Operation Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Ever since Aaron's suggestion (yes his, not mine) that we consider having a vegetarian Thanksgiving we've been on a quest to figure out what to have. We are let's say, auditioning some "roasts" to be the centerpiece of our holiday meal. We thought we'd share our contestants as we try them before the big event.  At the end of each review both Aaron and I will give the roast a multi-faceted score based on three key areas (flavor, texture, and appearance), as well as an overall or "most likely to make our holiday table" score that will serve as the likelihood of it being the winner.  The scores will be on a scale of one to five, with five being the best score.

Our First Entry

We fully understand we're not trying to find something that will taste exactly like turkey. We're simply looking for a holiday meal centerpiece that will be tasty, healthy and vegetarian or vegan in nature.

Of course if you were a fan of the tv show Everybody Loves Raymond you may remember the year Marie wanted to have a healthy Thanksgiving and 'tried' to serve Tofu Turkey...the kind where "jiggling is a sign of a good bean curd bird".  Raymond Tofu Turkey  We have no plans for a jiggling meal entree which is why we are trying several roasts before the big day.

I'm not sure this one will make our holiday table, but then again it was only our first entry. Here are our thoughts and a couple of pictures. This was our first try based on a couple of factors: I was able to find it at Wegmans and the description made it sound good. Their description included verbiage like vegetarian sophistication, luxuriant grain meat and lots of fresh herbs and ingredients. Aaron agreed and thought the description sounded good. Of course I should know that good marketing can pretty much make anything sound fabulous.


Sliced for Serving...YUM!!

Don't get me wrong it wasn't bad. I am interested to try it cold since other reviews I read said it makes good sandwiches. Here is a photo of ours sliced for serving. The texture is different and I think we've got to remind ourselves this is not a turkey substitute. It did have nice flavor with a lot of the herbs and veggies the description promised.  This one could be a contender, but we won't know for sure until we've tried a few others.  Here are our scores:

 

Aaron			Dawn
Flavor	4		Flavor	3.5
Texture	2		Texture	3
Appearance	4		Appearance	4
Overall	3.5		Overall	3.5

I do know if (or when) we decide on a vegetarian roast for our Thanksgiving meal and if I don't find a recipe for homemade gravy I will use this one. We  liked the taste and it went well with the mashed potatoes and stuffing we had with this meal. Just wish I had remembered to take a photo of our whole meal. I love gravy so it's pretty important to find something good to put it on.



Stay tuned for our next contestant. Not exactly sure what it will be and we're open to suggestions if anyone cares to give us one.