosting, so I recommend using a frosting gun to make an even layer over the top of the cheesecake while it’s still in the pan.
Refrigerate the frosted cheesecakes uncovered for at least 7 hours.
Run a metal spatula or butter knife carefully around the side of the cheesecake to loosen again. Remove the sides of the springform pans. Leave your cute little cheesecakes on the bottom disk when you serve them.
This recipe takes everything that’s great about your standard sweet potato casserole—sweet potatoes, marshmallows, and fall spices—and makes them even better by turning them into a whoopie pie.
The marshmallow filling takes a few hours to make so keep that in mind when making this recipe.
MAKES 2 DOZEN WHOOPIE PIES
1 Batch Vegan Marshmallow Filling (here), or you can use Ricemellow
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
6 tablespoons margarine
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 cup brown sugar
cup granulated sugar
cup olive oil
2 tablespoons applesauce
2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not made per the instructions on the package
1 cups baked, peeled, and mashed sweet potatoes
½ cup soy milk
Baking spray
Prepare your Vegan Marshmallow Filling 3 to 5 hours before you make your pies.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In your favorite mixing bowl, mix the flours, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda with a whisk until blended.
In a separate bowl, use an electric handheld mixer to blend the margarine, salt, vanilla, maple syrup, and sugars until creamy and smooth. Gradually blend the oil, applesauce, and egg replacer into the margarine mixture. Once your mixture is creamy, mix in the sweet potatoes cup at a time. Blend in your potatoes for at least 5 minutes to get all the clumps out—this is really important.
Once the sweet potato mixture is smooth, blend it into the flour mixture; then add the soy milk. Cover and chill the batter for 45 minutes so that it gets firmer.
Spray your always-perfect whoopie pie pan with baking spray. Once the batter has chilled out, fill your frosting gun or pastry bag with the sweet potato batter and put the largest tip on there.
Fill the cups on the whoopie pie pan three-quarters of the way full. It’s important to make your whoopie pie cookies the same size and to have an equal number.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. You’ll know they’re done when they’re firm but soft to the touch. Immediately transfer the cookies to a cooling rack, putting the ugliest part of the cookie on the rack. Make sure the cookies cool completely before building your whoopie pies.
To build your whoopie pies, put 2 to 3 tablespoons of Vegan Marshmallow Filling on one cookie, then take another cookie and put it on top to make a cookie sandwich. Gently squeeze your whoopie pies before serving so the marshmallow peeks out a bit.
When most people think of Christmas food, they’re thinking of the steady stream of cookies, pies, and other baked goods that are always up for grabs at family get-togethers. Hence why most New Year’s resolutions involve losing that holiday weight.
It used to be that vegan Bettys didn’t need to worry about this holiday gluttony like their nonvegan counterparts did—most of those goodies weren’t vegan. But now all that’s changed. For better or for worse, now you have all the vegan recipes you’ll need to crank out enough Christmas treats to fatten up an entire family in that one-month period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. And we’ve got some delicious roasts to replace that ham at Christmas dinner as well.
You’re thanking us now… but let us know how you feel on January 1 when it’s time to get started on that resolution. Don’t worry—we’ve got some salads in this book too. Somewhere…
Christmas is a magical season. We get to give each other thoughtful gifts. People host parties centered around cookies. People donate and volunteer more. There’s random mistletoe everywhere to kiss your loved one under. You get to drink hot chocolate. And the retour au sommet… soy nog hits the shelves! Every year we find a new way to level up our vegan nog. This recipe is one of our very favorites. Bring this treat to any holiday party and watch it disappear, plate by plate. I personally guarantee at least one “Hmmm. This is vegan?”
You’ll need to make this recipe the night before you want to serve it. It needs time to set in the fridge.
MAKES 1 LARGE CHEESECAKE WITH SAUCE
CRUST
Vegetable shortening to grease your springform pan
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup margarine
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon applesauce
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of grated nutmeg
CHEESECAKE
3 (8-ounce) packages vegan cream cheese (we recommend Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese)
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
¼ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
¾ cup soy nog
1 teaspoon rum or rum extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons applesauce
3 tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not prepared per the instructions on the package
2 tablespoons vegan sour cream
“BUTTERY” RUM SAUCE
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup water
2 tablespoons margarine
cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon rum or rum extract
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease your springform pan with vegetable shortening.
