THANK Goodness for A Nut-Free Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Today, we're thrilled to kick off our celebrations with this guest post from our friend and allergy mom extraordinaire Monica of Essence Nutrition! She's bringing us deliciously allergy-friendly and nut-free recipes for a holiday as festive and tasty as it is safe.
November is a time to have an attitude of gratitude for what we have and with whom we have the opportunity to share them -- especially when it comes to food. Whether you choose to live nut-free, do so because of a family member, pack nut-free fare for your child at their nut-free school or facility, or simply in solidarity with the food allergy community -- we can all be thankful that brands like Don’t Go Nuts have provided scrumptious and nutritious options for sufferers for nut allergies.
If attending someone else’s Thanksgiving, it would be considerate to call the host beforehand and enquire about any other guests attending with nut allergies and offer to bring a nut-free dish. If you’re the host -- 1) best of luck, we know it’s stressful! and 2) you can query your guests to probe for any allergies before you design your menu. It’s a good idea to completely eliminate allergens from your menu if a guest has a food allergy to minimize cross contamination. You can compassionately ask your guest to educate you on how best to avoid accidental poisoning.
We can be infinitely thankful this month to seamlessly swap out nut butters (and even dairy butter!) and craft gorgeous and decadent nut-free Thanksgiving recipes using Don’t Go Nuts Organic Soy Spreads and Don’t Go Nuts Minis Chewy Granola Bar Variety Packs (read on for some terrific turkey accompaniments). Some curious turkeys have wondered about the taste of soy butter -- we’re grateful turkeys to assure you that it tastes creamy, dreamy, and quite reminiscent of peanut butter. The great advances in food science have allowed us to engineer a product that tastes in no way artificial, overly sweet, or overly salted. It’s an exquisite balance of blissful mouthfeel, texture, and nutty taste -- but we’ll leave the nuts for the squirrels this holiday. It’s smooth, rich, filling, and like its classic allergenic peanut predecessor, it can be fun to stick on the top of your mouth and try to talk. You can also swathe a pinecone in it and roll it in some oats as a bird attractor -- a timeless Thanksgiving kid activity -- though we can’t say if birds are SOY excited about soy as we are.
Soy is famed for its isoflavones, a type of phytonutrient (a chemical unique to plants) support blood vessel and cellular health, reduced cardiovascular disease risk, reductions in plasma lipids like cholesterol, reduced cancer cell activity, and reduced risk of bone loss.
DGN products can add a nut-free calcium, fiber, magnesium, and protein kick to your Thanksgiving cornucopia. They use only organic, non-GMO whole soybeans, which are ground into flour and minimally processed. Their facility also does NOT add soy isolates, and does not use the Hexane process. All their snacks are free from peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, fish, eggs and sesame so you can have no worries! As more diners migrate to plant-based holiday spreads, DGN can also serve up a source of vegan complete protein -- it contains all essential amino acids that humans cannot produce endogenously and can help plant-based eaters feel full (but not Thanksgiving stuffed like a turkey, hopefully?) if they choose to skip the bird.
No Nutty Grateful Gravy
1 TBSP olive oil
2 onions, diced
2 minced cloves of garlic
2 TBSP DGN sea salt spread
1 bay leaf
Salt, to taste
Oat flour -- optional, may need
Place all ingredients together in a pot and bring to the boil. Cover and reduce to a simmer for 75 minutes, stirring occasionally, until gravy is thickened. For the last ten minutes of cooking, remove the lid. To thicken, you can add some oat flour.
SOY Grateful Pie Crust
Ingredients
Crust
Enough DGN Apple Cinnamon Minis to cover a pie pan. Remove from wrappers, place in a food processor with ¼ cup of brown sugar, ¼ cup of DGN sea salted spread, and mash into bottom of a greased pie pan (grease with butter or coconut oil) that has a layer of parchment paper on it.
A suggested filling
- 2 cups peeled yellow applies, sliced with a mandolin or very thinly
- 2 cups grapes, sliced thinly (peels on is fine)
- 1 TBSP maple syrup
- ½ cup crushed sunflower seeds
- ½ cup crushed pumpkin seeds
A suggested topping
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup olive oil or applesauce
- 1/8 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and press DGN Minis mixture into the bottom of pan as described above. Bake for 10 minutes and remove. Your crust is done! For filling and topping -- toss the apple, grapes and honey in a medium bowl, then spread evenly over the baked crust. In a third bowl, combine all topping ingredients. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the apples. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until fruits are soft and tender. Allow to cool 20 minutes -- serve with nut-free ice cream drizzled with melted DGN cinnamon butter.
Sweet Potato CasserOHNONutserole
Filling
4 cups large sweet potatoes, cubed. You can leave the peels on for more fiber!
0.5 cup packed brown sugar
8 TBSP DGN cinnamon spread
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Topping
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
0.5 cups oat flour
4 tbsp DGN cinnamon spread
1 cup chopped pumpkin seeds
2.5 cups mini allergy-friendly marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with coconut oil. Place sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until the sweet potatoes are tender -- about 15 minutes. Drain and let cool slightly. Transfer to a large bowl.
In a separate large bowl, stir together sweet potatoes, sugar, DGN cinnamon spread, vanilla, milk, eggs, and salt until smooth. Pour into baking dish.
In a separate medium bowl, stir together sugar, oat flour, and second set of DGN cinnamon butter until it clumps. Stir in pumpkin seeds, then spread evenly over potatoes. Top with marshmallows.
Bake until marshmallows are golden -- about 30 minutes.
- Monica of Essence Nutrition wrote this post, sponsored by Don’t Go Nuts.
References:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/isoflavones#:~:text=Isoflavones%20are%20a%20type%20of,contain%20varying%20concentrations%20of%20isoflavones.