During this weekend after Thanksgiving, there’s a group of people who don’t have to worry about bacteria growth caused by improperly removing the stuffing from the turkey. They don't even have to challenge their creativity thinking of different ways to serve the leftover turkey meat. They are the eight-five people who gathered at Milan Town Hall for the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society’s annual Thanksgiving Feast.
According to the Society’s president, Roberta Schiff, Thursday’s feast was the twenty-fifth such event in the Hudson Valley and the twelfth or thirteenth that has been sponsored by the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society.
Thanksgiving—a holiday whose raison d’ètre is a feast, the centerpiece of which is a large, slaughtered bird—can be a challenge for the vegetarian. But Thanksgiving didn’t start out as “Turkey Day.” In fact, the only written account of the first feast doesn’t even mention turkey. (Of course, there was duck and venison.) The first American Thanksgiving was a celebration of the Plymouth Colony’s first successful harvest, and a celebration of the harvest seems like the perfect event for those who embrace a plant-based diet.
A vegetarian for the past fifteen years, I’ve always thought that all of the side dishes typical of Thanksgiving were what made the meal special, and that seemed to be the principle followed at the MHVS Thanksgiving feast. The groaning board was laden with sweet potatoes, various kinds of squashes, mashed turnips, stuffed mushrooms, Waldorf salads, cranberries, and stuffing made with mushrooms instead of giblets or oysters and baked in aluminum pans instead of a bird. There was a small platter of tofu turkey, but most diners seemed to prefer the more honest vegetable dishes that didn’t pretend to be meat.
The event was a potluck—one of several potlucks that MHVS holds throughout the year. Everyone brought a vegan dish, made without any kind of animal product—no meat, of course, but also no milk, eggs, cheese, or butter. The feast was not only animal friendly, it was also earth friendly. People brought their own plates, glasses, and flatware so there would be no waste from plate papers and plastic cups and utensils. Some family groups brought not only place settings but their own placemats and tablecloths, their own candelabra and centerpieces to decorate lavishly their own spots at the long communal dining tables.
The mission of the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society is to “promote the vegetarian ethic in the Mid-Hudson region, educate the community, and aid anyone in the pursuit of a totally vegetarian (vegan) cruelty-free and healthful lifestyle.” In addition to being a great community event for people who eschew the turkey part of Thanksgiving, the mission of the feast was, in Schiff’s words, “to demonstrate that you can be a vegan and still eat wonderfully delicious food.”
Although the food was vegan, not everyone at the feast was. The young woman seated across from me admitted to eating meat sometimes—“depending on what I think my body needs.” The young man she was with seemed more committed to locally grown food than to avoiding eggs and butter. Others at the table were self-confessed “foodies”—concerned about the purity of food and committed to eating only foods that are organically grown. There were others whose vegetarianism grew out of a passion about animal rights. In fact, in the interim between dinner and dessert, someone used the opportunity to announce a “Fur Free Friday” march in New York City the next day to protest buying and wearing fur.
For anyone who isn’t sure what being vegan entails, or may not even be sure how to pronounce the word vegan (the e is long), I’ll share the recipe for the dish I brought to the feast. It didn’t start out as a vegan recipe, but I made it so by substituting olive oil for butter. In addition, I made it very much a dish for a locavore by substituting local Crispin apples (the other green apple) purchased at Love Apple Farm for the Granny Smith apples called for in the original recipe and by buying most of the other ingredients there, too. I sampled it myself at the feast, and I can report that it was really quite good.
ACORN SQUASH RINGS WITH CURRY APPLE FILLING
What You’ll Need:
Large heavy pot or skillet
Large rimmed baking pan
Aluminum foil
Basting brush
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons curry powder
2 large green apples (Crispin or Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and diced
2/3 cup apple juice
1/2 cup dried currants
2 medium acorn squash
Sauté the onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy pot or skillet over medium heat for about 12 minutes, or until tender. Add 1 tablespoon curry powder and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the apples, apple juice, and currants, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 6 minutes, or until the liquid evaporates. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
NOTE: You can make the filling one day ahead. Keep covered in the refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut each acorn squash into 4 one-inch rings. Remove the seeds and membrane from the center, but leave the peel intact.
Mix 2 teaspoons curry powder with 5 tablespoons olive oil. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Brush the foil with the curry oil. Arrange the squash rings in a single layer on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Scoop the filling into the center of the rings, distributing it evenly among them. Drizzle the remaining curry oil over the squash and filling, putting most of it on the squash itself.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the squash is tender when pierced with a sharp knife or skewer.
Use a spatula to transfer squash rings to a platter or serving plates.