In a bowl, mix the flour, margarine, sugar, applesauce, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg with a fork until a dough forms; gather into a ball. Press two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of the springform pan. Then press the remaining dough 2 inches up the sides of the pan to create a shallow cup. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes, or until light golden brown; cool.
Preheat the oven to 475°F.
In a bowl, beat the vegan cream cheese, coconut flour, sugar, all-purpose flour, orange peel, and salt with an electric handheld mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until smooth. Beat in the soy nog, rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, applesauce, egg replacer, and vegan sour cream on low speed until blended. Make sure you don’t have any lumps. Pour the cheesecake filling into your pan, over the crust. Use your spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and smooth out the top of the filling.
Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°F. Bake for an additional 60 minutes. The cheesecake may not appear done, but if a small area in the center seems soft, it’ll become solid when it cools. Don’t do the toothpick test. Turn off the oven and leave your cheesecake in the oven 30 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
Without releasing the sides of your pan, run a metal spatula or a butter knife carefully along the sides of the cheesecake to loosen it. Refrigerate uncovered overnight for at least 9 hours but no longer than 48.
Run a metal spatula or butter knife carefully around the sides of the cheesecake to loosen it again. Remove the side of the pan.
Leave the cheesecake on the bottom of the springform pan when you serve.
This cheesecake is pretty fabulous, but there is one thing that might actually make it better… warm “Buttery” Rum Sauce. Gasp!
To make your sauce, heat all the “Buttery” Rum Sauce ingredients in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once the sauce begins to bubble, remove from the heat. Let it cool until warm to the touch, but not so hot it’ll burn your face off. It’ll take about 3 minutes.
We made this cobbler during the Great East Coast Blizzard of 2010—aka Snowmageddon. We were literally snowed in under 20 inches of snow in a town that doesn’t own a snowplow. Everything was closed and no one delivered. At one point, Dan had to hike through the snow to get us some juice, coffee, tortilla chips, and salsa from a 7-Eleven that was open. Sigh. But this cobbler made everything right.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
4 large Bosc pears, cored and cubed
½ cup dried cranberries
Juice from ½ a large lemon
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
½ cup vanilla soy milk
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
Mix ½ cup of the sugar, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir in the pears, cranberries, and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Pour into an ungreased 2-quart casserole and keep the pear mixture hot in the oven.
Mix the shortening, flour, remaining 1 tablespoon sugar, the baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, using a pastry blender until the mixture becomes crumbs. Stir in the soy milk. Drop the dough in six big spoonfuls onto the hot pear mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove when the top is golden brown.
Why is this holiday roast recipe more Christmasy than Thanksgiving-y? Well, because it’s red and because I said so. Any other questions? Though, in all seriousness, this dish would be equally at home at either holiday—or any other family dinner, for that matter.
MAKES ENOUGH TO SERVE 4 TO 6
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves
2 tablespoons Bragg’s liquid aminos
1½ teaspoons crushed black peppercorns
1 Tofurky or vegan holiday roast, defrosted
½ cup pomegranate-flavored black tea, brewed per the instructions on the package
Olive oil cooking spray
GLAZE
½ cup whole cherry jam
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon brown sugar
½ cup pomegranate juice
½ cup Better Than Bouillon vegan chicken broth, made per the instructions on the package
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a small bowl, mix the sage, Bragg’s, and black pepper. Place the Tofurky in a large bowl and rub the sage mixture into it.
Fill your frightening yet fabulous flavor injector (see “Where Do They Get Those Wonderful Toys?” here for more details) with tea. Stick the flavor injector at an upward angle at the seam in one end of your Tofurky and inject the tea. You’re flavoring the stuffing, so try to keep the tea in the stuffing but high enough so that while the Tofurky is baking, the tea will trickle down into the stuffing.
Place the Tofurky on the rack of your much-loved shallow roasting pan. Spray a light coating of olive oil cooking spray over the top. Place the Tofurky in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix the glaze ingredients with an electric handheld mixer and set aside.
