Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Menu Plan and Recipes
Thanksgiving Day Menu Plan & Gluten-Free Recipes
Time to get ready and organized for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. I want to make sure I am stocked up on all the things I will likely need by making a menu plan. So the Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Menu Plan and Recipes are:
- Small Turkey
- Stuffing
- Green Bean Casserole
- Gravy
- Cranberry Sauce
- Kinda Buttermilk Pie
Find links to recipes, tips and tricks in the sections below. What are you making this year?
Turkey
If you are making a roasted turkey, I love making a perfect roasted turkey a la Martha Stewart. It is a labor of love using cheesecloth and basting every half hour in white wine and vegan butter. And it turns out absolutely wonderful.
It is easy, delicious and makes great leftovers, too. It went really well in this no-cook, easy to throw together the next day chipotle curry chicken salad.
The Best Gluten-Free Stuffing
One of my favorite side dishes is the stuffing (although we don’t actually stuff it in a bird so maybe I should be calling it dressing, idk).
I used to love Stove Top stuffing and it took years and lots of tests and variations to get a tried and true recipe for Good Gluten-Free Stuffing. I’m honestly the most proud of this recipe!
It has nice hard crust on top and was fluffy and wonderful underneath. Mixing two types of types of gluten-free croutons really made a huge difference. We use a box of Olivia’s Gluten- Free Rosemary & Sage Stuffing plus a box of Aleia’s Savory Stuffing Mix.
Check out the link above for more tips and tricks for getting this delicious gluten-free stuffing. You will need the croutons, olive oil, onions, celery, poultry seasoning (optional), chicken stock, and 8 egg whites (save the yolks for some of the other recipes – we are working on trying not to throw anything away with this Thanksgiving menu plan).
Old-Fashioned Green Bean Casserole
This year we are going to try and make a green bean casserole the way I used to do it with condensed soup and onion crisps on top. We have a healthier alternative that we’ve been doing for years, Fancy Green Beans, but I’m really craving the soupy casserole stuff.
Imagine has a gluten-free, vegan, non-dairy portobello mushroom creamy soup.
We just mix some of the cream of mushroom soup with green beans and top it with some homemade fried onion crisps. And bake it until nice and bubbly. You may be able to find some gluten-free crispy onions instead of making your own, which is a lot easier.
How to Make the Homemade Onion Crisps
We have been frying a lot of things using the dip in flour then goat milk yogurt + egg then back into seasoned flour method. This recipe for fried chicken tenders, okra makes the best onion rings, too. That is how we’ll make the homemade onion crispies for the topping.
I’ll only make half of the batter recipe, too. So we will need onions, gluten-free flour, seasoned salt, goat milk yogurt, and eggs. Since we made the stuffing above with egg whites, I will have 8 egg yolks left over. Here we can use 2 of the egg yolks in the yogurt mixture instead of a whole egg.
We will use the rest of the 6 egg yolks in the “kinda” buttermilk pie instead of whole eggs.
Gravy
I usually start with 1-2 tablespoons of goat butter or ghee or vegan butter substitute, then add equal amounts of gluten-free flour. Stir the roux for about a minute before adding in spices and liquids (usually about 2 cups). If using the chicken or turkey drippings, separate and remove the fat before adding in the liquid.
To do it without drippings, I use seasoned salt, pepper, 1/2 cup white wine, and 1 1/2 cups chicken broth. We want to cook it on low heat and long enough for the alcohol to cook off a bit. Then turn up the heat to get it to the desired thickness. Adding more broth if necessary.
Orange Liqueur Cranberry Sauce
I just love the cranberry sauce so much, too. And over the years we’ve tried it with jalapeños, plain, and with added orange zest. But my favorite is the recipe highlighted below using both orange zest and Cointreau orange liqueur.
One of the great things about cranberry sauce is that it freezes so nicely, too. So you can make it ahead and just thaw in the fridge the night before serving.
I also like to put it into a variety of small containers so you can use the cranberry sauce in different recipes over time and not feel like you have to finish it all at once.
Kinda Buttermilk Pie
So what else is part of the Thanksgiving day menu plan? Well dessert, of course! I debated between making a pecan pie or this kinda buttermilk pie, but decided that the egg yolks we have would likely work better in the custard pie.
So why do I call it “kinda” buttermilk pie? Instead of using real buttermilk, we use goat milk yogurt diluted with water. It works out quite nicely as a substitute.
So we are also going to need a gluten-free pie crust – I like Wholly Wholesome. The rest of the ingredients are organic cane sugar, gluten-free flour, goat milk butter, lemon juice, vanilla, guar gum, and ground nutmeg.
Okay so that is the plan for Thanksgiving day with some favorite tried and true recipes. Next is the recipe I promised for the orange cranberry sauce.
Recipe Highlight
Orange Cranberry Sauce
Homemade cranberry sauce made from fresh organic cranberries, organic sugar, water, Cointreau orange liqueur, and orange zest.
Ingredients
- 8 oz fresh organic cranberries
- 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 4 tbsp Cointreau orange liqueur
- zest from an organic orange
- pinch of salt
Instructions
To wash the cranberries, fill a large bowl with water. Pour in the cranberries and use your hands to sir them around. Remove from the water with your hands, or a scoop, or mesh strainer and pour out the water. Pick out any funky cranberries and discard.
To wash the orange, rinse with water and pour on a little baking soda. Scrub the skin with the baking soda paste. Then rinse before zesting.
Put all ingredients into a small saucepan. Cook on low heat in a saucepan until the cranberries start to burst. Turn up the heat to medium and let it come to a boil. Then turn heat back to low and stir until the cranberries are mostly burst and the sauce thickens.
Let cool and then cover and refrigerate. You can also freeze the cranberry sauce once cooled and just thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
