Thanksgiving tradition is about celebrating life—and a growing number of Americans are
choosing to do so by serving delicious vegetarian fare that everyone, including the turkeys, can be thankful for.
Animal Suffering in the Turkey Industry
In 2006, a COK investigator was employed at a North Carolina turkey hatchery
and shot this undercover footage revealing the shocking abuses endured by
newly-hatched chicks as they began their short lives in the turkey industry.
Read more about this investigation.
The average American consumes 17 pounds of turkey meat per year, resulting in the
annual slaughter of 252 million turkeys—more than 65 million of whom are
killed during the winter holiday season alone. The vast majority of these intelligent
birds spend their entire lives intensively confined inside massive sheds and
will never set foot outside. Sadly, they are viewed as little more than meat-producing
machines. In the 1960s, it took 220 days to raise a 35-pound turkey. Due to
selective breeding and growth-promoting drugs, it now takes only 132 days. Such
fast growth causes turkeys to suffer from a number of chronic health problems.
There are no federal laws in the United States protecting turkeys (or
other birds raised for food) from such cruelty.
Holiday events often focus on meals shared with family and friends. So why not share your compassion by
carving up a savory Tofurky? This delicious
meat-free roast is sure to please everyone!
Here are more animal-friendly meal ideas for a healthy and humane holiday feast:
In a large skillet, heat the oil and then sauté the onion and celery
until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Pour the sautéed vegetables into a casserole dish. Add the remaining
ingredients, bread cubes through seasonings. Toss well, making sure all of the
bread cubes are soaked in the vegetable broth. Bake for 45 minutes.
2 cups vegetarian broth or 1 vegetarian bouillon cube dissolved in 2 cups boiling water
Melt the soy margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour,
nutritional yeast, and seasonings, stirring quickly with a whisk.
Add the broth, stirring until blended. Continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes,
or until thick.
* Nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast rich in vitamins and minerals, with a wonderful
cheesy flavor that can be found in most natural foods grocery stores. It can be easily added
to soups, stews, casseroles, or in place of cheese to make any dish creamier.
** Poultry seasoning—a mixture of sage, thyme, marjoram, and other herbs—can be
found in nearly every grocery store.
Cook the lasagna noodles according to package instructions.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Drain and then mash the tofu in a mixing bowl. Add the thawed spinach, garlic powder, onion salt, basil, and oregano.
Cut the Gimme Lean Sausage Style into 1/4-inch slices or, if using TVP, soak it in the 2 cups of boiling water.
Lightly oil the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking pan or casserole dish. Place 1 layer of noodles on the
bottom of the pan and spoon on half of the spinach-tofu mixture. Then pour 1 cup of Moo-Free Cheese
Sauce and 1 cup of tomato sauce, making sure the sauces are evenly distributed over the whole pan. Add a
second layer of noodles and half of the Gimme Lean slices or 1 cup of the reconstituted TVP. Then pour 1 cup
each of the “cheese” and tomato sauces. Add a fourth layer of noodles, the rest of the Gimme Lean
or TVP, and 1 cup each of the two sauces. Top with a final layer of noodles and the last cup of tomato sauce.
Wrap the pan tightly with tin foil and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. Then
uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Serve warm.
1 1/4 pounds soft tofu (try “silken” tofu for a creamier texture)
1 16-ounce can pumpkin purée
3/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Blend all of the ingredients (except for the pie shell) in a blender or a food processor until smooth. Pour
the mixture into the unbaked pie shell and bake for 30 minutes. Then turn down the oven temperature to 350°F
and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, or until the filling is set.
Are you celebrating your first meat-free Thanksgiving?
If you are planning to celebrate your first vegetarian Thanksgiving feast this holiday season, we want to hear from you!
Tell us why you are choosing to leave animals off your plate and what your meat-free feast will include. One lucky winner will get a basket of gifts and may be featured on our website! Hurry, we need to hear from before Nov. 28! Email us at info@cok.net and be sure to include
your name, city, and phone number.
Your First Meat-Free Thanksgiving Stories
Thank you so much to all of you for sharing your stories about why you’ve chosen to celebrate your first meat-free Thanksgiving this year. We’re so excited to have received so many emails, that we decided to feature some of them here. We hope you find them as uplifting and inspirational as we do:
This is our families first year meat free. It's been a real eye opener for us what these poor helpless animals have to endure because of consumers eating habits. My kids, ages 26,18, 13 and I are all vegetarian's now. We're eating healthier and enjoying just as many choices as before. This holiday season will be one filled with delicious potatoes, stuffing, veggies and fruits. It should be no challenge to fill a plate full... even if we are at my meat-eating sister's house. This will be a great opportunity to share why we've made this choice.
