Today's Thanksgiving vegetable recipe, the first of 2013: Lasagna made with butternut squash, just three layers to save calories but packed with naturally creamy, naturally sweet butternut squash: roasted and puréed for a gorgeous "Butternut Bechamel" that envelops the lasagna noodles and roasted in cubes to stud the lasagna layers with bursts of flavor and texture. So hello, November, so glad to see your golden light, knowing that the next few weeks will be extra-busy and how easy it might be to simply fail to notice . I pledge: I shall notice, I shall appreciate, I shall remember. It's a November tradition here at A Veggie Venture: a focus fascination obsession spotlight on Thanksgiving recipes, a dedication to the many ways – many tradition, some creative, all fabulous – to cook Thanksgiving's favorite vegetables, all collected in a single place, Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving's Favorite Vegetables . Talk about a reason for celebration! Who nee

IN A RUSH? Prefer Another Vegetable? Skip Straight to the Recipes or Switch to the A-Z of Vegetables . WINTER SQUASH: THE BASICS Pronounced [skwawsh]. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, winter squash are called "pumpkin". (Some sources say that "pumpkin" is also used in Britain but a British reader corrected that notion, says that "pumpkin" applies only to the round jack'o'lantern-style pumpkins.) Common varieties include acorn squash, butternut squash, delicata squash and spaghetti squash. At a good farmers market, you might find colorful hubbard squash, buttercup squash and red kuri squash. Look especially for kabocha squash, it's great for making Homemade "Pumpkin" Purée ; commercial pumpkin purée is made with calabaza squash.

What happens when you combine butternut squash and polenta? Pure deliciousness, that's what, to say nothing of gorgeous color. This easy polenta is a revelation! And it's flexible, too. First, let's not forget that polenta is a kissin' cousin to cornmeal and grits, Second, the official recipe calls for roasted butternut squash plus a big measure of butter and cheese. Ha, no wonder it's good, right? But it's also wonderful with raw grated carrot and just a touch of butter and cheese. And sweet potato. And I'm betting on caramelized onion and even fresh spinach. Fresh & Seasonal, Perfect for Cold-Weather Meals including Thanksgiving. Great for Meal Prep. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Scales from Small Plates to Large Platters. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegetarian. Naturally Gluten Free.

Creamy cheesy mac' n' cheese but given a twist by the addition of rich roasted butternut squash. Gorgeous color, love the crispy topping, a peppery mix of panko and pepitas (pumpkin seeds). WAY BACK IN 2008 Today we kick off the 2008 collection of Thanksgiving vegetable recipes (update: please see the latest collection, Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving's Favorite Vegetables ) with a recipe for macaroni and cheese that'll have your family asking, "Who made the mac 'n' cheese?" Oh boy oh boy, this is a mac 'n' cheese that's completely familiar and yet also a surprise, thanks to the secret ingredient, roasted butternut squash. If you're like me, and then a dozen Slow Food St. Louis taste testers, and then my dad, you'll wonder, 'Why didn't we combine these before?' The combination is deeper, richer, earthier and yet still completely mac 'n' cheese – it just works! Here's why.

Are you looking for a Thanksgiving side dish? vegetable casseroles? side dishes to serve a crowd? a green vegetable for Thanksgiving? Or how about the World's Best Green Bean Casserole ? (It uses fresh green beans and fresh mushrooms. No more canned green beans and cream of mushroom soup, thank you.) Or maybe the favorite at Canadian Thanksgiving, my family's longtime recipe for Turnip Puff or Rutabaga Puff ? Whether you're looking for new recipes or coming back for an old favorite, welcome to A Veggie Venture's many-year collection of Thanksgiving vegetable recipes! Hand-Selected Thanksgiving Vegetable Side Dishes from a Vegetable Lover Who Cooked Her First Thanksgiving Dinner At Age 16! Super-Organized, Quick & Easy to Find Just the Right Recipe for Your Gathering. Packed with Thanksgiving Side Dishes & Vegetable Casseroles To Make Ahead of Time. Useful "How To's" for Thanksgiving Vegetables.

