UNM group hosts vegan Thanksgiving

A turkeyless Turkey Day won’t limit vegan and vegetarian students to Tofurky this year.

The Vegetarians and Vegans of the University of New Mexico (VUNM), an organization that has been intermittently active, will host a vegan Thanksgiving dinner at group co-founder Leah Thomas’ house.

Thomas said the main dish will be quinoa with pomegranate seeds and mint leaves tossed with roasted veggies, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. Acorn squash topped with red chile pecans and a vegan version of classics like mashed potatoes and stuffing accompany the quinoa salad. She said she’s even developed a vegan caramel for dark chocolate pecan turtles.

Benjamin Abbott, VUNM co-founder, said he has been a vegan since 2001, so he is used to alternative Thanksgiving eating. He said he grew up in the Baha’i faith, a Shiite sect that encourages vegetarianism. Because he recently began a doctoral program in American Studies at UNM, Abbott said the holiday brings more than food to the table.

“I consider Thanksgiving very problematic because of how the Thanksgiving story can be used to justify colonialism and the theft of indigenous lands,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t be celebrating Thanksgiving at all if it weren’t for the meal that we planned. I won’t turn down so much free food, and I’ll probably be preparing some of it as well.”

Some vegan and vegetarian students will be getting a feel for compromising their dietary restrictions with family traditions.

UNM student Gabriel Macias will be gobbling up his first vegetarian Thanksgiving this year. He said that while he was growing up meat was a standard component of his every meal. In high school, adverse digestive reactions to meat sparked his interest in dietary change.

Eventually, his practice of Shao-lin kung fu, a martial art that encourages veganism, was the catalyst for his transition away from eating meat. Macias said he will be spending Thanksgiving with his omnivorous family, but he said refusing the meat shouldn’t be hard when he considers the health benefits of vegetarianism.

But dealing with the strange looks from his not-so-understanding family could make it uncomfortable, he said.

“For the first time my celebration will not be centered on food,” Macias said. “I do not care if there is even a large authentic meal or not, because this year Thanksgiving is only about seeing family that I have not seen all semester. I even feel that my time with my family will be restricted because everyone else will still be concerned with the meal.”

UNM student Kendra Crooks said she’s been a vegetarian for two and a half years now. Her first vegetarian Thanksgiving was stranger for her family than for her, because she said they’re from a small town in the country where food is the focus of the holiday. They weren’t into the Tofurky she made at first, but she said she’s had fun doctoring up dishes with family as well as with her vegetarian roommates.

“I think that the holiday experience is now a little bit different for my family and I,” Crooks said. “At first I feel like they had no idea what to do. But now they seem to be actually having fun coming up with new recipes and things to share.”