Once the Tofurky has a light golden crust on the outside, pull it out and brush on the glaze. Roast for 1 hour, brushing periodically with more glaze.
I recommend serving with Pomegranate and Cranberry Sauce (here) and some green beans to add a little more color to your holiday feast.
These cookies are soft vegan versions of those traditional Christmas treats from your childhood. The week we made these, we ate them with our morning coffee every day. Cookie breakfasts are one of the best things about the holidays.
MAKES 4 DOZEN LARGE COOKIES
1 cup packed brown sugar
1½ cups dark molasses
cup vegetable shortening
cup plus 4 tablespoons cold water
7 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring surfaces and your rolling pin
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
Baking spray
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, molasses, shortening, and cup of the water with an electric mixer until completely blended. Mix in the flour, baking powder, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and salt with the electric mixer and blend completely. The dough will be pasty and sticky—it’s the molasses. Once your dough is completely blended, cover it and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Spray your cookie sheet with baking spray. Roll the dough out to ¼-inch thickness on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Use cookie cutters to cut out your cookies. Place them on the cookie sheet, making sure they’re at least 1 to 2 inches apart.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes; it depends on how big your cookies are. Immediately move them to a wire rack to cool for at least an hour. Then decorate! You can use the Apple Vanilla Glaze here, but there are also a lot of vegan-friendly frosting kits that come out around the holidays with all those fun sprinkles and sparkles.
We made these whoopie pies at our very first live cooking demonstration, at an event held by the great group Mercy for Animals in Manhattan. They were a huge crowd-pleaser—and they will be at your next holiday party, too.
MAKES 1½ DOZEN WHOOPIE PIES
Baking spray
1 batch Just Like Buttercream Frosting (here)
Christmasy sprinkles
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
¾ cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup blackstrap molasses
2 tablespoons applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Set aside the baking spray, Just Like Buttercream Frosting, and sprinkles.
In a large bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients with an electric handheld mixer until you get a paste. Cover your bowl with foil and refrigerate for 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a light coating of baking spray over your whoopie pie pan or cookie sheet.
Use your hands to roll your dough into small balls and then flatten them with your palms. Place the flattened balls in the cups of your whoopie pie pan. Make sure you make an even number of equally sized cookies.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are somewhat springy. Use an oven-mitted hand to poke one of the cookies to test it out. You might ruin this cookie if you poke it too soon—so think of this one as your sacrificial cookie.
Once your cookies are done, move them to a wire rack to cool. You need to make sure your cookies reach room temperature before you start building your whoopie pies. Pour a few tablespoons of Christmasy sprinkles in a shallow dish.
To build your whoopie pies, put 2 to 3 tablespoons of frosting on 1 cookie; then take another cookie and put it on top to make a cookie sandwich. Gently squeeze your whoopie pies so the frosting peeks out. Roll the frosting edge in the Christmasy sprinkles.
Don’t worry; I’m not going to get all Talmudic scholar on you. But I will tell you what Hanukkah means to the Shannons.
Hanukkah—which isn’t even a high holiday in the Jewish calendar—is one of the best holidays of the year. It’s a holiday about heroism and the importance of hope. It’s about a guy named Judah and his band of merry Maccabees defeating one of the most powerful armies in the world and standing up to tyranny. As activists, it’s inspiring to celebrate a holiday about standing up to bullies—and as vegans, it’s fun to celebrate a holiday so easy to veganize.
Unfortunately, Hanukkah is put in the impossible position of having to compete with Christmas every winter. Jewish families—or half-Jewish ones, like mine growing up—can find themselves struggling to get their kids as excited about playing dreidel, eating chocolate gelt, and lighting candles as their Santa-loving peers are about candy canes and decorating trees. But maybe rather than trying to make Hanukkah into “Jewish Christmas,” we just need to take it as an opportunity to reflect on the importance of fighting the good fight, and enjoy some baked latkes and beefless brisket.
