Vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes are often overlooked but they really should be more appreciated. Even for meat enthusiasts, these recipes are going to be irresistible at your Thanksgiving table. And your veggie-loving friends and family will be extra thankful.

Four individual mushroom wellingtons with spinach and walnuts on a squares of parchment paper.
Nassima Rothacker
1 of 17

Mushroom Wellingtons with Spinach

This mushroom wellington with spinach is essentially a meaty portobello mushroom and spinach-walnut filling in flaky puff pastry. A spectacular vegan and vegetarian option, whether for Thanksgiving or any time of year. And you can easily assemble it ahead of time and bake it at the last moment.
Recipe
A partially sliced sweet potato and cranberry strudel, topped with butter and pecans on a wooden board with a bowl of spiced creme fraiche.
Noel Barnhurst
2 of 17

Sweet Potato and Golden Raisin Strudel

This sweet potato and cranberry strudel, made with sweet potato purée, dried cranberries, and brown butter in crisp phyllo pastry, is an impressive and crowd-pleasing Thanksgiving side dish.
Recipe
A rimmed baking sheet with rows of Southern buttermilk biscuits.
Joseph De Sciose
3 of 17

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

These Southern buttermilk biscuits are easy as heck to toss together from just three ingredients—self-rising flour, buttermilk, and butter—and turn out flaky and fluffy and just like grandma's. Maybe even better. Here's how to make them.
Recipe
A stuffed roast winter squash with blue cheese on a rimmed baking sheet.
YumCreative.com
4 of 17

Roast Winter Squash With Blue Cheese

This roast winter squash with blue cheese combines tangy Gorgonzola cheese and tender roasted butternut squash for an easy, elegant vegetarian main dish.
Recipe
Chestnut pasta with wild mushrooms and Brussels sprouts on a white plate garnished with sage leaves and sage butter in the background.
Jonathan Gregson
5 of 17

Chestnut Pasta, Wild Mushrooms, and Brussels Sprouts

These chestnut rags, or stracci di castagne, are mildly nutty in flavor. If you own a KitchenAid stand mixer, make the pasta using the dough hook attachment; this is what I do in the restaurant. You can vary the dish by omitting the butter, drizzling the pasta with truffle oil, and tossing with crushed, roasted hazelnuts for extra texture.
Recipe
A slice of drunken pumpkin bourbon tart on a white plate with a fork beside it and a mini pumpkin and leaves in the background.
Hélène Dujardin
6 of 17

Drunken Pumpkin Bourbon Tart

Drunken pumpkin bourbon tart. Exactly the sort of Thanksgiving dessert that will make the relatives a heck of a lot more tolerable.
Recipe
Layers of pasta with mushrooms, spinach, and bechamel sauce between each layer.
Hirsheimer & Hamilton
7 of 17

Three-Cheese Vegetarian Lasagna

Three-cheese vegetarian lasagna is easy and exceptional and even sorta elegant anytime of year BUT we especially welcome it at the Thanksgiving table when we need something vegetarian and lovely. Here’s exactly how to make it plus what kind of cheeses work best.
Recipe
A pumpkin sweet potato pie in a brown pie dish with a fork resting inside and a linen napkin next to the pie dish.
Andy Lyons
8 of 17

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Pie

This pumpkin sweet potato pie takes the best parts of pie and sweet potato casserole and combines them into this magnificent side dish.
Recipe
A sheet of parchment paper with a rectangular mushroom, leek, and Gruyere tart with a square piece cut from the corner, and garnished with thyme.
Ryan Szulc
9 of 17

Mushroom, Leek, and Gruyère Tart

This mushroom, leek, and Gruyère tart, made with puff pastry, topped with garlic and thyme-infused leeks and mushrooms and Gruyère cheese is an easy appetizer or light vegetarian entrée.
Recipe
Two bowls of pureed celery root soup topped with cubes of caramelized apple.
Erin Kunkel
10 of 17

Celery Root Soup with Caramelized Apples

For this celery root soup, caramelized apples top a puree of cooked celery root (aka celeriac), leeks, vegetable stock, and half and half. An excellent autumn dish.
Recipe
Chunks of roasted sweet potatoes with Sriracha and lime wedges and sprigs of cilantro scattered over the top.
Amanda Frederickson
11 of 17

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Sriracha and Lime

These roasted sweet potatoes with Sriracha and lime are an easy side dish that requires only 10 minutes of effort. You’re welcome.
Recipe
Two plates each with four pumpkin spice whoopie pies with cream cheese filling stacked on them.
Jacqui Caulton
12 of 17

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

We’re not sure if these pumpkin spice whoopie pies with cream cheese filling are more like a cake or a cookie. But we do know that they’re completely irresistible.
Recipe
A whole roasted cauliflower with tahini and pistachios cut into four pieces in a cast-iron skillet.
Jillian Guyette
13 of 17

Roasted Cauliflower with Tahini

This roasted cauliflower with tahini is an impressive side dish or vegetarian main made with a whole roasted cauliflower that’s painted with garlic-tahini paste and topped with a pistachio and parsley mixture.
Recipe
A maple pecan pie in a metal pie plate with one slice missing and forks, plates, and a bottle of rye whiskey beside the pie.
Iain Bagwell
14 of 17

Maple Pecan Pie

This maple pecan pie takes classic pecan pie up a notch by using maple syrup in the filling and ground oats for a slight nuttiness in the crust.
Recipe
A black bowl filled with roasted delicata squash and kale salad with salad servers resting in it.
Kristin Teig
15 of 17

Roasted Delicata Squash and Kale Salad

This roasted Delicata squash and kale salad is a healthy side or meal that combines roasted winter squash, kale, ricotta salata, hazelnuts, and a Dijon vinaigrette. Bonus: it’s quick enough to throw together on a weeknight.
Recipe
A cast-iron skillet filled with a cooked sweet potato cornbread with two pats of butter on top and a dish of butter pats beside it.
Hélène Dujardin
16 of 17

Sweet Potato Cornbread

This sweet potato cornbread may upend all your notions about what cornbread ought to be. It’s easy, stealthily healthy, and turning heads and drawing raves wherever it’s made.
Recipe
Roasted chickpea salad on a gold-rimmed plate, with orange segments, couscous, cilantro, and shaved carrot.
Jo Sidey
17 of 17

Roasted Chickpea Salad

This roasted chickpea salad gets glammed up with the addition of a Moroccan spice blend as well as carrot, cucumber, and radish. And it’s ready in just half an hour.
Recipe



About David Leite

David Leite has received three James Beard Awards for his writing as well as for Leite’s Culinaria. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Yankee, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and more.


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