When you think of Thanksgiving, you probably think about one, big, juicy thing first: a turkey sitting in the middle of the table.
But Damon Brasch is here to tell you, you don’t need it!
Brasch is the chef and owner of Green New American Vegetarian, which has two locations in Tempe and Phoenix. And he has become pretty well known in town for his vegan Thanksgiving.
For years now, he has been hosting what he calls ThanksLIVING at his restaurant, and he even just nabbed a national "Vegan Roast Boast" award from PETA for his Seitan Turkey Breast with "giblet" gravy.
The Show's Lauren Gilger got the chance to cook some vegan Thanksgiving fare with Brasch in his restaurant kitchen, and spoke with him to learn more about it.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: When you think of Thanksgiving, you probably think about one big juicy thing first, a turkey, of course, sitting in the middle of the table. But our next guest is here to tell you you don't need it.
Damon Brasch is the chef and owner of Green New American Vegetarian, which has two locations in Tempe and Phoenix. And he has become pretty well known in town for his vegan Thanksgiving.
For years now, he has been hosting what he calls thanks living at his restaurant. And he even just nabbed a national vegan roast boast award from PETA for his Satan turkey breast with “giblet gravy.” I got the chance to cook some vegan Thanksgiving fare with Brash in his restaurant kitchen. Take a listen.
DAMON BRASCH: We are cooking up some Thanksgiving food. This time of year, we cook a lot of it at the restaurant. And today I'm gonna prepare a little stuffed squash dish for you that is really easy to make. And, we'll walk you through all the steps.
GILGER: Let's get started.
BRASCH: Do you wanna walk to the kitchen?
GILGER: I'll follow you.
BRASCH: Ok, so here we have some stuffing. It's really, really basic it's a nice bread stuffing. Bread is the base crunchy bread. It's got some roasted mushrooms in there. It's got some roasted kale in there. It's got some red peppers. Everything in here is really, really accessible. You just kind of saute it in a little bit of butter, add your stuffing in, add a little bit of stock. Obviously, everything we do here is plant based.
So the stock that we use is usually a mushroom stock or there are some pretty great faux chicken stocks out on the market these days too. But you can always make your own. There's so many great recipes online. And then you just cook that up and you have something pretty delicious.
GILGER: Smells really good.
BRASCH: So we'll fire this up and this is gonna be the base for our dish. This is my favorite part of this meal is, it's a tomato sauce base, but it kind of, I'm Italian. So like, you know, some Italians call tomato sauce gravy.
So we're not doing a traditional Thanksgiving gravy for this, but we're doing a red sauce gravy and this will be the base and the tomatoes just meld so well with the squash, it really just brings everything together, makes everything super unctuous and very flavorful.
GILGER: I would have never thought of a tomato sauce base in a stuffing or in a squash. So you're stirring this up here.
BRASCH: We’re letting this go. In here we have a little bit of organic tomato. We have some organic tamari again. We have a little bit of mushroom seasoning, a little garlic, a little white wine and we just pure it down into like a nice smooth sauce over here. We've got two different kinds of squash. Do you have a preference? What your do you like a spaghetti squash or an acorn squash?
GILGER: I love acorn squash.
BRASCH: Me too, so, the squash is kind of interesting. I grew up eating squash and not really liking it very much. I don't want to diss anybody that was cooking in my house, but it takes a certain touch to make squash delicious. And I always start at least a couple of hours beforehand.
It's so easy, rub it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper if you like it a little sweet. A little maple syrup, throw it in a 400 oven for about an hour or so and then turn off the oven, cover it and just leave it for another hour and just let it steep in those juices and it'll come into this beautiful, very soft, very anxious, delicious sauce.
GILGER: That's a great tip, I love it, ok! Frying up the, the squash here.
BRASCH: We kind of have our plancha here. You could use a cast iron skillet at home, get it nice and hot. Put a little bit of olive oil in there and just drop it down in there. And caramelize the edges.
GILGER: All right, so we're browning them up. They're looking good.
BRASCH: Those are nice and cooked. So we're gonna grab our plate and you said you like acorn, so we'll start with that.
GILGER: So this tomato sauce is going on the plate.
BRASCH: So we're gonna put the tomato sauce down on the plate and then we're just gonna take a little bit of stuffing and just carefully stuff it in there.
GILGER: Beautiful. So, I mean, you're sort of an evangelist when it comes to not just vegetarian and vegan cuisine but the fact that it can taste really good. Right.
BRASCH: Oh, yeah, that's the biggest part. We've, we've been lucky enough to be here for a really long time. A lot of people love our restaurant and people always ask me, we don't know what you do to make it so delicious. Like we don't, we don't sacrifice anything by coming to eat here. And I always say we just season things correctly. We make it taste good. It's not a big secret. A, a little bit of salt, a little bit of fat and everything is gonna taste delicious.
And who doesn't love a stuffed squash or a burger from time to time?
GILGER: Ok, so you put the fried onions on top, you got fresh pomegranate seeds, you're gonna put on top here as well.
BRASCH: Yeah. So you just let them kind of sprinkle and fall all around the, the shoestring onions here and you have a pretty nice looking dish. I mean, anybody getting that at a Thanksgiving meal would be pretty happy.