I had never baked challah bread before, so it was a huge thrill for me to find this recipe in Betty Crocker’s Big Red. Finally I had an excuse to come up with a vegan recipe for this traditional treat. It was a wonderful way for Dan and me to celebrate our first Hanukkah together, and introduce my goyish husband to my family’s traditions. We exchanged presents, lit candles, spun a dreidel, and watched basketball—you know, just like Judah and the rest of those badass Maccabees did back in the day.
This bread is dedicated to Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock—both Jewish!
MAKES 1 LOAF OF BREAD
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring your surfaces
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1½ teaspoons crushed pink Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 package dry active yeast
1 cup very warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to brush on the bread
1 tablespoon applesauce
Vegetable shortening, for greasing your bowl
Olive oil cooking spray
VEGAN “EGG” WASH
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon olive oil
½ teaspoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon apple juice
¼ teaspoon nutritional yeast
In a large bowl, mix 1½ cups of the flour with the maple syrup, salt, nutritional yeast, and yeast. Add the water and olive oil and blend with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl often to make sure all the ingredients are mixed in. Blend in the applesauce and remaining flour until your dough is smooth.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Grease a large bowl with vegetable shortening. Place the dough in your greased bowl and spin it around a few times to get a light coating. Loosely seal the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour, or until it doubles in size. We let ours sit overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a light coating of olive oil cooking spray over a cookie sheet.
Once your dough has doubled in size and is springy to the touch, remove it from the bowl and divide it into three equal segments. Roll each segment into a long rope. Try to keep the ropes about the same size. Don’t stretch your dough, though. It’ll cause the bread to have a pulled, stretched, not-smooth appearance. Just roll it out.
Lay the 3 ropes in a row and braid them loosely from the center out. Pinch the ends under to secure them. Brush a light coating of olive oil over the bread and place the loaf on the greased cooking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour.
In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients for the vegan “egg” wash with a whisk. Once your loaf has risen, brush it with the vegan “egg” wash.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven once the loaf is golden brown. Thicker braids may take longer to bake.
Marble cake is pretty common at the Hanukkah tables of many Ashkenazi Jews, although it’s hard to really explain why. There isn’t a specific cultural relevance that I’m aware of, or some historical connection to this dish. Maybe it’s as simple as this: it’s delicious. Why wouldn’t you want to eat it for Hanukkah? Or any other time of the year?
MAKES 1 CAKE
2½ cups sugar
¾ cup baking cocoa powder
¼ cup agave nectar
½ cup hot water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
1 cup margarine
3 tablespoons applesauce
2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not prepared per the instructions on the package
1 cup almond milk
½ teaspoon almond extract
Baking spray
1 batch Chocolate Agave Glaze (here)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In your favorite saucepan, whisk together ½ cup of the sugar and the cocoa powder, agave nectar, and water, and heat over medium heat. Bring to a simmer while constantly whisking. Once you have smooth syrup, remove your saucepan from the heat and whisk in ½ teaspoon of the vanilla. Once your syrup is smooth, wash off your whisk.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk until blended.
In another bowl, using an electric hand mixer, blend the margarine and remaining 2 cups of sugar into a fluffy cream. Tilting your bowl while you blend will help make your blend fluffier by getting more air in there. Mix in the applesauce, egg replacer, almond milk, and remaining 1½ teaspoons vanilla. Once your margarine blend is smooth and creamy, add your flour mixture 1 cup at a time, blending with your handheld mixer until you have a smooth cake batter.
Move a third of the cake batter to a separate bowl and blend in your chocolate syrup until thoroughly mixed. You want your chocolate batter not to have any marbling or pockets of white in it. Be sure to clean your mixer attachment before you move from one batter to another. This will keep the swirls of flavor and color distinct in your marbling. Blend your almond extract into the remaining batter.
Coat your Bundt cake pan with a heavy layer of baking spray.
Using a ladle, pour half of your white cake batter into your Bundt cake pan. Use a spatula to spread the batter out evenly. Pour your chocolate cake batter over your white cake batter and gently spread it out with your spatula. Then pour the remaining white cake batter over the top. Using a bamboo skewer, very slightly swirl the cake batter only once in a small wave. Use your spatula to make sure the top of the cake batter is flat. This will be the bottom of the cake, so make sure it’s even.