Cathy in Hatboro, PA
This year, I will be celebrating my first Thanksgiving without the traditional turkey dinner. I became a vegetarian on June 21, 2008 after searching the internet for cow print car seats – I came across a t-shirt with a beautiful cow that simply stated "I am not a something, I am a someone, so stop stealing my milk and eating my children." I had tears in my eyes as I continued searching various links that brought me to the Compassion Over Killing website. This is where I saw the heartbreaking photos of the sweet little pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys that could not do anything more than stand in place...no fresh air, no sunshine, no bonding with their mother or siblings.
I am 44 years old. And I so blindly believed that my diet of animal protein was coming from "old animals" that had lived a full, free life grazing on the green pastures of a family owned farm, and only went to the market at the end of their life. I felt so betrayed and ashamed when I learned that I had contributed to the slaughtering of these beautiful animals in such horrendous ways. I never imagined the lack of life that our animal friends experienced in order to fill the demand of our glutton ways.
This Thanksgiving, when I say grace with my family, I will be thanking God for giving us our precious farm animals for companionship not for consumption. And I will be thanking COK!
Susan in Jamestown, NC
This year will be my first meat free thanksgiving and I am pretty excited about it. I stopped eating meat in February after seeing the horrible footage of the slaughter house in California. I could not shake the images or sounds from my head. I have always been an animal lover and never really felt right eating meat. After seeing the footage on the Internet I decided that very moment that I would no longer take part in the murder of animals. It was the final straw that let me know that it was the right and only thing to do. At first I wondered how long I could keep it up. But now I could not imagine eating meat again nor do I have the desire to.
I think that Thanksgivings day will be no problem for me. I can make chicken-free gravy and homemade stuffing with vegetable broth. Coming from a hunting and meat loving family I will not be strayed from being a vegetarian or feel bullied by their jokes. I am confident in my life long choice and am excited in making a new meat-free Thanksgiving tradition with my future children and family. Thanks very much for your informative web site that has taught me a lot about things that people try to ignore.
Nancy in Buckeye, AZ
This is my first Thanksgiving going meat-free. My process of reaching this point has been a long and slow one, but I am so grateful that it happened. It all started last fall (2007) with a commercial that, as it turns out, was created by COK. I saw it one evening on MTV and was so moved by it, I went to TryVeg.com that night and ordered the vegetarian starter kit. So I decided to stop eating meat then & there...except fish...and sometimes chicken and turkey. So the holidays came around and I claimed to be a vegetarian...when it was convenient.
Then in the spring of this year, I attended "Their Lives, Our Voices", a conference put on by Compassionate Action for Animals based in Minneapolis. It changed my life forever. All it took was two days of someone making me understand. Two days of actually seeing the undercover videos and realizing that the cows aren't actually happy, as the ads would lead us to believe.
I have spent my entire life as an animal lover, who was able to convince herself that the animals on my table 'didn't have it that bad'. It was just a matter of pulling off the blinders to make me realize I don't ever want animals to be anything other than friends and companions. There is no justification for what these animals go through, so there is no justification for me to consume them.
After about 6 months of being hard-core vegan, I will be celebrating the holidays with tofurky, mashed potatoes (with soy milk & margarine), stuffing (not removed from a bird's carcass) and vegan pumpkin pie. I want to be an example to my family that loving animals and enjoying a meal are not, in conjunction, impossible tasks. :)
Becky in Minneapolis, MN
I've been a vegetarian for more than ten years, and became vegan this past year. I've hosted Thanksgiving (and other holiday) feasts for my family and friends many times, and while I didn't eat the meat, I've accommodated my guests' meat-eating habits by preparing and serving it for them.
This year, I decided to make a stand, and will serve a completely vegan menu. I want to demonstrate how delicious and elegant this feast can be without the gruesome tradition of eating the flesh of slaughtered gentle creatures. I'll serve an impressive Vegan Wellington with gravy as the main dish—It’s important to me to make the point that it is unnecessary to endorse cruelty in order for us to enjoy a sumptuous meal, so I'll have a menu of many dishes, including "veganized" traditional favorites. And I've prepared a sincere statement of thanks to those attending for their participation in our cruelty-free Thanksgiving, and for their agreement to be merciful on this day.
Alicia in Newport Coast, CA
P.O. BOX 9773,
WASHINGTON, DC 20016 | 301-891-2458 | info@cok.net
