5 Fresh Courses for the Holiday Feast
By Theresa Shay
As the lone vegetarian at the table, I spent many holidays in my early adult years eating around the traditional fare. One year, I realized I could create the holiday meal I wanted to eat and invite others to join me. Now my husband and I eat vegan together, the friends we gather with eat this way, and our families welcome our plant-based contributions to the feast. I’ve created this collection of some of my favorite plant-based dishes for you to explore through the holiday season. High vibrational food from plants supports good health and bright energy for all.
Appetizers
I am an appetizer fan. I could happily eat a meal of all appetizers and go to bed happy. Here are some favorites.
Colorful crudité- serve local, organic produce when possible. As you cut veggies into different shapes, chant a mantra to infuse the spread with love and life.
Dips – Rainbow Plant Life has gathered 30 vegan dips with flavors from around the world.
Cheese and crackers – These are currently in my stash:
Main Course
A holiday meal I have served often is Butternut Squash Farinata with Farro Arugula Salad and Pomegranate Vinaigrette. Chef Tal Ronnen is a master of plant-based deliciousness. The farinata, a chickpea bread/pie popular in Italy, is served alongside a grain & green salad. I used the dressing from this recipe for the Thanksgiving salad I brought to Jill and Scot’s this year.
Salad
If you are providing a salad for the meal, Caesar Salad is elegant and delicious. Glenn and I had this for dinner last night. It is a heavier salad due to the cashew cream dressing, which is why I waited to serve it on its own rather than alongside the other rich dishes at Thanksgiving.
Celery
Celery balances the creamy, heavy food of holiday feasts like nothing else. Serve cut pieces straight up: fresh, cold, crispy, crunchy, and sweet. I’ve been known to come home from a holiday meal with a celery craving and head straight to the fridge to munch. Satisfying.
Pumpkin Pie
This recipe for gluten-free pumpkin pie will end the meal with loving sweetness, not the knock over the head of a sugary dessert. My Quiet Kitchen has been a great source for simple, successful, and tasty recipes over the years. I recently made her pumpkin pie for the first time. The spices are perfect, and the sweetness is balanced. It improves on the recipe I had been using because the pie sets with no trouble. Serve with coconut cream, cashew cream, or So Delicious cashew-based vanilla ice cream if you don’t mind the sugar blast.
Happy holidays, happy earth, happy animals, and happy health.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.