Please share your Asian/South Asian/Middle Eastern/North African Thanksgiving recipes!

[Anonymous]

I'm white but the food I really like to prepare and eat is from these places and I can't stand traditional Thanksgiving food. Please share recipes that you love and that use typical spices, ingredients and flavors from these areas.

TIA

[Anonymous]

We put kimchi in our mashed potatoes

[Anonymous]

Indian-spiced roasted butternut squash and gruyere tart from the JamLab blog.

[Anonymous]

Thanksgiving food is pretty versatile. Just make whatever Turkey, vegetable, salad, bread recipes you would normally do from those regions.

[Anonymous]

Well Thanksgiving food is going to be pretty much overwhelmingly English flavors, aka rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. because that's what the pilgrims ate.

You can do your own thing on Thanksgiving and have ssambap for example, but it's not going to be Thanksgiving food. just like you could celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beef lo mein or St Patricks Day with injera but it's not gonna really be the holiday.

But... make whatever you want. If you like this food so much you should probably already have a list of go-to recipes from these places, so I'm not gonna post my go-tos. Treat it like a normal Thursday if you're going this route.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well Thanksgiving food is going to be pretty much overwhelmingly English flavors, aka rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. because that's what the pilgrims ate.

You can do your own thing on Thanksgiving and have ssambap for example, but it's not going to be Thanksgiving food. just like you could celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beef lo mein or St Patricks Day with injera but it's not gonna really be the holiday.

But... make whatever you want. If you like this food so much you should probably already have a list of go-to recipes from these places, so I'm not gonna post my go-tos. Treat it like a normal Thursday if you're going this route.

Ugh ignore this response. Anything can be a thanksgiving food so long as you’re giving thanks. If you need to go back to the original menu, plan to scratch your mashed potatoes and stuffing.
https://www.epicurious.com/holidays-events/the-real-story-of-the-first-thanksgiving-menu-recipes-article

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well Thanksgiving food is going to be pretty much overwhelmingly English flavors, aka rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. because that's what the pilgrims ate.

You can do your own thing on Thanksgiving and have ssambap for example, but it's not going to be Thanksgiving food. just like you could celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beef lo mein or St Patricks Day with injera but it's not gonna really be the holiday.

But... make whatever you want. If you like this food so much you should probably already have a list of go-to recipes from these places, so I'm not gonna post my go-tos. Treat it like a normal Thursday if you're going this route.

+1

But just order takeout like some people do on Christmas if they dont celebrate

[Anonymous]

I disagree with these posters saying don’t even try. I also think it wouldn’t be hard to alter traditional thanksgiving food. I’ve had a goat stuffed with couscous in the Middle East (yes, I definitely got sick, so please don’t do this).

I feel like you could do a roast Turkey with traditional middle eastern or North African spices, couscous as the “stuffing”, whatever veggie dish and salad you like, and then make or buy some fresh challah bread or flat bread instead of rolls. Figure out a sauce to act as “gravy”. I would be happy to be served something a little different.

[Anonymous]

My North African mom goes overboard with the garlic when she prepare the turkey. But it’s delicious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well Thanksgiving food is going to be pretty much overwhelmingly English flavors, aka rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. because that's what the pilgrims ate.

You can do your own thing on Thanksgiving and have ssambap for example, but it's not going to be Thanksgiving food. just like you could celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beef lo mein or St Patricks Day with injera but it's not gonna really be the holiday.

But... make whatever you want. If you like this food so much you should probably already have a list of go-to recipes from these places, so I'm not gonna post my go-tos. Treat it like a normal Thursday if you're going this route.

Literally none of the flavors you posted are English. Rosemary is mediterranean. Thyme is mediterranean and North African. Cinnamon is South Asian. Nutmeg is Asian. The pilgrims did not eat that stuff. They ate what the native Americans ate. Your eurocentric view of the world and history is so limited

[Anonymous]

https://food52.com/blog/20949-what-was-actually-served-at-the-first-thanksgiving

Maybe do a riff on the first thanksgiving if you don't want traditional fare: There are only two surviving documents that reference the original Thanksgiving harvest meal. They describe a feast of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, a bounty of cod and bass, and flint, a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.

[Anonymous]

Skip turkey and make cornish hens. I make very nice fried cauliflower steaks with some mint chutney.

I make a quinoa sweet pilaf with raisins, walnuts and carrots.

