A collection of our favorite vegan Thanksgiving recipes, including breakfast ideas, side dishes, main course meals and desserts. It's all the inspiration you need to make an amazing vegan feast!
As Thanksgiving approaches, I've collected here some of my favorite Thanksgiving breakfasts, side dishes, entrees and desserts for you to choose from. These are beloved recipes in our home, perfect for large gatherings, and I hope you'll find something here that you will love and include on your holiday table.
If you're cooking for someone on a special diet, be sure to check out our vegan low-carb recipes and vegan gluten-free recipes. And if you're looking for more options, check out our recipes for mouthwatering vegan casseroles and vegan breads.
Here's wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.
Breakfast
Cheesy Vegan Breakfast Potato Casserole
This Cheesy Vegan Breakfast Casserole studded with crunchy golden potatoes and chewy vegan sausage, all in a creamy, cheesy cashew sauce, delivers plenty of flavor and nutrition to get your day off to a great start. Make this recipe ahead of time and pop it into the oven 30 minutes before serving.
You can make this delicious and easy Vegan Eggnog French Toast the same day or the night before - it's the perfect dish for a cozy breakfast with near and dear ones. The caramelly maple banana custard with a naughty dash of booze comes together in minutes in a blender, and all you have to do is make crisscross cuts in a loaf of bread, hasselback style, and pour the custard over it, then bake!
Skip the time needed to make individual pancakes for a crowd by baking these scrumptious vegan sheet pan pancakes and adding different toppings so everyone can pick their favorite! The pancakes are whole wheat but they are extremely light and fluffy (you can make them with white flour if you choose).You can also make them plain and serve them with a drizzle of maple syrup.
These Sourdough Sticky Buns make a delicious vegan breakfast or dessert. They are gooey, sticky, fluffy, crusted with caramel-coated pecans, and absolutely scrumptious!
If you are craving something pumpkin-spicy, you will definitely want to cook up a big batch of these super easy and fluffy vegan Pumpkin Pancakes. They are tender, fluffy and loaded with pumpkin spice flavor: the perfect plant-based breakfast for family and friends!
A super simple and easy vegan fruit crisp with the vibrant flavors of peaches and plums at their juciest peak. It makes a great breakfast, but doubles up nicely for dessert.
Vegan Breakfast Shepherd's Pie
This was one of my son Jay's favorite breakfasts. It takes no more than 20 minutes to put together, and another 25 minutes in the oven. You can tweak it to the ingredients you have on hand.
This delicious Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding is awesome for a comforting breakfast. It is healthy with whole grain bread, and cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves add a festive touch. The recipe can be made with gluten-free bread.
A vegan French Toast Casserole with the deliciousness of bananas and coconut sugar and the healthfulness of flax meal and walnuts. You do not have to make this recipe the night before (although you could if you wanted to). It takes under an hour to get this scrumptious breakfast ready from scratch.
Vegan Cranberry Breakfast Bread
A vegan Cranberry Breakfast Bread is the perfect way to start the holidays with family and friends. The tender crumb has tiny bursts of tart, juicy cranberries and nutty walnuts. You can also bake this into muffins.
Vegan Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Waffles
These tasty Vegan Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Waffles are infused with the seasonal flavor of pumpkin and the warmth of pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. The recipe makes 12 large waffles, so it's perfect for a big gathering of friends and family.
Vegetable Side Dishes
Looking for an easy but delicious sweet potato recipe for your holiday table? These four-ingredient vegan orange mashed sweet potatoes take all of five minutes of hands-on time to make. They are a crowd pleaser!
This really is the best vegan green bean casserole ever. The green beans are blanched, then cooked to perfection with homemade vegan cream of mushroom soup and fried onions.
Creamy Vegan Butternut Squash Risotto
This delicious and simple vegan Butternut Squash Risotto is scented with the woodsy fragrance of sage. It is the perfect side dish for the holiday table, and one everyone is sure to love!
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Rosemary and Garlic
The perfect, foolproof recipe for roasted Brussels sprouts! Rosemary and garlic add delicious flavor to the sprouts, which bake up crispy, golden-brown and perfectly tender in the oven.
Garlicky Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes
If golden, garlicky spuds are your idea of a heavenly side dish, you'll adore these Garlicky Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes. The potatoes are crunchy on the outside and melt in your mouth, and the asparagus roasts up juicy and crispy and so delicious. Golden bits of garlic scattered throughout add amazing yum!