Bake until you can stick a bamboo skewer in the cake and have it come out cleanly. It should take 30 to 45 minutes. There are a lot of different types of Bundt cake pans, though, so yours might take a little more or less time.
Before you remove your cake from the pan, use the bamboo skewer to make a dozen or so little stabs into the top of it. You’re releasing moisture from the cake to help it cool and also releasing the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan, and then turn the pan upside down on a large serving dish.
While the cake is baking and cooling, make your Chocolate Agave Glaze in a small bowl. Once the cake is completely cooled, drizzle the glaze over it.
Mazel tov! You’ve just made a cake that would make your bubbe verklempt!
In a world of latke recipes, here’s what makes this one special: (1) It’s vegan. (2) It’s baked, not fried. (3) It’s extra-super tasty. We enjoyed these little bubelas during Hanukkah with some vegan sour cream while we watched basketball and played board games and tried to stay alive under three layers of blankets.
MAKES 12 TO 15 LATKES
5 to 6 Yukon Gold potatoes
1 red onion, diced
¼ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
½ teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
1 teaspoon applesauce
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not prepared as instructed on the package
Olive oil cooking spray
Vegan sour cream and applesauce for toppings
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Shred enough potatoes with either a cheese grater or food processor to make 4 cups. In a large bowl, combine the onion, flour, salt, Bragg’s, applesauce, nutritional yeast, olive oil, pepper, and egg replacer with the shredded potatoes. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.
Place rounded tablespoons of the batter on the baking sheet and flatten with a spatula. Pop the latkes in the oven, bake for around 5 minutes, flip them, and put them back in the oven to bake for another 5 minutes. Check them and keep flipping them every 5 minutes till they reach the desired crispiness.
Serve warm with vegan sour cream and applesauce.
Before we moved to Brooklyn, every spring Dan and I hosted some of the best Secular Passover Potluck Seders in Virginia. We lived in PETA-ville (also known as Norfolk, Virginia: HQ for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), where most people we knew were transplants from elsewhere, and maybe that’s why we all grew so close. You find yourself within walking distance of people who share your view of the world and your love of vegan food, and it’s impossible not to find a family—a mishpocha—in this home away from home. Modern technology will still keep us close now that we’ve moved away, but I’m not sure when we’ll ever be able to sit down at a table to share bowls of this soup together. I guess that’s what airplanes are for.
Your matzo dough will need to hang out in the fridge overnight so you’re going to need to start this recipe the night before you’re going to serve your soup.
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
1 (14-ounce) package firm silken tofu
9 cups Better Than Bouillon vegetable broth, made per the instructions on the package
½ cup olive oil
1 cup matzo meal
½ cup nutritional yeast
¾ teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
¾ teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 tablespoons dry white wine
3 carrots, sliced into coins
¼ teaspoon celery seed
½ large red onion, diced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
2 pinches of onion powder
Blend your tofu, 1 tablespoon of the broth, and the olive oil in your food processor or blender. In a bowl, mix the matzo meal, nutritional yeast, Bragg’s, and black pepper. Then combine the matzo and broth mixtures in the bowl until everything is moist, and ta-da—you have dough! Cover the bowl and put in the fridge overnight. You can visit your matzo a few times throughout the evening and give it a good mix with a spoon, but always put it back in the fridge.
It’ll take about an hour to cook your matzo balls, so 1½ to 2 hours before you want to serve your soup, fill your pot with the rest of your vegetable broth, the white wine, carrots, celery seed, onion, parsley, dill, and onion powder and bring to a boil.
Line a casserole dish with parchment paper. Remove your matzo dough from the fridge. Form extremely tightly packed balls about the size of a melon ball, and place them on the parchment paper so they don’t touch. Once they’re all made, you can start dropping them in the boiling soup one at a time. Give yourself time so you don’t need to rush. After they’re all in your broth, put the lid on and leave it on for around ½ hour. Don’t lift the lid. I know you’ll want to, but it’s okay. Just give them time. Sometimes you just have to let things do their thing and have faith.
After that ½ hour, lift the lid and watch your matzo balls rise to the top.
Now you’re ready to nosh all night!
