Friendsgiving Recipes

Happy late Thanksgiving!!! I hope your holiday was filled with delicious food, amazing people, and priceless memories. I cooked for three days straight, but let me tell you these dishes were worth it.

In this post I wanted to include my Friendsgiving recipes that I made and ate on Tuesday with my friends, and next week I will share recipes from Thanksgiving. For my Friendsgiving, I wanted to have recipes that I don’t normally make on Thanksgiving because I didn’t want Friendsgving and Thanksgiving to have all of the same food. This worked out perfectly because my friends and I decided to make our meal mainly plant-based.

I love having a Friendsgiving because then you can have one dinner with your friends and one with your family. You get to fully surround yourself with the people you love. It also makes November feel more festive and adds another fun event into the mix. Keeping things busy makes life more enjoyable and allows you to have something to look forward to.

This year, my friends and I cooked all of our food together which made it so much more special. This way, we could spend all day together and be proud of the end product that we made.

Friendsgiving:

Charcuterie board:

Ingredients:

• Cheese

• Meats: salami and prosciutto

• Dried fruits: tart cherries

• Strawberries

• Jams/honey

• Crackers

• Garnish: rosemary

Assemble however you would like

Mini (vegan) pot pies:

Ingredients for the pie crust: adapted from Food52

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 cup coconut oil or vegan butter

• 1/3 to 1/2 cups ice water

Directions:

1. Grease a muffin tin and preheat your oven to 350°F

2. In a blender or food processor, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse until combined and then add in the oil or butter.

3. Add 1/3 cup water, or more if needed, and knead.

4. Add your crust into the muffin tin and bake until golden.

Ingredients for the inside: adapted from minimalist baker

• 1/2 onion, chopped

• 1 garlic glove, minced

• olive oil

• 2 cups frozen veggies

• 1/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk

• 1/4 cup flour

• Bay leaves

• Italian seasoning

• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Add olive oil, onion, and garlic to a pan. In the meantime, cook your vegetables as directed on the package.

2. Add flour to the pan and whisk, then add almond milk. Add seasonings and simmer.

3. Add the veggies into the gravy mixture.

4. Once your pie crust is prepared, add the veggies and gravy in and serve.

Salad:

Let me tell you guys I will be making this a million times over. It is so simple yet so delicious. It was the perfect addition because it cut all of the rich food with freshness.

Ingredients:

• Beets (already cooked)

• White vinegar

• Water

• Salt

• Sugar

• Arugula

• Radishes

• Olive Oil

Directions:

1. To a sauce pan add equal parts of water and white vinegar (this will depend on how much of the pickling solution you want to make). Then add about a 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and salt. Simmer until dissolved. Taste and see what additions need to be made.

2. Put the beets in a mason jar and add the pickling solution to the jar. Refrigerate for as long as you want.

3. Cut the radishes. Add arugula and the radishes to a salad bowl and toss with olive oil and salt.

4. Take the beets out of the fridge and chop. Then add to salad and enjoy.

Gnocchi: adapted from food network

I didn’t have a ricer so we just mashed the potatoes and did our best. It still tasted great, the texture was a little off, but really yummy overall.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds russet potatoes 

• Salt  

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting  

• 1 large egg, lightly beaten 

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes, add them to a pot, and boil until tender.

2. Drain the water and push the potatoes through a potato ricer or a grater. Sprinkle with salt, add the flour, and drizzle the egg over. Knead until combined, do not over do it. (Note: once you add flour, you need to be as gentle as possible because this is where your dough can become too tough).

3. Rip off little pieces and roll each on the back of a fork (these should be the size of a piece of pasta you would want to eat).

4. Add water and a pinch of salt to a pot and bring to a boil. Cook for 1-3 minutes, the pasta will float to the top.

Vegan Pesto:

The recipe is very flexible and it just depends on how much you want to make, and what flavor you want to be the strongest. If I’m honest, I just through these ingredients into a blender until it tasted good.

Ingredients:

• Basil

• Mint

• Pine nuts

• Walnuts

• Garlic

• Lemon juice

• Nutritional yeast

• Salt

• Pepper

• Oil

• Water

Directions:

1. Add ingredients to a blender or food processor. Blend until combined, taste, and make additions.

Squash:

Ingredients:

• Squash

• Salt

• Pepper

• Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Cut each squash in half and take the seeds out.

