For the most part, there is never a raw vegan dish on the Thanksgiving table. Unless you serve some fresh fruit, vegetable sticks, or a colorful salad, most of the dishes are carb-heavy and filled with butter, dairy, and sugar. That being said, there are many Thanksgiving flavors that you can recreate in a raw vegan way. That’s where these Thanksgiving lettuce cups come into play. They are great for anyone who happens to be dieting or cleansing over the holiday weekend.
Although you can easily create raw soups, sauces, or slaws, sometimes it’s better to go one notch above, or a few notches in the case of this recipe. Normally, people spend the entirety of Thanksgiving Day preparing copious amounts of food. Scale back the quantity and focus on quality with these homemade lettuce cups. Within a crisp romaine lettuce leaf, you’ll find a “meaty” creation that simulates the flavor of turkey. Mixed with a sweet and tangy cranberry relish, you’ll be wondering if this is in fact a raw vegan dish.
You can enjoy these lettuce cups for lunch or dinner. They fill you up and provide you with healthy fats, fiber, protein, and a diverse mix of antioxidants. As long as you have a trusty food processor, you’ll be able to whip up this recipe in not time. Please let us know if you made this recipe in the comments below. We’d love to hear if you stayed strong and stuck your diet over the holiday weekend, especially if this recipe helped. It may satisfy the Thanksgiving craving you seek!
- Prep Time:15m
- Total Time:15m
- Serves: 4 servings
- Category: Full Body Cleanse Approved, Entrees, Raw, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free
Ingredients
For the Crumbled Turkey
- 1 c raw walnuts
- 3/4 tsp. dried sage
- 1/4 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
- 2 tsp. coconut aminos
- pinch of black pepper
- 6 leaves romaine lettuce, rinsed
For the Cranberry Relish
- 12 oz fresh cranberries, rinsed
- 10 Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
Instructions
For the Crumbled Turkey
- Add all of the ingredients, except the lettuce leaves, to a food processor and process until it resembles ground meat.
- Make sure that you do not over-process because you do not want a paste. The crumbly texture is the goal.
- Spoon the mixture out of the processor and set aside in a separate bowl. Clean out the processor and get it ready for the cranberry relish.
For the Cranberry Relish
- Add the cranberries and dates to the processor and and pulse until it reaches a relish-like consistency.
- You don not want big chunks of dates or cranberries, so you may need to process it a little longer.
- Assemble the lettuce cups by spooning the turkey crumble mixture into each lettuce leaf. Top with a little bit of the cranberry relish and then serve.
- You should be able to serve 6 lettuce cups.