For the non-Jewish among you: latkes are potato pancakes traditionally eaten during Hanukkah. Yep. Pancakes. Made out of potatoes. Yep. Being Jewish pretty much rules.
MAKES 8 TO 10 LATKES
2 raw beets
3 large raw carrots
1 large raw Yukon Gold potato
1 red onion, diced
¼ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
½ teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
1 teaspoon applesauce
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not prepared as instructed on the package
Olive oil cooking spray
1 (12-ounce) package vegan sour cream for topping
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives for toppings
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Use a cheese grater or food processor to shred your beets, carrots, and potato. Move the vegetables to a large bowl. Mix in the onion, flour, salt, Bragg’s, applesauce, nutritional yeast, olive oil, pepper, and egg replacer with a large spoon. Spray your foil-lined cookie sheet with olive oil cooking spray.
Place rounded small mounds of the latke batter on the baking sheet and flatten with a spatula. Pop them in the oven, bake for 5 minutes, flip them, and put them back in the oven to bake for another 5 minutes. Check them and keep flipping them every 5 minutes till they reach the desired crispiness.
Serve warm with the vegan sour cream and chives.
These deep-fried doughnut-y treats are traditionally served in Israel in the weeks leading up to Hanukkah and during the holiday itself. Ours are filled with jelly, although they can also be filled with chocolate or vanilla custard. They’re generally eaten warm—so no slacking!
Your dough will need to chill out overnight so you’re going to need to start this recipe the night before you’re going to make your doughnuts.
MAKES 1½ DOZEN DOUGHNUTS
1¼ cups vanilla soy milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons margarine
1 package active dry yeast
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
¾ teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 cups all-purpose flour (you’ll need more to flour your surfaces)
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not prepared as instructed on the package
1 tablespoon applesauce
1 batch of Raspberry Filling (here) or Lemon Filling (here)
Vegetable oil for frying
Powdered sugar for topping
In a small saucepan, heat the soy milk until it begins to steam. Stir in the brown sugar and margarine and turn the heat down to a simmer. Once your margarine is melted, remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Transfer the sweetened soy milk to a large bowl, and stir in the yeast, salt, nutmeg, and flour. Stir in the egg replacer and applesauce with a large spoon, and then blend with a hand mixer using dough hooks for about 2 minutes. You want the batter to be smooth. It’s very sticky, though, so be careful to not get it on yourself or anyone you care about… it’ll cause unhappiness. Cover your bowl with foil and allow your batter to chill in the fridge overnight.
The next morning, gently knead your batter on a heavily floured surface and roll it out with a floured rolling pin. Use a biscuit cutter or the top of a pint glass to cut out your doughnuts. Try to plan out your strategy beforehand to make sure you get as many doughnuts from your dough as possible. You can toss the little bits of extra in the hot oil too at the end and have bitty doughnut bites.
Lay your raw doughnuts out on a piece of wax paper and cover with a fabric napkin or towel. Let them chill out and rise for another 35 minutes.
During this time, make your filling. You can choose between the Raspberry Filling and the Lemon Filling, or you can use real fruit jam.
Fill your Dutch oven or soup pot halfway with vegetable oil and heat at a high temperature until it starts to bubble.
Carefully place a piece of leftover doughnut dough in your hot oil to see if it’s ready to fry. Once your oil is hot enough, start placing the doughnuts in one at time. Let them fry for 30 to 45 seconds on each side, or until they turn golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove them, and place them on a plate with a paper towel to soak up extra oil. Once they’re cool enough to handle—but not cold—fill your favorite frosting gun with filling and, using the smallest tip, gently fill each doughnut by poking the tip into the side and pressing in 1 to 2 tablespoons filling. Sprinkle a lot of powdered sugar over each doughnut and enjoy!
Vegan Easter has many fine qualities, including Sweet and Sara’s Peepers and Skippers (vegan peeps) and dark chocolate bunnies. But what most of us look forward to the most is the big dinner or brunch parties full of springtime vegetable dishes. See, Easter can have a bad reputation of being the unhealthiest holiday from all that cheap, colorful candy, chocolate, and of course those eggs. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Around Easter a new wave of fresh vegetables hits the grocery stores, and farmers’ markets open. Beautiful avocados, asparagus, and artichokes pop up to encourage us to add more green to our diet. Fresh berries add more than just some color and flavor to our breakfasts. They’re full of antioxidants that can curb the growth of some cancers.