Welcome to A Veggie Venture's collection of vegetarian entrée recipes for Thanksgiving! When it comes to Thanksgiving vegetarian main dishes, it's a bit of a balancing act, especially when there are both meat eaters and vegetarians at the same table. Over the years, these have become my goals, considering the needs of the hosts and the guests, both: Thanksgiving is a special meal, a vegetarian entrée should feel special too, not an afterthought. A vegetarian entrée should appeal to vegetarians and carnivores alike, the main course for the vegetarians, a side dish for the meat eaters. In this way, a quiet word can be said to those who don't eat meat but diet preferences need not become the subject of table conversation. The vegetarian dish must have a substantial feel, not just be a larger portion of a traditional vegetable side dish. It must use fresh and seasonal vegetables and be prepped mostly or entirely in advance. VEGETARIANS, PLEASE NOTE: A Veggie Ventur

Today's healthy recipe: Fresh vegetables steamed over an olive oil-onion-wine-broth mixture that is turned into a rich and flavorful sauce for drizzling or dipping. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Hey, word dancers! I'm looking for a word, would you help? In a single word or short phrase, I want to instantly convey that this dish is "a whole pile of beautiful rainbow-colored fresh vegetables, lovely to look at, tasty to consume, all in the same dish". 'Medley' is a word that food writers use, 'cornucopia' too. But they don't quite express the healthy wholesomeness that I'd like to express. Is there such a word, in any language? In the mean time, I'm sticking with "medley", that's the word that Myra Kornfeld used for this recipe for Vegetarian Times' January-February issue. I didn't expect to be knocked over by what is essentially a big plate of vegetables because steamed vegetables, well, aren't

Four Trader Joe's products + a can of tomatoes + slow cooker = Easy Jambalaya supper! We'd been gone for only four days but the fridge was on e-m-p-t-y so after retrieving the dog, I made a quick stop at Trader Joe's for eggs and milk. There at the tasting counter? A big slow cooker of an orange-colored spicy something. One taste later, I grabbed the four packages of "ingredients" – that would be supper, leaving lots of time and energy for pumpkin carving. The results? A spicy easy jambalaya, a hot supper. Are these my favorite Trader Joe's products? Not by a long shot. Is it cooking? Not really. But it's a life hack, a Trader Joe's Slow Cooker Hack, and some days, that moves life's needle back to f-u-l-l. PS Anyone interested in my favorite stuff from Trader Joe's? It'd be easy to put that together for another day. Plus, I'd really love to know your favorite Trader Joe's purchases. Let me know what you think!

Grab some canned tomatoes, put the pasta water on to boil and, get this, a hot, satisfying supper is 20 minutes away. This is one of those miracle sauces, just those tomatoes plus smidgens of pantry ingredients to coax out a rich-flavored, lightly spiced and slightly chunky tomato sauce that works for pasta, sure, but also for homemade pizza, draping over sautéed greens, packing up in meal-size containers for the freezer, and more. Real Food, Fast & Casual. Just Canned Tomatoes + A Few Pantry Ingredients. A Summer Classic. Not Just Easy, Summer Easy . Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Supper Substantial. Budget Friendly. Little Effort, Big Taste. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Easy Meal Prep. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real .

Once you start roasting tomatoes in late summer and early fall, easy suppers like this half make themselves. Here, it's just pasta tossed with a ten-minute sauce, including a few skillet-toasted walnuts. Just gorgeous ... Real Food, Fresh & Seasonal. Just Seven Ingredients! A Late-Summer Classic. Not Just Easy, Summer Easy . Little Effort, Big Taste. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Vegetarian.

