Need Vegan Thanksgiving Dishes? These Will Wow Everyone.

"My early Thanksgivings were a cross-cultural hodgepodge: boxed stuffing and canned cranberries sat on the table alongside pav bhaji and lemon rice. My Indian immigrant parents didn't want us to miss out on American celebrations, but they also couldn't wrap their heads around eating so much beige food devoid of spice. By the time I was 16 years old, though, I had fallen in love with cooking thanks to a daily after-school dose of the Food Network,"

"When my friend and I took over the menu, we added every decadent dish our adolescent brains could dream of, from marshmallow sweet potatoes to triple-dairy mashed potatoes. After spending 12 hours in our mothers' aprons, we lined up our masterpieces on her family's kitchen counter, giddily drinking in the oohs and aahs of our siblings and parents. When I went vegan in my late 20s, I assumed these indulgent feasts would be a thing of the past."

"But as I looked back on my favorite dishes green beans with caramelized shallots, warm roasted vegetable salad, butternut squash gratin I realized the most delicious things on the table were always vegetables. When vegetables are treated with care, they don't need to be in a supporting role. They are the feast. Over the last decade, I've learned a few more tricks to make vegetables dazzle, all without using dairy or meat."

Early Thanksgivings combined boxed stuffing and canned cranberries with pav bhaji and lemon rice in a cross-cultural household. Indian immigrant parents preserved American celebrations while keeping bold spices and flavors. Teenage cooking inspired a takeover of the menu with decadent dishes such as marshmallow sweet potatoes and triple-dairy mashed potatoes, prepared in family aprons and celebrated by relatives. A later move to veganism prompted a reevaluation of favorites, revealing that vegetables—when caramelized, roasted, or gratin—often held the most memorable flavors. Vegetable-focused recipes can deliver warming richness and bright freshness without dairy or meat, making vegetables the centerpiece of a festive table.

Read at cooking.nytimes.com