Here is Part III of our Thanksgiving Steal This Meal series, featuring more vegetable side dishes, and two delicious dessert options. Again, while we don’t encourage you to “Paleo-ify” poor food choices like pies and cakes, for a once-a-year social and cultural event like Thanksgiving, we’re more than okay with recreating a sweet potato pie or your Mom’s famous Waldorf salad. So round up the rest of your Thanksgiving recipes today, and get to preparing for next week!

Roasted Beets and Pistachio Butter
Submitted by Amanda Langowski

Amanda’s Note:  Can you tell we love pistachios!?  We just make huge batches and have them as a side dish with pretty much anything.  These are great leftover, so don’t be afraid of having too much.

Ingredients:

• 4 large beets – red, golden, or both.  (1-2 beets per person)
• 1/2 cup shelled & salted pistachios
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Directions:

Heat the oven to 375 F and arrange a rack in the middle. Rinse and scrub the beets, cutting off any leaves or little roots.  Rub them with 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil, place them in a pan and cover with aluminum foil.  Roast until tender and you can easily pierce with a knife; this will take about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool.

While they are cooling, make your pistachio butter.  Using a food processor, add 1/2 cup pistachios and pulse until they are finely ground.   Then drizzle in olive oil – start with 1 tablespoon.  Alternate adding 1 tsp water and 1 tsp olive oil until you get a really creamy texture, much like a very soft butter.  If it gets too thin for your liking add in some more ground pistachios.  (Note, I sometimes double the “butter” recipe, because it goes so quick!)

Once the beets are cool, remove the skins – they should come right off.  Slice the beets in chunks, and sprinkle with a little bit of olive oil to make them glossy.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve the beets with the pistachio butter for dipping or spreading.   One last note – you could make the beets the day before and let them chill in the fridge.  Just take them out and warm them up a bit before serving and dressing.

Coconutty Butternut Squash
Submitted by Lisa Glenn

Lisa’s Note:   We’ve already had thanksgiving here in Canada and I must say I felt like death afterward.  I’m excited to see how everyone does with your Whole30 Thanksgiving!  Here is a recipe for a dish I had at a client’s house this past weekend. It was delicious – almost felt like a “cheat”!

Ingredients:

• 1 Large butternut squash
• 1 Can coconut milk
• 2-3 cups chicken broth (“Imagine” brand from Whole Foods is Whole30 approved – other brands, read your labels!)
• Dash of salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Peel and cut the butternut squash into cubes.  Add 2 cups of chicken broth, bring to a boil, simmer until fork tender.  Drain off 1 cup of the broth and add in coconut milk (about half of a cup; more if needed).  Add a dash of salt and pepper and a teaspoon of cinnamon.  Blend in a blender or with a hand mixer – the texture should resemble mashed potatoes.    Serve warm, with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Root Vegetables with Cinnamon Walnuts
by Maria Fisher

Whole9 Note: Maria is our POSE running coach (as soon as we show up for our first lesson…) and our training partner in crime at our home gym in Salt Lake City.  She’s a dynamo in the gym, and this recipe proves she’s a dynamo in the kitchen too!  This is one of our favorite vegetable submissions, sure to please even the pickiest Thanksgiving guest.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs assorted root vegetables, peeled and diced
• 1 c apple cider (no added sugar)
• 3 tblsp coconut butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix together cider, 2 tblsp coconut butter, salt and pepper in a 9×13-inch baking pan.  Add root vegetables, mixing until coated.  Cover with foil.  Bake 20 minutes, uncover and stir vegetables. Leave uncovered and continue cooking, stirring every 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender – about 1 hour more.

While the vegetables are cooking, place walnuts in a cast iron skillet and cook over low heat, stirring frequently to avoid scorching walnuts.  Remove from heat and add coconut butter, cinnamon and, if desired, a pinch of salt.  Stir until walnuts are coated.  Spread on a plate or cookie sheet to allow walnuts to cool slightly.  When vegetables are finished, transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with the cinnamon walnuts.

Apple “Pumpkin” Pie
by Pamela Barlett

Pamela’s Note:  This recipe uses the natural sweetness of the apples and yams to let you have a traditional pumpkin pie without the sugar.

Ingredients – Crust:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients – Pie Filling:

• 2 to 3 Apples (We recommend Honeycrisp, since they are on the slightly sweeter side)
• 1 3/4 cup steamed and pureed yam/sweet potato
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 nutmeg
• 2 beaten eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut milk

Directions:

For the crust:  Throughly mix all ingredients together except for the coconut flour. Add the coconut flour in and mix well to form dough. Knead dough for ~1 minute.  Roll dough out between sheets of wax paper until it’s big enough to fit the pie dish. In my experience transferring the pie crust usually results in it falling apart to some extent, so just plan on patching it up a little bit once you’ve transferred it.

For the filling:  Thinly slice, peel and core apples. Coat with cinnamon and stir. Set aside.  In a separate bowl, combine yam, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.  Beat in eggs gently until just combined. Slowly add coconut milk until combined.

Layer apple slices and pumpkin filling in the pie dish. Bake in a 375 oven for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cranberry Waldorf Salad
Submitted by Melissa Joulwan, The Clothes Make the Girl

Meliss’s Note: My mom has been making this Cranberry Waldorf Salad for as long as I can remember.   The original called for 1/2 cup white sugar, a bag of miniature marshmallows, and a whole container of Cool-Whip!  So I put on my Whole30 hat, replaced the Cool-Whip with coconut milk, made dried apricots stand in for the white sugar, and eliminated the marshmallows altogether.  The best part – it tastes as good as I remembered! I’m thrilled that this taste of tradition can be on our table this year.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag fresh (whole) cranberries
• 16 dried apricots
• 1 lb. seedless grapes, cut in half
• 2 apples, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup pecan halves
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

This salad works best if you do the prep, then let it sit overnight. Put your mixing bowl and beater in the freezer, and place the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator. Wash the cranberries. Place them in the food processor with the dried apricots and grind them until the mixture has the consistency of relish. In a large bowl, toss the cranberries with the cut apples and grapes. Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator so they can get to know each other. Forget about them until the next day.

On Thanksgiving morning when you’re ready to assemble the salad, put the can of coconut milk in the freezer for 10 minutes while you chop the pecans.Take the bowl and beater out of the freezer, pour the chilled coconut milk into the bowl, add the vanilla extract, and beat the mixture on the highest speed of your mixer until it looks like whipped cream. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Marvel at the creaminess!  When the cream is done, add the nuts to the fruit mixture, and gently fold in the whipped cream. Garnish with whole cranberries and nuts.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Hungry for more Thanksgiving recipes? Check out Thanksgiving Part I (stuffing and cranberry sauce), and Thanksgiving Part II (turkey and vegetable side dishes). And as a thank you for these submissions, all of our STM featured chefs will receive a copy of the Whole30 Success Guide. Yum!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  Melissa & Dallas, Whole9