In this easy, five-ingredient garlic green beans recipe, the beans are blanched to a perfect, toothsome yet tender texture, then sauteed with lots of garlic, a shower of sesame seeds, a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, and fresh, savory garden herbs. The result is a stunning dish you will be happy to eat and proud to share.
A delicious, four-ingredient roasted honeynut squash recipe that makes the perfect vegetable side dish with nearly any meal. This cute little winter squash is so full of flavor, all you need to make it shine are salt, pepper and olive oil.
Vegan Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Vegan Scalloped Sweet Potatoes with Crunchy Pecan Topping are the perfect holiday side. It's a delicious recipe that's also gorgeous to look at and easy to make ahead.
These rather addictive Creamy Vegan Mashed Potatoes are mashed, then whipped until they are fluffy and soft as clouds. They taste rich and decadent, exactly as the best mashed potatoes should. You can also try this this easy and foolproof Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes recipe. Top with this decadent vegan mushroom gravy.
There's no better way to dress up the humble spud than to smother it with vibrant flavors that do a happy little dance on your tongue. These roasted fingerling potatoes, with the evocative flavors of rosemary and garlic, are one of my favorite side dishes for the holidays.
Vegan Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad
There's a delicious medley of textures in this vegan shaved Brussels sprouts Salad, with the sweet dried cranberries and crunchy sunflower seeds and tying it all together is a creamy dijon mustard and maple syrup dressing. It's the perfect side for the holiday table.
Main Course
What's not to love about this comforting and utterly delicious vegan pot pie? Push your fork through crackly, crispy golden pastry to find an aromatic, herb-laced, creamy and savory stew with chunky veggies. Add tofu or sausage for a delicious protein boost.
A one-pot vegan Tater Tot Casserole with a creamy, savory filling of veggies and vegan sausage covered by a golden, crispy layer of tater tots. This is a fun and easy recipe to make for family and friends, and it's utterly kid-friendly as well.
This vegan lasagna is perfect! It tastes exactly like a classic, traditional lasagna, but it is meatless and dairy-free. Lasagna sheets are layered with creamy, tofu-free ricotta cheese, homemade vegan parmesan, vegan mozzarella shreds, and a meaty marinara that's so tasty you'll want to eat it out of the pot! It's perfect comfort food for a holiday gathering.
This reader-favorite mushroom pot pie has a tasty gravy of carrots, onions, celery, peas and mushrooms topped by a flaky, golden, crispy puff pastry crust.
This gorgeous Vegan Wellington with Mushrooms and Lentils tastes just as good as it looks, with flaky, vegan puff pastry wrapped around meaty lentils, mushrooms and a mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery. The delicious flavors are all tied together with fresh herbs.
Vegan Indian-Spiced Tofu Casserole
This vegan Indian-Spiced Tofu Casserole makes great eats. Onions, carrots, celery and potatoes are baked with tofu cubes in a perfectly flavored tomato sauce that turns bubbly and deliciously jammy in the oven. The dish is at once healthy and decadent and you can serve it on its own or with a chunk of crusty sourdough bread.
Vegan Asparagus and Potato Tart
This vegan asparagus and potato tart has something for everyone. A creamy filling of mashed potatoes, leeks and vegan meat crumbles is topped with succulent asparagus spears and wrapped in filo pastry. Top with vegan gravy for a mouthwatering meal!
Vegan Leek, Cabbage and Potato Tart
In this vegan Cabbage, Leek and Potato Tart, delicious spuds, leafy cabbage and oniony leeks are drowned in a creamy sauce and all that goodness is baked in golden, crispy puff pastry. An all-round favorite!
In this elegant and delicious vegan Wild Mushroom Lasagna, an assortment of wild mushrooms is layered with a creamy white vegan bechamel sauce, jewel-green leeks, vegan mozzarella and vegan parm.
A bubbling, golden and vegan Guinness Pie made with blonde Guinness, veggies like carrots, potatoes, celery and tomatoes, and chunky bits of vegan chick'n. Perfect for the holiday table!
This delicious vegan moussaka has all the flavors of an authentic Mediterranean moussaka, with layers of tender eggplant, zucchini and potato topped with a hearty vegan beef ragu and a creamy vegan béchamel sauce. It's the best sort of comfort food and it's perfect for a crowd!
Desserts
The best vegan Pumpkin Pie recipe ever with smooth, rich pumpkin flavor and a crispy, flaky crust. It needs just nine ingredients and is so easy to make!