Oh friends, we are so going back to meal prep basics here, just some quinoa, some salt, some water, one pot and one stove. Follow this simple technique – just rinse, simmer, rest and fluff – for full, light-textured quinoa every time. Quinoa = A Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Great for Meal Prep. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly & Freestyle Friendly, quinoa is one of Weight Watchers "free" foods. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. I remember searching high and low for quinoa for the first time twelve years ago – my cousin Lynda had sent the recipe for Acorn Squash with Quinoa & Cherries . I'd heard of quinoa but it was a new-ish thing then and none of the big grocery stores carried it. I finally found a dusty container in what we then called a "natural" food store. (Hmm, have natural food stores gone by the wayside? Who's been in one lately?) Back then I even mispronounced quinoa "KWIN-oh-ah" or "kwin-OH-ah&qu

A celebration of fall on a plate, a medley of root vegetables (you know, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and turnips plus more unusual vegetables like celeriac, rutabaga, parsnips and kohlrabi) diced and roasted in the oven, then tossed with a mustard-y vinaigrette with a small spike of horseradish. The combination makes a great base for a supper salad or a even breakfast eggs. Fresh & Seasonal. A Fall Classic. Great for Meal Prep. Scales from Small Plates to Large Platters. Easily Made Vegan. Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

IN A RUSH? Prefer Another Vegetable? Skip Straight to the Recipes or Switch to the A-Z of Vegetables . PUMPKIN: THE BASICS Large, round and often orange, the pumpkin is a member of the gourd family, which also includes muskmelon, watermelon and squash. Its orange flesh has a mild, sweet flavor and the seeds — husked and roasted — are delicately nutty. It's native to North America! Canned Pumpkin. Canned pumpkin is an economical staple, one of the few whole-food items in the middle aisles of a grocery store. Just be sure to buy "100% pumpkin" not pumpkin pie filling. Better Yet, Make Your Own. It's easy to make your own pumpkin puréee, just roast a pumpkin (see how to, below) and then scrape the flesh. But after too-many watery pumpkins, I switched to something called a Kabocha Squash , it's perfect. In fact, if you look at the labels on cans of pumpkin, it mentions the kabocha squash! Pumpkin Seeds. Pumpkin seeds are called " pepitas ". Pumpkin S

How to Cook Fresh Broccoli in the Microwave with Perfect Results Every Time I know, I know. Life's busy. Who has time to "cook" a vegetable for dinner? I do! And you do too! Cooking broccoli in the microwave is fast, easy and really, who needs a recipe?! It's just a simple technique, try it once and you'll never need anything more than a quick reminder again. Real Food, Fast & Casual. Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Weeknight Easy. Great for Meal Prep. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

A simple but sophisticated tart, rich enough to serve in thin slices as an appetizer or in larger wedges for a vegetarian main dish. The crust is super un-fussy and flecked with cornmeal for crispness. The filling is packed with caramelized onions, those dark and dusky nuggets that make almost anything taste better. Both the crust and the filling can be made ahead of time, then tossed into the oven to bake in time for serving hot, warm or at room temperature. Vegetarian Entrée or Appetizer, Perfect for Thanksgiving. Time-Adaptable (Cooking and Serving). Make-Ahead Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special.

Hey Vegetable Lovers, this is my annual "public service announcement" -- the reminder to "make soup first" before starting to cook for Thanksgiving. That way, after a big day of cooking, there will be something in the fridge to actually eat, not just food for Thanksgiving Day. Naturally, I have a recipe to share too ... A simple lentil soup, cooked in a broth scented with bay leaf, garlic, rosemary and a surprise ingredient, cinnamon. Vegan. I've been mesmerized by the photographs from a new-ish cookbook by Tessa Kiros . I loved an earlier cookbook, Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes , mostly because it's an unlikely combination of Finnish, Greek and South African recipes, cuisines I've been lucky to know, in person, right in situ . (And long-time readers have seen two recipes from Falling Cloudberries, Lamb Roast with Lemon & Oregano and Homemade Finnish Mustard which is always -- always -- in my fridge.) The new cookbook focuses

An adaptable salad, either lots of zucchini tossed with chunks of crisp-sautéed zucchini or, my favorite, that same crisp-sautéed zucchini tossed with some quinoa for texture contrast and a little protein. Either way, this salad is light and bright and one to make over and over again with other vegetables, seasonal or what's on hand. Low Carb. Weight Watchers Friendly. Inexpensive Ingredients. Weeknight Easy. Great for Meal Prep. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free.

Today's hearty soup: Homemade Vegetable Beef, all about the vegetables but made with homemade beef stock. Fresh & Seasonal, Packed With Winter Vegetables. Great for Meal Prep. Naturally Gluten Free. Weight Watchers Friendly.