So, rosemary-lemon-garlic-buttermilk infused cornish hens, mac n cheese, corn pudding, cauliflower steak, mushroom gravy, quinoa pilaf, and everything served with platter of olives. tomatoes, fruits, salad, lettuce leaves..

[Anonymous]

OP, what are you asking?

If you're asking how people celebrate Thanksgiving in, say, Bangladesh, and what foods they serve, then that's not a thing. (Every culture has gathering/party/holiday foods, though.) American Thanksgiving is an American holiday.

You can certainly make whatever you want for the meal, though. So whip up some pad thai or couscous. Go to town! That's all easy to Google or check out of the library.

If you just want to add some "flair" to typical Thanksgiving foods, I mean, curry is good on pumpkin or butternut squash, turkey with harissa? Like others have said, search Epicurious for "[major ingredient]" or w/e and scan for any turkey or potato or yam or corn dish that includes some of those flavor accents.

If you're asking what American people from those cultures serve at Thanksgiving, okay, that is the only question that makes more sense to crowdsource than to Google, so maybe that's what you're asking.

It's at least a specific question to which the answer is not obvious, but that's partly because it's not exactly a thing. Most people will serve a couple of American TG dishes-- usually a whole turkey, though some E/SE Asian people serve duck instead, mashed potatoes and maybe sweet potatoes or squash or something, prepared in a European/American style... and then serve whatever else they like from their culture. For ex, pancit, tagine, paratha, rice instead of potatoes or rolls, etc. Not too many Asian/MENA families have been in the US for more than 50-100 years, if that, so there's not a semi-standard "menu" for A Very Vietnamese American Thanksgiving or anything. Of course, I'm not sure there's a Very Jewish American or Very Polish American or even a Very Irish American Thanksgiving, either. It's more of a family by family thing. I guess there are region-wide traditions, and there is something of a Very Black American Thanksgiving (more likely to require mac'n'cheese, sub sweet potato pie for pumpkin pie), but even that varies widely.

If you want to serve a meal like a, say, Afghani American family would at Thanksgiving... like specifically with that idea in mind... That's a little odd to me?

The best way to get-- or already have-- this information is to have friends and family that come from these cultures. If you don't, then no wonder your question is so opaque and confusing. I have some doubt you're even clear on what you're asking.

I'm not saying this is you, but it reminds me of people who ask how Jews celebrate Christmas. Hmmm... that example is too obvious and too religious. Maybe it's like when someone asked my Indian American cousin what toppings Indian Americans order on their pizza. He was like, uhhhh... pepperoni? Did they expect him to say okra? Or paneer?

[Anonymous]

My Armenian family just served traditional Armenian food for a Thanksgiving. As a kid I was always excited about homemade manti, souberek, and lahmajun (carbs!!!). Can't remember the veggies but we ate a lot of green beans braised with tomatoes and olive oil, and stuffed grape leaves and veggies with hummus as appetizers. Usually American pies and baklava for dessert.

If you want more overlap with American Thanksgiving foods, I'd say the sides are your friend. Make aloo gobi instead of mashed potatoes, roasted squash with cilantro chutney and yogurt raita instead of yams, fresh flatbreads, green beans and onions in an Indian or Ethiopian style (many variations), etc. There's also a sweet potato bisteeya recipe from Ana Sortun that kinda gets the sweet/savory tone of US Thanksgiving sweet potatoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Thanksgiving food is going to be pretty much overwhelmingly English flavors, aka rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. because that's what the pilgrims ate.

You can do your own thing on Thanksgiving and have ssambap for example, but it's not going to be Thanksgiving food. just like you could celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beef lo mein or St Patricks Day with injera but it's not gonna really be the holiday.

But... make whatever you want. If you like this food so much you should probably already have a list of go-to recipes from these places, so I'm not gonna post my go-tos. Treat it like a normal Thursday if you're going this route.

Literally none of the flavors you posted are English. Rosemary is mediterranean. Thyme is mediterranean and North African. Cinnamon is South Asian. Nutmeg is Asian. The pilgrims did not eat that stuff. They ate what the native Americans ate. Your eurocentric view of the world and history is so limited

Actually these are the most traditional English flavors and seasonings. The holiday was started by the pilgrims, and the dishes reflect it.

But by all means, no one will care at all if you dont do a Thanksgiving and put out some lo mein and go to town. No one will care. Literally no one. It just wont be a Thanksgiving feast. But whatever. Do you.