Vegan Chai Spice Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Here's the perfect vegan pumpkin cake to evoke that snug-as-a-bug-in-the-rug spirit of the season: a Chai Spice Vegan Pumpkin Bundt Cake. The tender, moist crumb is topped with a dreamy vegan cream cheese glaze.
This tender vegan apple cake has a sticky caramel sauce glaze that makes it twice as delicious! If you love caramel apples in Fall, you will go head over heels for this amazing vegan cake.
Who doesn't love pie? And it doesn't get any better than a fresh and delicious Vegan Strawberry Pie with a golden, flaky easy vegan pie crust. This easy dessert recipe needs just six ingredients, takes minutes to put together, and you can use frozen or fresh strawberries according to your convenience and budget.
The best vegan pecan pie ever! This recipe will give you perfect results each time! This pie tastes divine, slices easily, and looks stunning. The tasty filling uses little sugar and maple syrup stands in for corn syrup, which is traditionally used in pecan pies.
An easy vegan Cranberry Custard Tart that looks gorgeous, needs just a handful of ingredients to make, and tastes like a dream. This is an easy recipe to make when you are on the fence and have little time on your hands.
A glossy, gorgeous vegan Tarte Tatin is exactly the kind of dessert I make to impress family and guests! This French pastry needs just four ingredients and it's easy as pie to make.
If you like the idea of smooth, silky chocolate wrapped in a crispy, flaky crust and topped with clouds of whipped cream, this Vegan Chocolate Pie is for you! It's beyond easy, kid-friendly, and everyone at your holiday table will love it.
Every bite of this amazing dessert is infused with the freshness of pumpkin, coconut, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. This is a one-bowl recipe: dump in the ingredients, mix, and bake. The maple coconut glaze is optional but amazing, so make it if you can--we love it!
Vegan Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
This pretty vegan cranberry upside-down cake has a moist, airy, tender crumb and a juicy, glossy topping of bright-red cranberries. It's a stunning dessert to bring to the Thanksgiving table.
This easy vegan lemon cake is beyond delicious, but the icing on the cake, literally, is a glossy, glassy, gorgeous vegan lemon curd that tastes as heavenly as it looks.
Anne
I agree with the others--such a beautiful prayer:) Many of my friends and family will consume meat at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I have taken some of your lovely vegan recipes (as well as others I have found) to parties and everyone has loved them! I am vegan, but I was raised by a family of carnivores (although they understand me at this point, they are still eat meat!). I think many people do not understand that they have choices; they just eat what is put in front of them and do not think about consequences for the animals, environment, or themselves. I pray that we can spread the message of how much the animals suffer and that we can help prevent their suffering:)
DP
So very lovely. God bless those who understand and prevent the suffering of any living being. God please grant those who can save a life the power to do so.
Barbara Gross
A beautiful prayer, thank you for sharing.
Ruth Eisenbud
Vaishali,
I'd like to share a Thanksgiving Day Prayer. Having roots in India, as you do, you are undoubtedly aware of the Jain community, which as you know lives by a code of AHIMSA, non-violence to any living being. As Jains have begun to migrate to the west they react to and are now part of western culture, but have not lost the belief in AHIMSA, so that at this time of year, especially on Thanksgiving Day, some Jain Centers hold Jaaps to commemorate the suffering of the turkeys & all animals. In addition prayers are created to deal with the terrible carnage of Thanksgiving, where 45 million turkeys are slaughtered for one day of gratitude: Here is a prayer for Thanksgiving according to AHIMSA:
Jain Thanksgiving Day Prayer
"Today we give thanks for this vegan meal and the
people who have labored to harvest and prepare this
meal for us. We give thanks for the many lives that
have contributed to our lives. We also ask for
forgiveness from the living beings that we have
harmed, intentionally and unintentionally.
We are grateful for our health and the opportunity to
eat with others on this day. We aspire, with
compassionate hearts, to use the energy that we gain
from this meal and our friends to contribute to the
peace and happiness of all living beings.
We pray that all the people of the world will avoid
inflicting harm on animals and fellow human beings and
practice nonviolence and compassion. We express our
sorrow at the suffering of all the turkeys and other
animals that have died. May peace and compassion grow
in ourselves and extend to all around us."
Best Wishes & thank you for living by AHIMSA.
Ruth Eisenbud
Jennifer Bliss
This is quite the collection of vegan YUMMINESS! I'd love to sit at a table with all of these choices!