Tips On Being A Vegetarian At Thanksgiving

Have you ever seen the movie Pieces of April? In it, a cute and bubbly pre-Tom-Cruise Katie Holmes plays April, a vegetarian who attempts to create a grand Thanksgiving feast for her highly critical meat-eating family. Predictably, disaster ensues, especially since April has no idea how to cook anything, let alone a turkey. I’ve found myself in this position in the past when cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my in-laws, while my husband was working. I had no earthly clue how to tell if the thing was edible, much less worthy of being the centerpiece of such a huge holiday meal.

Luckily, my family is respectful of my choice to be a vegetarian and my mother even enthusiastically creates vegetarian dishes for me. But not all vegetarians find themselves surrounded by supporters during the holiday season – for some, family members see this choice as a temporary phase, an extreme rebellion or even a challenge to their own beliefs and preferences. In such a situation, holidays can get hairy.

As such, Treehugger has offered up some tips to help you get through the day:

1) If a relative is baiting you, don’t rise to it. Some wag once said “Of course your family can push your buttons, they installed them”. Chances are the uncle who is goading you is never going to see things from your point of view, and is just trying to get you going, so don’t bother arguing with him.

2) Offer to bring a vegetarian main course so that you aren’t making extra work for your parents. Make something that is ready to serve and doesn’t require precious oven or stove space.

3) Don’t cover old ground. Families have a way of endlessly reprising touchy topics. Keep in mind a list of things to talk about that will help you avoid the mobius strip of argument.

4) Before the big day, ask the cook to keep unnecessary meat additions out of the side dishes. Really, no one is going to miss bacon bits in the salad.

5) Be open to friendly discussion about your food choices if this is your first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian is a normal, everyday thing for you and if you are matter of fact about it your family will see that it needn’t be a big deal.

6) If you’ve already had the friendly discussion and you don’t want to keep having it, it’s time to set some limits. Politely point out that there may be other topics more interesting than what you eat.

7) Don’t apologize to your family for your food choices, but also recognize that they have the right to their own choices as well.

Smile and be thankful.

Some good sources for vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes are In a Vegetarian Kitchen with Nava Atlas, The Veggie Table and VegWeb. Non-meaty main dishes abound, and they don’t necessarily have to be made from tofu. Thanksgiving, after all, isn’t about turkey – it’s about celebrating the harvest and being thankful for what we have.

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Flickr user Greg Burkett

Related Posts:

10 Tips for a Green Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving from Gov. Sarah Palin
Meat-Eating Environmentalist: A Contradiction in Terms?
Are Frogs Being Eaten to Extinction?
Enjoy Pothole Possum Stew at the RoadKill Cook-Off