GILGER: It's beautiful. It's true. So, I guess, I mean, sure you, you can make flavorful vegetarian cuisine, but at the same time I think like when it comes to the holidays, that's a, that's a tougher sell in some ways it must be because so many people are used to the big giant turkey and like, there's all these traditions that go with it and it sounds like you've become very successful in convincing people otherwise that you don't need those things here with them with your events over Thanksgiving.
BRASCH: Yeah. So on Thanksgiving, you know, plant based folks or vegan people don't really have a big opportunity to go out to eat or, you know, sometimes the food can be a little tricky.
So we started this event about 12, 13 years ago and it's called Thanks Living. We have it here at the restaurant. We give you reheating instructions. They come in a, in a reheatable pan and we make it so, so simple and we feed like 1000 people and they love it.
GILGER: Did it take any convincing for people when you started this event to sort of say like you don't need a turkey on Thanksgiving?
BRASCH: No, I think that there was enough of an outcry of people who really wanted to see something like that in the valley and it just grew and grew and grew the first year, I think we had like 200 people and it was a really wonderful event, and then the next year that doubled and then the year after that it doubled. And so it's just been getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
GILGER: The meal completed. We headed to the back of the restaurant to talk more about his approach to vegan cuisine and how to tackle it around the holidays.
So we've got these beautiful dishes that are proving your point that you can make beautiful Thanksgiving meals that are vegan, that are vegetarian. I wonder though, I mean, tell us a little bit about how you began in this. Like, have you always been a vegetarian?
BRASCH: I have not. No, I grew up in Chicago. I was a meat eating kid pretty normal. When I was about 18, 19 a good friend of mine gave me a book called Diet for a New America which I recommend everybody read. And it just made me realize that where our food comes from is, is more than, you know, you have to look at that next layer of, of where your food is coming from.
You should always balance I think your diet, so we don't ever preach that you need to be vegan. Like that's super annoying, but we do just say like be conscious of, you know, where your food is coming from and try to approach it from a healthful standpoint and, and have some balance and I think it's better for, you know, your own personal health and I think it's better for the environment for sure.
GILGER: So you've sort of made a name for yourself with this restaurant. And the work that you do is sort of like a vegan or a vegetarian chef who can make things taste super good. Like, I think your burger, right? Was like on the one of the list of like the New York Times best burgers in the country, but it's a vegan burger, which is sort of crazy to people. What's your philosophy on this? Like, it doesn't have to be, you know, all salads it seems like.
BRASCH: No, absolutely not. I mean, I, I love salads but I don't want to eat a salad every day. Our restaurant is formulated for the meat eater for the Omnivore. Somebody who really enjoys, having a real burger from time to time. All that we're saying is give us a chance and you might feel better doing something good for yourself, doing something good for the environment and not having to sacrifice the, the, the flavors that you're used to.
My father in law is a great guy and he loves Mickey D's and he comes into our restaurant and he orders a big whack which is just like a another sandwich with a similar name. And, he loves it, you know, and, and I'm sure he would tell me the truth if it wasn't any good, but it's, it's really a delicious alternative for sure.
GILGER: And you use a lot of, sort of meat replacement products, things like that that are uncanny, I will say from experience, well, when it comes to the holidays, particularly Thanksgiving, which is all about the turkey, which is all about sort of like the signature dishes. What are the biggest challenges in sort of recreating that in a plant based way?
BRASCH: It's, it can be challenging. I mean, sometimes it's so traditional with that big bird in the middle of the table. But you know, I don't know if you're looking for something a little bit more interesting, a little bit more healthful, a little bit better for you. There's so many interesting things happening in the culinary world in the vegan culinary world right now. It's really, really an exciting time.
GILGER: It does seem to be changing and innovating a lot. Ok, so we have a beautiful sort of stuffing squash dish here which covers two of the big bases, I think of Thanksgiving. What do you do for a turkey though?
BRASCH: At the restaurant, we make a Seitan turkey. So, Seitan is a whole protein made from wheat gluten. We season it and we bread it with organic hemp seeds and panco and we fry it up. I know the fried turkey was all the rage. So that, that, that fit us perfectly and it kind of flakes and tears just like regular turkey and then the rest of the meal is very traditional.
We have an amazing pimento corn. We have these fried brussel sprouts with brown butter. Everything is 100% plant based. Our stuffing is an organic cranberry walnut stuffing similar to this one that we made today, but not totally the same, but so, so delicious.
GILGER: So number one tip to somebody who's thinking about doing a vegetarian or a vegan Thanksgiving for the first time thinking maybe, maybe I could do this, maybe I can sacrifice the turkey this year and not go that route. What do you think they should try first?
BRASCH: If you wanna go and try and do it yourself and you absolutely can just have fun with it. Less is more, you don't need to go crazy with all the different sauces and all that kind of stuff. Mashed potatoes are delicious because they're simple, you know, and whether it's the vegan version or the traditional version, they make a vegan, heavy cream, they make vegan butter, you know, use a good quality potato and follow the instructions on how to do it and everything can be switched out. Just don't be nervous to do it, you can do it.
GILGER: Thank you so much, Damon for having me out, I appreciate it.
BRASCH: Thank you so much, we really appreciate it.
