My Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Menu Planning

It’s that time of year – to start planning you’re Thanksgiving holiday menu. First, you have to decide if you are doing most of the cooking yourself, bringing a dish to share potluck style at a friend’s house, or catering in from Honey Baked Ham or Cracker Barrel? This year, with the pandemic still affecting how many people will celebrate, I wasn’t even sure if my roommates and I were going to do much for Thanksgiving.

I’m currently renting two rooms from a friend and his son and they were talking about traveling to the west coast of Florida to stay with their brother/uncle for a day or two. And, my daughter and her bf recently moved out of state, my mom lives 1500 miles away and is flying out to Aiken, SC to visit with her younger brother (my Uncle Dick) who recently lost his wife to IPF (my Aunt Laurie). So I originally thought it might be just me and the kitties celebrating turkey day in SE Florida and that meant I probably wasn’t going to do anything special this year.

To Make a Thanksgiving Feast or Not

I work from home as a freelance writer, I’m not taking any time off to travel, and most of my friends and family are out of the area. But then my roommate and his son decided they were going to stay in town and BOOM! Thanksgiving was back on the table – literally – lol.

I’ve recently had to start following a mostly gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-salt nutrition plan due to various health issues. Thanksgiving is normally a gluten carbo overload, I knew I still wanted to make some of my favorite side dishes but needed to figure out how to make everything gluten-free yet still taste delicious. I didn’t want to get too complicated trying to find all new recipes, so I decided that with a few changes I could make my regular Thanksgiving side dishes gluten-free.

My roommates are in charge of the turkey, I’ve actually never cooked the meat, even when I was on the married with children track. I’ve always been in charge of all the side dishes – stuffing, veggies, desserts, etc. I decided to do a quick Instacart order from Sprouts Farmer’s Market as they have a pretty good selection of dairy-free, gluten-free, and even low-sodium items.

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Menu

You really don’t have to search for gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes. With a few simple changes, you can make most gluten-filled recipes gluten-free. I found a gluten-free rosemary sage stuffing mix, gluten-free dinner rolls, and gluten-free French onions for the green bean casserole at Sprouts Farmer’s Market. For the pumpkin muffins, I’m following a regular recipe and substituting Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour for regular all-purpose flour. Or, I might make gluten-free pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting instead of the muffins – still trying to make up my mind on that one.

I’ve included links to some of my Thanksgiving recipes, many of which contain gluten. If you’re interested in making-them gluten-free just make a few substitutions as I mentioned above i.e. replacing regular flour with gluten-free flour, sourcing gluten-free bread cubes for the stuffing, etc.

I’m making my homemade cranberry pear sauce in the crockpot, one of the recipes that are already gluten-free. Mashed potatoes are also gluten-free and I’m using vegan margarine and unsweetened plant-based milk to make them dairy-free. You could substitute mashed cauliflower if you are looking for a lower-carb mashed potato option. I always buy my dinner rolls, seems like a lot of work to make them from scratch, and I was fortunate to find Udi’s gluten-free dinner rolls in the freezer section at Sprouts.

I normally make Jimmy Dean’s Sausage Cornbread Stuffing but this year I’m using a gluten-free stuffing mix. I’ll add sauteed onions, celery, and maybe some mushrooms to the stuffing mix but I’m trying to decide if I’m going to add sausage to it or not. Or maybe I’ll make half with sausage and half without for a vegan stuffing option. Besides the classic green bean casserole, which is one of my all-time favorite Thanksgiving side dishes, I also plan on making a few veggie side dishes like corn and Oven-roasted Brussels Sprouts. There are only 3 of us so I don’t want to make too much food. Basically, our Thanksgiving meal will be like an upscale dinner, but with a few leftovers.

More Thanksgiving Recipes

I’m probably not making anything with sweet potatoes this year as I’m the only one under my roof that likes sweet taters. But here’s links to a couple of my favorite sweet potato recipes in case you’re interested, and some regular tater recipes too for good measure. Oh, and who can forget pecan pie!?!

I also have to decide if I want to make homemade gravy or not. Most store-bought gravy uses flour as a thickening agent, which is made from wheat, which is loaded with gluten. I could use some of the pan drippings, stir in a bit of gluten-free flour and whisk in some low-sodium chicken broth to make my own gravy but I don’t even like turkey that much so I might just leave gravy off the menu.

Do you make any special recipes, gluten-free or not, that you make year after year for your Thanksgiving meal and other holiday celebrations? How do you overcome guests with various dietary requirements including vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

Let’s Keep in Touch

Do you have any tips or tricks you’d like to share? Leave a comment on this post or shoot me an email: info@thecreativecottage.net and I just might feature your story in a future blog post.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe

Founder and Chief Blogger
The Creative Cottage

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