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In United States, Thanksgiving day is celebrated on the last Thursday of every November as an autumn harvest feast. It’s a holiday season and generally on this day families and friends meet and greet to cherish the moments with great and yummy food made from Turkey, potatoes, corn, cranberries and Pumpkin pie. Well, vegetarians are usually left with just the side dishes, as the main course is usually meat based. Lately and slowly, the world is turning towards becoming vegetarian or vegan primarily due to health benefits that come with it. Want to be a good host and show some good hospitality for vegetarians too during Thanksgiving? I am sure you do!
That being said, I know you are wondering how to cook a food that looks like turkey yet vegetarian? The solution to that is Cauliflower! Imagine cauliflower as legless and wingless turkey breast and that’s how the center piece is going to look like once its cooked!
Process is very simple with pretty much basic ingredients and good news is it doesn’t take as long as it takes to cook meat! I don’t know how Turkey tastes but this dish right here is absolutely rich in flavors, it’s crunchy and opens up the taste buds in you wanting to eat more and more of it. The gravy adds more deliciousness to this turkey looking dish.
Come on let’s impress the vegetarian guests this year with a Vegetarian Turkey!
Video on how to make the Vegetarian Turkey
Let’s meet the ingredients and process
If you made this please do leave a comment and rate the recipe.
Vegetarian Turkey with Gravy
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Cook time
Rest time
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FLAVOR METER
Equipment
- Oven
- Medium Pan
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
For the Cauliflower
- 1 Medium Cauliflower
- 4 Tbsp Salt
- 2 Cups Water
- 1 Tsp Turmeric
For Marination
- 1 Cup Greek yogurt
- 1/2 Lemon Juice
- 1/2 Tsp Paprika
- 1/2 Tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 Tsp Onion powder
- 1/2 Tsp Cayenne powder
- 1/2 Tsp Curry powder
- 1 Tsp Vegetarian bouillon
- 1/2 Tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
For Garlic Oil
- 1/4 Cup Olive oil
- 4 Large Cloves Garlic
- 2 Tbsp Herbs Fresh or dried
For the gravy
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 1 Tbsp Garlic oil
- 3 Tbsp All purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp Cooking wine
- 1 Tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 Cups Veggie stock
- 1 Tsp Salt
Instructions
Pre preparation for Cauliflower
- Prep the Cauliflower: Cut off the green leaves carefully and cut the stem off so that the cauliflower is standing up straight
- Make the Brine : Take 1 cup of water and add 4 tbsp of salt, add 1 tsp turmeric and bring to a boil
- Soak the cauliflower: Let the Brine cool for 10 minutes then add the whole cauliflower and let it sit for about an hour. Salty brine helps cauliflower to soak salt.
Make the Garlic Oil
- Heat the oil: In a pan , take 1/4 cup olive oil and add the garlic. Bring it to simmer and switch off the gas
- Add Herbs: To this oil add fresh or dried herbs and let it come to a cool.
Make the yogurt marination
- Mix: Take yogurt in a bowl, add lemon juice and mix well.
- Add spices: Add paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne powder, curry powder, Vegetarian bouillon, salt and pepper. Mix well and add more garlic oil if required.
Make the Gravy
- Heat: In a pan take butter and garlic oil and let it heat
- Whisk: Add all purpose flour and whisk it to make sure there are no lumps.
- Add wine and soy: To this add some cooking wine and whisk. Immediately add soy sauce or tamari sauce and a pinch of salt.
- Add stock: Add stock to this and whisk it to make sure that there are no lumps. Let it boil and it starts to get a thicker consistency.
- Check: Check and add more salt or soy sauce if required.
Bake the Cauliflower
- Dry the cauliflower:: Take the cauliflower out of the brain, pat it dry using a tissue.
- Coat the cauliflower:: Take the prepared yogurt marination and apply on the cauliflower thick and neat. cover the entire area.
- Bake: Transfer this to a baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes at 400 F.
- Check: Depending on the size of the cauliflower it may take a little longer. Mine took about an hour to get the color and texture i was looking for. If the cauliflower is not brown from out yet then put back the tray and check every 10 minutes. Bake until you get the desired consistency.
- Transfer: Transfer the baked cauliflower on to a plate. Decorate the plate using any fresh herbs you may have. I had mint and cilantro handy so I used that to decorate and added some pomegranates.
- Serve: Serve this with the gravy.
Notes
- Depending on the size of the cauliflower baking may take up to an hour or even an hour and a half. It should be fully cooked but it should still hold everything together. If you over cook the cauliflower, it may fall apart. Just be cautious.
- Garnish: Fresh cranberries are available during thanksgiving so you can utilize that to garnish this dessert instead of pomegranates.
- Fresh herbs: Adding fresh herbs while making garlic oil adds intense flavor to the food.
Happy cooking
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