Okay so for soup I would probably go with a very seasonal appropriate soup such as butternut squash. The great thing about this soup is the fact you can prep it the day before and cook it in the slow cooker (if you have one) and not have to worry about it.
Recipe:
- 4 pounds butternut squash - peeled and cubed
- 2 carrots - peeled and chopped
- 1 granny smith apple - peeled and chopped
- 1 jalapeno - chopped (seeded, for a more mild flavor) - optional!
- 1 small/medium yellow onion - chopped
- 4 cloves garlic - minced (or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic)
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons of salt - (then add more to taste once half way cooked/fully cooked)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper (then add more to taste once half way cooked/fully cooked)
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- 4 cups of vegetable stock
- 1 (14 oz) can of coconut milk (plus an extra can if you want to add some to the top of your individual soups)
Put everything into your crockpot and cook for 6-8 hours on low*. Once cooked add the coconut milk and blend with an immersion hand blender (or if you have just a regular food blender then ladle it over into that and then add coconut milk) and then serve (or store until the next day but make sure the soup is fully cooled before putting it into the fridge).
I always add a sprinkle of cilantro to mine and have the cayenne pepper on the table for anyone who likes a little spice. Plus some people like extra cream to top off their soup so always handy to have extra
* You can cook this on high for about 4 hours but I would recommend cooking it on slow. It always seems to taste better to me but if you're in a pinch and need it cooked quick, go for high for about 3-4 hours
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For the main dish, I would probably go with something like a vegetable stew** because it's thanksgiving but if you fancy venturing out a little bit you would always do something like individual pot pies (maybe pumpkin pot pies or mushroom!) with stuffed mushrooms/peppers or maybe a vegetarian lasagna - which would be good because it's pretty versatile and if you made a few up you could add different things to each (spinach in one, roasted veggies in another) to switch it up a little.
** The reason I'd go with vegetable stew is because you said your husband and yourself are going to be eating turkey and so I assume you'll be cooking potatoes, veggies etc too. With the stew you could pretty much combine everything you're already cooking into the stew so it's not a lot of extra work and everyone will be eating pretty much the same thing minus the meat.
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Of course, you also have the option of hosting a pot luck. That way everyone brings one dish (you'd probably have to assign starter/main/desert to each person/couple so that you don't end up with 10 pumpkin pies and nothing else to eat lol) and then that way you know each person will have at least 1 thing they each like.
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My personal thanksgiving food check list is; turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, macaroni and cheese, green beans, carrots, sweetcorn, sauerkraut, potato salad, vegetable and cheese plates with crackers and then deserts (usually a few people bring different deserts and/or cookies) and there are 12 of us.
I think whatever you end up making will be a hit. The thing about holiday get togethers is, if you're with people you love then it's the laugher and memories you're going to take away. What you ate will just fade into the background. The wonderful company and the good day will be the things you remember for years to come.
Happy to share any of the recipes for ideas I've mentioned. After I wrote the soup one, I realized how long(er) this post would be if I wrote each one out and didn't want to bombard you
- SP x