Throughout this book you can find recipes like Fresh Lemon and Asparagus Soup (here), Carrot Cake Cupcakes (here), and Végétalien Tarte aux Fruits Frais (Vegan French Fresh Fruit Tart) (here) to complete your Easter feast. In this section you’ll find recipes to help you create a few of those signature Easter treats you see in magazines.
Every dinner party has a centerpiece, whether they know it or not, and from what I gather, when it comes to Easter the traditional superstars are ham, lasagna, and manicotti. We used a Tofurky to replace the less compassionate ham but still played around with the whole cloves and baked it with a smoky maple and brown sugar glaze to create a vegan dish that will feel right at home being the center of attention.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
1 Tofurky or vegan holiday roast, completely defrosted
20 to 25 whole cloves
cup brown sugar
¼ cup dry white wine or apple juice
1 tablespoon applesauce
2 to 3 dashes of liquid smoke
¼ teaspoon ground mustard seed
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Pinch of crushed pink Himalayan salt
Pinch of crushed black peppercorns
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Once your roast is completely defrosted, gently press a long knife in a shallow crisscross pattern across the top of it. Take a bamboo skewer and gently poke a hole in the center of each diamond created on the roast by the pattern. Cloves can be a little brittle, so this will help you insert them into your roast without crumbling them. Very gently press your cloves into the holes in your roast until the stem is completely inserted and just the little bud is showing. Place your roast in a glass baking dish.
In your favorite mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, white wine, applesauce, liquid smoke, mustard seed, ¼ cup of the maple syrup, salt, and pepper until the brown sugar dissolves. Brush a layer of this glaze over your entire roast. You want to make sure you get the glaze on the ends and into all the folds and cuts. Lift your roast in the dish so that any glaze that has collected in the dish can cover the bottom. Put your roast in the oven to bake for 10 minutes.
Pull your roast out of the oven and brush another layer of glaze over the top. Bake for another 10 minutes. Brush yet another layer of glaze over the top and bake for another 10 minutes. Let your roast cool for 5 to 8 minutes, and then drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons maple syrup over the top.
Before you begin slicing, you might want to remove your cloves using a fork. It not only makes it easier to slice, but have you ever eaten a whole clove? I’m pretty sure humankind wasn’t meant to. Don’t worry, you’ll keep the spice flavor of the clove in the roast even without the actual clove.
VegNews magazine featured our veganized Girl Scout cookies in February 2012. We took our veganized Tagalongs and made them into a perfect Easter cookie that combines chocolate with a soft peanut butter filling and a crunchy, “buttery” cookie.
MAKES 1½ TO 2 DOZEN COOKIES
COOKIES
1 cup vegan margarine
½ cup granulated sugar
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon applesauce
2 tablespoons vanilla soy milk
PEANUT BUTTER FILLING
1 cup powdered sugar
½ cup chunky natural peanut butter
teaspoon salt
CHOCOLATE COATING
1 (10-ounce) bag vegan chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a cookie sheet with foil.
In a large bowl, blend the margarine and sugar until creamy with an electric handheld mixer. Add the flour, flaxseed, vanilla, salt, applesauce, and soy milk, and blend until the dough is smooth.
In a cookie press without a form, or with your hands, roll the dough into a uniform tube. Slice into ¼-inch wafers. Use your thumb to gently press one side of your wafer to create an oblong or egg shape. On your lined cookie sheet, bake your wafers for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Remove and place on wire cooling rack.
While your cookies are baking, make your peanut butter filling. In a large bowl, mix the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and salt. With your hands, use roughly 1 tablespoon of peanut butter filling each to form small balls, and gently press one on top of each cooled cookie.
Once your cookies are built, make your chocolate coating. Follow the directions on the vegan chocolate chips package on how to melt them. Once your chocolate is fully melted, drop the cookies into your chocolate one at a time, using a spoon to pour chocolate over the top and coat evenly.