3. Coat in oil, salt, and pepper.

4. Pop it into the oven and take it out when a fork easily goes through.

Stuffing:

I ate sooo much of this because it was so delicious.

Ingredients: adapted from delish

• Sourdough bread

• Vegetable stock

• Sage

• Rosemary

• Thyme

• Italian seasoning

• Olive oil

• Onion

• Celery

• Frozen veggies

Directions:

1. Cut your bread into cubes and leave out so it can get stale.

2. The next day, preheat oven to 350°F. Grease pan and add bread.

3. Sauté onion and celery in olive oil. When it is translucent, add to your pan.

4. Add veggie stock and seasonings. Chop up herbs and add as well.

5. Cook frozen veggies as directed and add the pan.

6. Cook for around 40 minutes.

Green beans and mushrooms:

Ingredients:

• Green beans

• Mushrooms

• Shallots or onions

• Salt/pepper

Directions:

1. Chop your ingredients and sauté in a pan.

Red wine cranberry sauce:

Ingredients:

• Cranberries

• Red wine

• Rosemary

• Orange zest and juice

Directions:

1. Add everything to a sauce pan on medium to high heat. Stir together.

Chai cake: adapted from broma bakery

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted vegan butter, room temperature 

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 

• 4 large eggs, room temperature 

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

• 2 1/4 cups cups all-purpose flour 

• 1 tablespoon baking powder 

• 1 teaspoon salt 

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon 

• 2 teaspoons ginger 

• 2 teaspoons cardamom 

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 

• 1 cup buttermilk  (or make vegan by using 1 cup almond milk with 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease three 6 inch pans and line with parchment.

2. In a mixer cream the butter and sugar about 2 minutes.

3. Add eggs in one at a time, then add the vanilla extract (I always add a splash more because you can never have too much vanilla).

4. In another bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices (I also taste the mixture and add in more spices depending on flavor). Fold in the buttermilk.

5. Pour into your pans and bake for 25-30 minutes

Vegan cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted vegan butter, room temperature 

• 4 ounces vegan cream cheese, room temperature 

• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar 

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

• 1/2 teaspoon salt 

Directions:

1. Cream everything together until fluffy.

2. Once the cake has cooled, frost, and decorate however you want.

Chai poached pears: adapted from the cooking channel

So, I bought everything to make the poached pears but I totally forgot about them. I’m hoping to make these sometime soon, but for now I hope you guys will try them and tell me how they are.

Ingredients:

• 8-10 Bosc pears

• 10 cups water

• 1/4 cup chai tea

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 5 cloves

• 5 cardamom pods, lightly cracked

• 3 whole star anise

• fresh ginger

• 2 cups sugar

Directions:

1. In a pot, combine water, tea, and spices and simmer for around 10 minutes. Let this steep and then strain the spices.

2. Add the sugar and simmer. Peel and core the pears and add to the liquid.

3. Bring to a gentle simmer and poach until desired.

Pumpkin pie streusel tarts:

We were so full from dinner that we didn’t feel like finishing this recipe, but it looks delicious.

Ingredients:

• Pie crust (we were going to use the same one we used for the pot pies)

• 1 cup almond milk  

• 3 tablespoons corn starch 

• ¼ cup maple syrup 

• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree 

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla 

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

• ¼ teaspoon allspice 

• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg 

• ¼ teaspoon salt 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. In a saucepan add almond milk, corn starch, and maple syrup. Then turn on the heat and simmer.Whisk until it thickens.

2. Turn off heat and mix in pumpkin puree, coconut oil, vanilla, spices, and salt. Taste and adjust (you may need more sweetness or spices).

3. Add to your pre-baked pie crust and bake for 5-10 more minutes.

Streusel topping:

Ingredients:

• ½ cup brown sugar

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½ cup (vegan if you want) butter, melted

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Mix everything together.

2. Bake on a sheet pan or on the tart itself until golden brown.

As you guys can see from all of these recipes I am nowhere near an exact cooker when I don’t have to be. So, don’t stress about how much of each thing goes in what, cook with the soul! It will turn out great don’t worry.