A Vegetarian Thanksgiving - Burgundy Stew

Hi Everyone,

I'm going to have to post my outfit pics tomorrow because work was running REALLY late. Like I got home at 8 late! Like...I didn't really wear my outfit at all, but I'm still going to take pics in it tomorrow late.

For those of you who don't know, this is my first vegetarian Thanksgving. My mom asked me to bring something so that I won't starve to add some more diversity to our traditional options. Let me tell you about my family's Thanksgiving. First, my family can cook. Second, we offer a ton of meat and sides including: fried turkey, mac n cheese, roasted turkey, collard greens, sweet potato bake, stuffing, cranberry, glazed ham, gratin squash and desserts that I will leave out. Clearly, my dish needs to be BOM(dot)COM, however I don't know WHAT to cook. Originally, I was going to make the Sweet Potato, Kale and Corn Chowder I made earlier this month, however I want something with a bigger "wow" factor. Additionally, my family has a lot of nut allergies, so I need a dish with no nuts! I tried a dish last night - I cooked a Burgundy Stew from Vegan Dad.

Burgundy Stew

Ingredients
2 tbsp oil (I used EVOO)
1 leek, white and light green part, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
15 whole pearl onions
3 turnips, cubed
2 parsnips, sliced
2 large carrots, sliced
2 large potatoes, cubed *I used Yukon Gold2 cups red wine
2 cups veggie broth
1 19 oz can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp basil *I didn't have any
4 cups baby spinach
1/4 cup tomato paste
 I got this recipe from Vegan Dad, click the link for direction details.

This recipe is NOT for the faint at heart. The vegetable prep took me 1.5 hours, and I didn't know how to prep some of the veggies. I didn't know if I should have removed the skin for the potatoes, onions, parsnips, carrots and turnips. I ended up removing the skin for all of them, because I wanted to air on the safe side.

I thought this would be "THE DISH", but it wasn't. I had my lovely taste-tester bf try it. His response was, "It's good, but it's not Thanksgiving." I agreed. Additionally, I had never eaten turnips or parsnips before, and turnips are somewhat bitter, so I don't know that I want to introduce everyone to these vegetables on Thanksgiving.

I'm going to try to give one more dish a try before Thursday. I'm tentative about making a seitan dish because meat-eaters normally frown at anything that imitates in appearance and taste but isn't meat. So...who knows what I'll cook. Check for another post soon - hopefully the next one's a winner!