The most joyful holiday of the year is around the corner and crafting the perfect Thanksgiving menu plan will make your guests’ day one to remember. From the all-time classics like roast turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie to the latest dietary trends like vegan mac and cheese and keto stuffing, read on to get inspired for your Thanksgiving menu planning.

We have put together 3 different plans full of the best recipes to help update your menus before Thanksgiving and make sure you satisfy all your customers’ needs and cravings on the big day:

• Traditional Thanksgiving Menu
• Keto Thanksgiving Menu
• Vegan Thanksgiving Menu

Traditional Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving is the first official day of the holidays and features decadent dishes like roast turkey, pumpkin pie and all the potatoes, with lots of gravy to top it all off.

Make sure you include all the classics in your menu planning but leave some space for creativity to make your offering unique. Here is some inspiration on how to plan a thanksgiving menu  the new traditional way.

Turkey Gravy

What would Thanksgiving turkey be without gravy? This rich sauce is essential to complement the main dish. Start by making a roux with flour and fat (butter or bacon fat) until it has a blonde color and nutty aroma. Then, slowly add the liquid fats from the turkey roasting tray and keep stirring until you reach your desired gravy texture.

Stuffing

First and foremost, let’s talk about the difference between stuffing and dressing. Stuffing is usually cooked inside the bird, whereas dressing is baked separately. Lately, however, stuffing and dressing have become synonyms and stuffing tends to be baked separately for food safety reasons.

The key ingredients to making the perfect stuffing are white bread, crispy vegetables and chicken broth. This recipe is also easy to tweak for keto and plant-based options, which we will explore below.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Side-dishes are arguably one of the best parts of a Thanksgiving menu due to their variety of flavors and textures. An unmissable dish is creamy mashed potatoes, which make the perfect accompaniment to roast turkey.

The best potatoes to use for this recipe are starchy potatoes such as Russets. The secret ingredients to achieve extra creaminess are butter and heavy cream, for the ultimate holiday comfort food.

Apple Cheddar Pie

Two flavors that sound like they wouldn’t go together, apple and cheddar, actually make the perfect combo in this dessert that’s a little salty, a little sweet and a lot tasty. Cheddar cheese will add an extra layer of richness to your apple pie and satisfy all customers who like a hint of savoury in their sweet. 

Keto Thanksgiving Menu

Aligning your Thanksgiving menu to the latest nutrition trends will ensure you have an inclusive offer for your guests. One of the most popular diets at the moment is the ketogenic diet, usually abbreviated to keto, which is a low-carb and high-fat diet that shares similarities with the Atkins diet and other low- carb diets.

Popular foods among people following keto menu plans are fish and seafood, meat, eggs and non-starchy veggies. Many traditional Thanksgiving recipes contain a high quantity of carbs due to ingredients like flour and potatoes, however, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to create a Thanksgiving low carb menu plan with a little creativity and smart swaps.

Mashed Fauxatoes

There’s no need to skip on the creamy goodness of traditional mashed potatoes – just replace them with mashed cauliflower. Once the cauliflower is cooked and tender, simply blend it with your choice of keto add-ins like butter, cheese, pesto or sundried tomatoes to get a mouth-watering mash substitute.

If potatoes are a deal-breaker for your menu, you can serve roasted sweet potatoes with maple and bacon:, a delicious combination of sweet and savoury that will also please your keto guests.

Low- Carb Stuffing

Stuffing is a must-have at the Thanksgiving table, and people eating keto don’t have to miss out. Luckily, by using almond flour instead of regular flour, you’ll have a keto friendly version that is also gluten free. Make it even more decadent by adding butter and veggies.

Keto Gravy

Would it even be Thanksgiving without gravy? This delicious dressing is usually made with flour and fat, only one of which is keto. However, there are plenty of flour replacements, like coconut flour, almond flour and flaxseed meal to name a few, that you can use to make a finger-licking keto gravy.

Keto Pumpkin Pie

This absolute classic of a dessert uses one of the most keto-friendly vegetables:, pumpkin. To make a keto pumpkin pie, make sure you use keto flours for your crust and swap pumpkin pie filling with homemade, low-sugar pumpkin puree. This recipe will be not only low carb, but also gluten free and with lower in sugars. 

Plant-Based Thanksgiving Menu 

With the rising popularity of flexitarian and vegan diets, planning a Thanksgiving menu with plant-based options is a must in any restaurant. The increased availability of plant-based ingredients such as alternative meats, non-dairy milk and cheese, and a bounty of vegetables to choose from will make it easy to craft incredible dishes that will win over even the most passionate meat lovers.

Vegan Turkey

The perfect centrepiece to any Thanksgiving table is roasted turkey and a vegan version with tofu will delight all your vegan guests. Choose firm tofu to ensure a firm and moist texture for your vegan turkey and add gluten flour, nutritional yeast and vegetable broth to deliver a rich and meaty flavour.

Vegan Gravy

Usually, gravy is made from the fat juices released by meat mixed with flour and broth. You can achieve the same richness by sautéing hearty, earthy mushrooms and using vegetable drippings with vegetable broth to mimic the fatty liquids of the meat version. Wisk them with flour, et voilà! Your vegan mushroom gravy is ready to be poured.

Gravy is not the only special sauce for the holidays that vegans can enjoy: cranberry sauce is naturally plant-based and ready in 15 minutes!

Whole Roasted Buffalo Cauliflower

Looking for a vegan alternative to roasted chicken and turkey? This buffalo roasted cauliflower is the perfect addition to your plant-based Thanksgiving menu. Roast your cauliflower until it’s golden and tender and dress it with ranch and buffalo sauce, ready to delight your vegan and  vegetarian diners.

Vegan Stuffing

Because of eggs, butter and chicken broth, stuffing is a recipe vegans couldn’t enjoy – until now, that is. Use vegan bread, the drier the better, as it will be mushier after baking. Swap chicken broth for vegetable stock and blend all the ingredients together, adding herbs like thyme, rosemary, and sage to give your vegan stuffing the ultimate fall-comfort-food feeling.

Plant-based Mac and Cheese

Although this might sound like an oxymoron, vegan mac & cheese is a thing, and it’s also incredibly tasty. The key ingredients needed to nail your vegan cheese sauce are potatoes, sauerkraut, and the vegan- favourite nutritional yeast. When you combine them together, it will be very hard to tell the difference from the dairy original.

Although it’s a no-bake recipe, you can still add crunch by sauteing some panko breadcrumbs in a skillet and drizzling them on top.  

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

For most people, pumpkin pie is non-negotiable at Thanksgiving. Fear not, as with some smart swaps the vegan version tastes just as delicious as the real thing. Instead of eggs and heavy cream, you can use corn starch and coconut milk to achieve the same creamy texture.

Now that you have all the inspiration that you need, it’s time to craft your special Thanksgiving menu. And why not check out our digital marketing ideas for the holidays to make sure you share it on your social channels successfully?