No-Kill Holiday Feast
Delicious as all get out!!!
We don’t remember exactly when the switchover happened. Our Thanksgiving feast were as traditional as anyone else’s. But the RainyDayKitchen folks—with the urging of one of our editors—had been gradually shifting to “No-Kill-Holiday” menus. After a few years, these menus have became the standard here at RainyDay.
Yeah…no.
Last year’s menu was one inspired by our British/Nordic brethren. This year, our gathering of two was more traditional but still stayed within the “No-Kill” boundary.
Three incredible, magical days of prep, 20 minutes of eating.
The Ingredients
When we first started serving non-meat entrees, we only invited guests we figured would enjoy the, um, adventure, mostly because the commercial offerings back then were not as diverse, tasty, or…well, tasty, and so wanted to surround ourselves with a bunch of “Yeah, sure, I’ll give it a try”-ers.
One awesome, vegan haul.
Today, we are happy to say, is an entirely different story. We have served meatless substitutes to meat-eaters where they were hard-pressed to tell the difference. BOOM!
Below are our profferings.
Field Roast
Field Roast has been crafting plant-based meats and cheeses from grains, fresh-cut vegetables, herbs, and spices herbs for over 20 years. We had tried some of their earlier efforts and they were OK, but nothing to write home about.
To their credit, they kept at it, improving the taste and texture, and increasing the variety of offerings. Their current Hazelnut Cranberry Roast spoke to us when we went shopping this year.
Any which way you slice it, this was delish.
Quorn
We have been a fan of Quorn for a long time. Their “mycoprotein” food products are a protein-rich, sustainable food source that is: packed with fibre: low in saturated fat, cholesterol-free, and highly nutritious.
There’s a fungus amungus…
Miscelaneous
The other items on our shopping list for side dishes and dessert were also plant-based and/or otherwise non-dairy (ie: vegan). A few years ago, these items would have been a lot more difficult to find (a lot) and the selection much more restrictive (much more), but fortunately that is no longer (no longer) the case.
- Plant-based cheese alternative
- Oat-milk
- Vegan gravy
- Grain-meat sausages
So now you can all stop asking, “But what do you eat?”
The Prep
Since this year’s gathering was small due to the pandemic, we opted to eat at the “bistro” instead of at the big table.
Still, tablecloths were washed and ironed, along with the napkins and other such items 🙂
Bon jour, madame, you will have zee vegan roast, no?
We also brought out the fine china even though, or maybe especially because, it would only be a dinner-for-two seating.
Zees ‘oliday I do not know, but I’m sure you will be ‘appy to geeve sanks for ze champagne zat ees about to be poured…
And even though most of this year’s meal was buy-cook-eat, the dessert fell solidly within the “It’s THANKSGIVING for gawd’s sake, aren’t you going to make it yourSELF?” mode of thinking.
Pie. Pumpkin. Six-inch pie plate. A six-inch pumpkin pie. Because if we made a nine-inch pie we would have eaten it regardless.
The Meal
As with many Thanksgiving meals across the country, the timing of the actual feast was somewhat utterly dictated by the start/stop times of various NFL games. This year was no different 🙂
One more reason to eat at the cafe: turns out even a Thanksgiving meal for two needs most of an eight-person dining room table to lay out.
Cranberry sauce on the five-yard line
The side-dish prep (string beans, stuffing, gravy, etc.) was done during the half time of the first game.
The “roast” was defrosted the night before and went into the oven sometime during the 3rd quarter.
By the time the first game ended, everything was ready. We sat down to a wonderful spread of perfectly prepared and delicious no-kill offerings.
Admit it, it looks good…
Our FirstThoughts on the Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry “roast”?
- Very attractive outer pastry
- Not crumbly when sliced
- Enough for four, or two and then two more for breakfast the next day
Freshly defrosted frozen fresh cranberries—for that pop of color, as Martha might say.
Below is how our plate looked after we served ourselves. Of course, the question everyone has is “how does it taste?” Well, the flavor was very satisfying, the mouth feel was really good (especially with the gravy), and one serving was more than enough. So we had two 😉
Lookit that, a normal-looking Thanksgiving plate of food—and no animals were harmed or lost their lives to create it!
The thing is, even after two servings, we were not stuffed in that heavy way we would feel if it was actual meat…and the was the best part about it. We were a little “sleepy,” but that probably had more to do with sharing a bottle of bubbly between the two of us, LOL!!!
“Champagne is one of the elegant extras in life.” Mark Twain
For Christmas, we are going to try our hand at making our own no-kill roast. We are going to experiment with a few home-made versions in the coming weeks to see if we can get the combination of pastry, stuffing, and “meat” just right.
Look for the write-up before the end of the year! But after that next bottle of bubbly…
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