Place the dipped cookies on a piece of parchment. When all your cookies are coated, place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and chill the cookies in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until the chocolate is fully dry.
Baking special sweet buns in the springtime is a practice that goes back to the ancient Greeks and Saxons. Some did it to “bless” their baking for the rest of the year; some believed if you took them on an ocean voyage it would keep your ship safe. When these buns got sweet crosses painted on them and became a Good Friday tradition is hard to say. We added brightly colored sweet potatoes packed with beta-carotene to our dough to add flavor and natural sweetness.
MAKES 2 DOZEN ROLLS
¾ cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 sweet potato, baked and cooled to room temperature
1 cup soy milk
¼ cup margarine
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons crushed pink Himalayan salt
3 cups all-purpose flour (you’ll need more to flour your surfaces)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1½ cups raisins
1 batch Apple Vanilla Glaze (here)
In a large bowl, mix your water and yeast and let stand until the yeast is dissolved. Then scrape the soft inside of your baked sweet potato into your mixing bowl and blend. Add the soy milk, margarine, brown sugar, orange peel, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and salt. Use your handheld mixer to blend all your ingredients until they’re creamy. Change your attachments on your handheld mixer to your dough hooks and blend in your flours, 1 cup at a time. Your dough is going to be ridiculously sticky—so avoid getting it on yourself or anyone you love. Use a large spoon to fold in your raisins.
Cover your bowl loosely with foil and let stand in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size. It should take about 45 minutes. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Use floured hands to form your dough into 24 buns that are about the size of your palm. Place your raw buns about 5 inches apart on your parchment-lined cookie sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow your buns to rise until they double in size. This should take another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Once your buns have risen, remove the plastic wrap and bake the buns for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are puffed and toasted brown.
While your buns are baking, make your Apple Vanilla Glaze.
Let your buns cool to room temperature before crossing your buns with your Apple Vanilla Glaze. Let the glazed buns sit for another 10 minutes so your glaze can set before serving.
These tasty treats are a great recipe to make with kids. They’re simple to make, don’t take so long the little ones lose interest, and end up in fun shapes they’ll love. You’ll love them because they’re delicious, with a maple sweetness that isn’t too overpowering or saccharine.
MAKES 2 DOZEN BUNNIES
2 packages active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cups almond milk
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
1 tablespoon applesauce
2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder, not prepared per the instructions on the package
cup vegetable shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour (you’ll need some extra to flour your surfaces)
3 to 4 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 batch Maple Bourbon Glaze (here; you can make it without the bourbon for kids)
Sprinkles to doll up your doughnut
In one of your largest mixing bowls, mix the yeast and warm water with a whisk. Let sit for a while so your yeast can dissolve. Once it’s bubbly, you’re ready to move on to the next step.
Mix in the almond milk, sugar, salt, applesauce, egg replacer, vegetable shortening, and flour using your electric handheld mixer with dough hooks. This is sticky stuff, so don’t get it on you or anything or anyone you love. Once the dough is completely blended, place a cloth over the top of the bowl and put the bowl in a cozy spot to let the dough rise. It should take a few hours. You’ll know your dough is ready when it’s doubled in size.
Heat your vegetable oil on high in your largest stockpot or Dutch oven.
Use your fist to deflate the dough. Then move your dough to a floured workspace to roll it out with your floured rolling pin until it’s about ½ inch thick. Use a bunny cookie cutter to cut out your doughnuts. You can also just use a biscuit cutter or the top of a pint glass if you hate bunnies.* Flip the raw doughnuts a few times in the flour. Use some of the extra dough between the bunnies to see if your oil is hot enough to fry your doughnuts yet. Once your sacrificial tester dough clump is frying carefully place your doughnuts in the hot oil one at a time. Once they’re golden brown, use a slotted spoon to move them onto a plate with a paper towel to drain off any extra oil.
While your doughnuts are frying and cooling, make your Maple Bourbon Glaze.
Once your bunnies have cooled enough that you can handle them, dip the tops in the Maple Bourbon Glaze and move them to a wire rack to cool. Once they’re all glazed, sprinkle your sprinkles over the top.