Healthy and Easy Thanksgiving Recipes

Every month at the Wellness Training Institute our Wellness Director Nicole Martin hosts a cooking day for our practice members.  This month the theme is Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes.  Below are the recipes for two main dishes, plus a cream sauce, gravy, and pumpkin seed toppings!  The best part is that they all use the same basic ingredients so you don’t have to buy a ton of groceries.

“There’s a lot of emotion and energy around Thanksgiving, whether you’re the host or going somewhere. If you’ve had traditions in your family for a long time, that’s a hard thing to change. The good news is… if you’re hosting thanksgiving yourself, you can choose the recipes you will be making, and if you’re going somewhere you can just bring something you can eat!” – Nicole Martin

Cauliflower Rice Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Why sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes? White potatoes are not necessarily bad, but how do you usually have white potatoes? Very few people just eat a white potato. Usually we add butter, sour cream, cheese, etc. Not to mention, in a battle between nutrient density, sweet potatoes win! 

As you’re cooking, sautéing with vegetable broth is a healthy alternative to oil!  Keep in mind when sautéing with vegetable broth to move the vegetables around a little more than you would with oil, and add more vegetable broth as needed.

Ingredients

– 1 head of cauliflower

– 1 sweet potato

– 1/3 cup low-sodium vegetable

– Desired spices (suggested: red pepper seasoning, garlic powder); Add spices to your desired taste

Directions

– Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

– Chop cauliflower into chunks and put into a blender or food processor (I use a Ninja food processor, it is compact and easy to use).

– In a sauté pan, warm about 1/3 cup vegetable broth.

– Add the cauliflower “rice” to the sauté pan, you can add spices like roasted red pepper seasoning or garlic powder, cover and cook for about 5-8 minutes on low.

– Stir occasionally, add vegetable broth as needed.

– Bake sweet potato at 400F for 45 minutes, cut in half and let it cool. Scoop out most of the sweet potato (leaving some in*), and put in cauliflower rice.   Place back in the oven at 400F for a few minutes.  *Save the scooped out sweet potato for mashed sweet potatoes, or cream sauce

Note: additional toppings could be sweet potato cashew cream sauce (recipe below), salsa, nutritional yeast, cinnamon, coconut flakes, Nicole’s cheese sauce (which is coming soon!) 

Sweet Potato Cashew Cream Sauce

This creamy sauce is a perfect addition to your sweet potato cauliflower mash (or any other dish!)

Ingredients

– 1 cup cashews

– ½ cup vegetable broth (low sodium)

– ½ cup nutritional yeast

– 1 tsp Dijon mustard

– Juice of ½ lemon

– ¼ baked sweet potato 

Directions

– Soak cashews for 8 hours or overnight to soften

– Drain cashews, and place in a food processor

– Pulse the cashews to break them up into smaller pieces

– Add vegetable broth, nutritional yeast, and lemon

– To make this a sweeter cream add in ¼ baked sweet potato

– Blend to desired texture

– Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Cauliflower mash

Ingredients

– 1 head cauliflower (slightly chopped)

– ½ yellow onion

– 2 cloves garlic (chopped)

– 2 cups sweet potato cream sauce

Directions

– Place 1 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped into a soup pan.

– Add onion and garlic

– Fill with water, enough to cover the vegetables

– Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover for 10 minutes

– Drain

– Add to the food processor and mix with the sweet potato cashew cream

– Mash to desired texture

 Mushroom Gravy:

Did you know mushrooms are anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory!

Ingredients:

– 1/2 chopped yellow onion

– 1 clove garlic

– 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

– 1 cup vegetable broth

– 1 cup mushrooms, chopped

– 1 tsp. dried thyme

– 4 tbsp of almond flour

Directions

– In a sauté pan, heat 1/3 cup low-sodium vegetable broth

– Add mushrooms, garlic, and onions

– Sauté for 2-3 minutes and until all liquid is evaporated, stirring often

– add almond flour, dried thyme, and nutritional yeast

– Keep on low heat, whisking the mixture for 2 minutes, slowly adding in vegetable broth until desired thickness

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

These are great to add as a topping to any of your Thanksgiving recipes!

Ingredients:

– Raw sprouted pumpkin seeds

– Vegetable broth (if using stovetop)

– Desired spices (garlic, salt, pepper)

Stovetop: Add a small amount of vegetable broth to a sauté pan (you can also cook with a dry pan if you are constantly flipping the seeds), add pumpkin seeds and any spices (garlic, salt, pepper). Sauté until toasted.

Oven: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Scatter the pumpkins seeds on a baking sheet, place in the oven. Stay close because they will cook in 2-3 minutes. If you are using raw seeds, cook for about 40 minutes. 

Enjoy!

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