Thanksgiving feast — without turkey?

Dayna Panella spreads a sage crumble on a her pumpkin baked ziti Thursday. Panella, a vegan, prepared vegan dishes to accompany the traditional Thanksgiving meal. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

Thanksgiving feast — without turkey?

Lodi's vegan families still enjoy a Thanksgiving meal

By Maggie Creamer
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Friday, November 27, 2009 6:26 AM PST

Comments (73 comment(s))

The smell of onions fills Dayna Panella's kitchen as she prepares ingredients for her pumpkin baked ziti and bakes a pie in the oven. Her children, 1-year-old Jake and 3-year-old Lily, are escorted to another room by her husband, Dan, as they ask when they are going to see grandma.

As Panella whirls around the kitchen in a black and white apron, stirring and whipping and chopping, it's for the most part a normal Thanksgiving scene. Except this: There is no turkey or eggs or milk to be found anywhere.

Panella is cooking two vegan dishes to take to her mother and mother-in-law's Thanksgiving dinners. She is part of a growing trend to eliminate all food that comes from animals, like meat and dairy products, from dinner tables and replace them with recipes using only freshly grown food.

While it is hard to estimate the number of vegans nationwide, a Harris Interactive Service Bureau study of 5,050 people in 2008 estimated about 0.5 percent of the population, or 1 million Americans, are vegan.

Compared to when she started as a vegetarian 11 years ago, Panella said there is more interest in the vegan lifestyle with the green, environmental movement.

Now that there are many vegan substitutes available for meat items, including bacon and sausage made from tofu and other organic materials, and stores focus on selling more organic produce, Panella said vegan foods are more available for people to try.

After family and friends started asking about Panella's lifestyle, she began teaching a class about two-and-a-half years ago. About every six weeks, Panella has classes called Conscious Cooking to teach people how to cook vegan recipes. Most people schedule the classes by contacting her at Vine and Branches, the business she owns with her husband.

"I wanted to show people you can whip stuff together, even if you haven't had time to grocery shop," she said.

Lori Moore and her 18-year-old daughter, Miriam, attend Panella's classes to broaden their cooking skills since going vegan in June, when they attended a health workshop at the Grape Festival Grounds.

Dayna Panella sautés red onions for her vegan pumpkin baked ziti. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

When looking at a traditional Thanksgiving meal, Lori Moore said they will be able to eat most of the dishes. They will skip the gravy, mashed potatoes and butter, and green bean casserole, which Miriam will miss most this year.

"We will be eating the same thing as the rest of the family, with the exception of the turkey." she said.

As a main dish, they will instead eat stuffed butternut squash. They use basic stuffing mix from the store and replace the chicken broth. They are also bringing mashed sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

While both families are predominately vegan, they will still be attending Thanksgivings with family members who are looking forward to carving the turkey.

Panella said her husband's Italian family has had to adjust to the fact that she doesn't eat meat and cheese, which are both plentiful in their cooking.

"It's hard with my in-laws being Italian, but they do well with it. As well as they can in an Italian family," she said.

Making the change

Even within their immediate families, they don't always strictly adhere to veganism. Moore's teenage son still cooks meat occasionally to eat with dinner. Because her children are young, Panella lets them have macaroni and cheese because it is one of the few foods they will eat.

There are a variety of reasons people choose to make the switch to veganism. Lori and Miram Moore changed their diets mostly because they had heard so much about protein causing diseases, like diabetes, heart disease or obesity.

Since going vegan, Lori Moore said she has gone down two dress sizes even though she hasn't been exercising.

"You are eating fresh produce so low in calories but so high in what your bodies want," she said.

The amount of time they spend in the kitchen to make vegan dishes is about the same, Lori Moore said, but they do have to be more conscious about their choices. She has learned how to read nutrition labels for dairy and meat byproducts, and Miriam Moore often looks for new recipes online.

But since they have gone vegan, they both agree that the range of flavors in their food has expanded.

Panella was a vegetarian before she became a zookeeper, and has been vegan off-and-on for the past 11 years. While she believes humans were meant to eat meat, she does not believe we should be consuming so much of it, and her concerns about unsustainable farming practices is what made her go vegan permanently three years ago.

"If we lower the amount of meat we eat, it will lower the demand, lower the health risks and create a lot more feed and grain to feed people," she said.

Socially, some of the people who work in the factories are traumatized by slaughtering so many cows, she said. Environmentally, there is runoff from the farms polluting waterways, corn fields are being stripped to mainly be used as grain instead of food and the animals are being cranked through for slaughter.

But even though her commitment to being vegan is firm, she admits it can be hard around the holidays when there are so many recipes calling for dairy. She said it is usually easy to avoid the meat, but it's hard to avoid all the chocolate dishes and the comfort food.

Both families solve this problem by bringing vegan options when possible. This year, at the end of the Moores' Thanksgiving dinner, their family will top off the meal with a vegan pumpkin pie.

"We will forego the whipped cream — others may not," Lori Moore said.

Contact reporter Maggie Creamer at maggiec@lodinews.com or read her blog at www.lodinews.com/blogs/citybuzz.

Vegan recipes, from cashew ricotta to cranberry sauce

Want to try some vegan recipes this holiday season? Dayna Panella and Irma Chen contibuted recipes below for some of their favorite holiday dishes.

About every six weeks, Panella hosts classes called Conscious Cooking to teach people how to cook vegan dishes. Most people schedule the classes by contacting her at Vine and Branches, the business she owns with her husband.

