I always make the traditional lentil and nut roast with spicy garlic/ginger cranberry chutney (a plus for the budget or geographically limited: no need to shell out for or locate [or make...] seitan). Sides are really what THXSGVNG is all about anyway, and those are very easy to veggie/vegan-ize. Favourite holiday!

I might actually give this pumpkin thing a try this year, for ambition's sake...

I like to stuff a cheese pumpkin or Hubbard, but the stuffing varies. Chestnut stuffing, fruity stuffings, (fake) sausagey ones, they all go well with squash.

I've been making something very similar to this for years. I stuff my pumpkin with a mixture of brown, black, and wild rices, extra firm tofu sauteed with shallots, carrots and parsnips, mushrooms, hazelnuts, dried cranberries, parsley, and cumin.

This year I'm going to have to try the red-wine and roasted vegetable sauce - it looks awesome!

this may be a dumb question - but where do i buy seitan? at a whole foods type of place?? i dont think my local Food Emporium carries it....

Seitan is sold at Whole Foods as well as some independent health food stores. If you're up for some fun in the kitchen, you can make it yourself. Check out 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen' by Peter Berley, he has a great basic recipe for it.

Mind you, it takes a little time, but it really is a fun process to start off making a basic bread dough and ending up with just the gluten (you wash off all the starch). It's def. a weekend project. :D

Found a few recipes online too. http://www.vrg.org/recipes/vjseitan.htm and http://theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=112

This looks really cool!

One question, though -- why do so many vegetarian recipes online involve fake meats like seitan and tempeh? I'm a vegetarian; I mainly eat vegetables. Sure, a little tofu every now and again, but even that is usually in Asian recipes that traditionally call for it. I don't really get the whole idea where if you want to make something vegetarian, you replace the meat in a recipe with a processed soy product. And I think it's half the reason most Americans don't "get" vegetarianism. This recipe would be fabulous without the seitan; it's completely superfluous here.

Wow--that looks really cool!

I have usually served a casserole as the main dish. My fave is a smoky/spicy pinto bean covered with a layer of buttermilk corn bread. It's hearty and is excellent with cranberry sauce and all the traditional vegetable sides.

the opoponax - I think it's partially because that's what we're used to, but it's also because they're such concentrated sources of protein. A vegetarian meal consisting entirely of vegetables just doesn't provide a lot.

why seitan and fake meat?

because a lot of us veggies stopped eating meat for health or other reasons not related to how meat tastes.

(sometimes I yearn for roast beef, or steak, or chicken...) and then I have the fake stuff that fills that need.

plus, protein is good, and one can get tired of just tofu and beans all the time

Can anyone recommend a good substitution for mushrooms in dishes like the one featured here? We're not veggie, but for various reasons the bf and I have set a goal to eat at least two totally vegetarian meals a week. I sometimes get stumped trying to replace mushrooms (which I hate - it's a texture thing), especially when the mushrooms add volume as well as taste to a dish. Thanks for any suggestions.

opoponax, I've been a vegetarian for 12 years and I've never heard any vegetarians say that tempeh is a fake meat. It's just tempeh. Don't let marketing gimmicks stop you from getting enough protein in your diet.

I over Tofurkeyed myself last holiday season [pretty much ate it nonstop for a month], so I'm quite keen to try this pumpkin thing out! Plus, anything that looks that impressive is always nice. The tofurkey just doesn't cut it in that arena. :D

Also, if you want a good basic seitan recipe [plus oh so much more], go get Veganomicon. You won't regret it.

Seitan and tempeh are meat replacements in the sense that they are protein sources but I wouldn't consider them fake meat unless they are used to try to mimic meat. I'm a dedicated meat eater so when I have vegetarian dishes that are trying to fool me into thinking it's meat (soy hot dogs, tofurky, etc) it's definitely not palatable to me. However dishes that use a meat replacement as itself rather than trying to fake being meat it often is quite delicious.