Irma Chen works with her husband, George Chen, to help people join the Coronary Health Improvement Project. It is a plant-based diet geared toward lowering cholesterol and lowering the chance of diseases, like obesity, diabetes and cancer. For more information on the program, contact Irma Chen at 334-0200.

Dayna Panella's recipes

Pumpkin baked ziti with carmelized onions and sage crumble

3/4 pound uncooked ziti or penne pasta
2 onions, sliced very thinly
3 tablespoons olive oil
Cashew ricotta (see recipe below)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
White pepper and cayenne
2 cups pumpkin or 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/4 cup vegetable broth
To make sage bread crumbles:
1 1/4 cups bread crumbs
1/4 cup walnut pieces, chopped in a food processor until resembling coarse crumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegan butter/margarine
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make sage bread crumbles:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-11-inch baking dish with olive oil.

Prepare the pasta according to the package directions, about 10 minutes. Drain, rinse and drain again. Set asde.

Preheat a large pan over medium heat. Saute the onions in oil until some are very brown and carmelized, 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside.

Place the cashew ricotta (see recipe below) in a large bowl and fold in the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, nutmeg, white pepper, cayenne and vegetable broth. Add the cooked pasta and carmelized onions, stirring to coat the pasta. Pour the mixture in the prepared baking dish and press lightly to level it.

Prepare the sage crumbles by heating the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Heat the oil or vegan butter or margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the bread crumbs, walnuts, dried herbs and paprika, and season with salt and pepper. Stir constantly until the mixture is lightly coated, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle evenly over the pasta.

Bake for 28 to 30 minutes until the top of the pasta is golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Cashew ricotta

(This can be added to baked or stuffed pasta, but also makes a great veggie dip or sandwich spread.)
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1/4 fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 pound firm tofu, drained and crumbled
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

In a food processor, blend together the cashews, lemon juice, olice oil and garlic until a think creamy paste forms. Add the crumbled tofu to the food processor, working in two or more batches, until the mixture is thick and well blended. Blend in the basil and salt.

Mashed sweet potatoes

1 large head of garlic
1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (8 cups)
2 large apples, peeled and diced (2 cups)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut top of garlic head, exposing cloves. Place on piece of foil and top with chopped rosemary. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap loosely with foil and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until soft and golden. Set aside to cool.

Place sweet potatoes and apples in pot with enough water to cover. Add salt, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are soft.

Drain potatoes, reserving 1 cup cooking water. Transfer potatoes to serving bowl.

Squeeze roasted garlic cloves into sweet potatoes and apples. Add balsamic vinegar, and mash, adding cooking water as necessary to adjust texture for creaminess. Season with pepper.

Pumpkin pie

1 pie crust (use your own favorite crust)
16 pecan halves
12 ounces silken tofu
2 cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare pie crust or remove store-bought crust from freezer/refrigerator.

Spread pecans on a cookie sheet. Toast for 7 to 10 minutes or until the smell of nuts fills the kitchen. Set aside for garnish.

In food processor, blend together the remaining ingredients until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Pour the filling into the crust and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned and outmost inch of the filling is set. Don't worry if the center is still soft; it continues to firm up as the pie cools. Transfer the pie to a wire rack.

Gently press the 16 toasted pecan halves into the pie. Cool to room temperature and then chill until set.

Irma Chen's recipes

Acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, cranberries, pecans and savory baked tofu

4 acorn or dumpling squash
Freshly ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups wild rice
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large ribs celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
1 package Savory Baked Tofu, cut into 1/4-inch diced cubes (can be found in health food section of grocery store)
3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Aminos

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut each squash in half crosswise. Scoop out and discard the seeds and strings. If necessary, trim the top and bottom so that the squash will sit level, and place on a rimmed baking sheet, cut-side up. Sprinkle each half with a little salt and nutmeg to taste. Cover the pan with foil and bake the squash just until moist and tender, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, sauté rice in a dry non-stick pan until lightly browned. Pour rice into a baking dish and add the vegetable broth, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2 cups water into a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until light and fluffy.

Sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrot in a little water until slightly softened. Cover the pan, adjust the heat to medium-low, and cook the vegetables until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes longer. Add the sage, thyme and parsley and sauté 1 more minute. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice, sautéed vegetables, tofu, walnuts and cranberries. Mound the rice mixture into the squash halves, dividing it evenly. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees until heated through,

Holiday cranberry sauce

8 rings dried pineapple
1 12-ounce package fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 a medium orange

Soak pineapple rings in water over night.

Place pineapple into a blender or food processor.

Cut orange into quarters and remove seeds. Place quartered orange and skins into the blender.

Blend until pineapple and orange are broken down. Remove from blender and add cranberries. Serve warm or chilled.

Note: Can blend cranberries with sauce.

Reader Feedback

sparky595 wrote on Dec 5, 2009 5:55 AM:

" Lodian wrote:

'sparkly: No, Aimee did not answer the question. As usual she attacks and runs. And why you always Aimee's mouthpiece? Can't Aimee speak for herself? (rhetorical, of course) '

Are you blind or just ignorant? Aimee and I both showed you where she answered the question.

As for her 'attacks' , I've only seen her respond to your attacks. You seem to be disoriented, because you always think someone is 'attacking' you when it is the complete opposite. Why don't you try to actually discuss the topic of a letter without slinging the first mud ball, and maybe you will see that others aren't intent on attacking you. We actually want to debate the issues, you just drag people into mudslinging.

After time, people have grown to know what they are going to get from you, so they have lost all respect from you. "

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