As a holiday that’s centered around food, Thanksgiving dishes are as diverse as the people celebrating.

With more Americans embracing plant-based eating, a big family meal is a terrific occasion for showing off some new vegan-friendly delights.

The easiest portion of your Thanksgiving feast to make plant-based is the dessert selection.

Let’s explore some vegan options for the sweeter side of your holiday feast.

Making Desserts and Sweets With Plant-Based Ingredients

Compared to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plant-based desserts are a breeze.
As meat is a rarity in desserts, all that’s left to worry about is the sweetness. Luckily, sweet flavors usually come from plant-based sources—namely sugar, along with fruits and syrups (which can easily substitute into recipes that call for honey).

Then there’s chocolate, which is just roasted and ground cacao. Just avoid milk chocolate products and check the ingredients list to make sure.

Nuts are another dessert staple with no complications; almonds, cashews, pistachios, and peanut butter all provide a strong plant-based flavor and texture boosts.

That just leaves eggs and dairy. Dairy can be easily substituted with plant-based milks and butters.

Eggs are trickier as no plant-based ingredient is exactly like an egg. However ,flax eggs—which are simply ground flax seeds and water—function well in place of eggs in recipes.

For vegan baking, here are the top ingredient swap-outs that make most recipes possible:

Vegan Desserts: Plant-Based Baking Ingredient Alternatives
Eggs	flax eggs, chia seed eggs, tofu, banana, apple sauce
Milk	plant-based milk (soy, almond, cashew, rice, oat)
Butter	plant-based buttery spreads, olive oil, coconut oil
Honey	maple syrup, molasses, agave syrup, sugar

Creativity goes a long way. If there’s a recipe you’re curious about, chances are there’s a brilliant plant-based version available online.

So, if you’re opting for some vegan-friendly Thanksgiving desserts, here are a few delicious, healthy, and entirely vegan options to serve at your family feast.

Note: This isn’t a how-to guide—we’ll leave that to the recipe sites. Rather, we hope these dishes will inspire you to seek out new recipes and try some wonderful new plant-based treats.

Avocado Black Bean Brownies

You can take your pick: avocado brownies, black bean brownies, or avocado black bean brownies; there are delicious recipes for all three!

Avocado subs in for butter, while black beans blend with the cocoa to provide the recipe’s chocolate base—black beans actually serve as a flour substitute.

Protein-packed beans and avocado provide an incredibly rich texture to your brownies and won’t overwhelm with flavor, since the cocoa and sugar have stronger tastes.

Avocado black bean brownies might be the healthiest option on your dessert table and might be the most delicious brownies you’ll ever taste.

Silken Tofu Chocolate Mousse

We promise, this one is WAY better than it sounds.

A traditional chocolate mousse usually contains some combination of these ingredients:

• Whipped egg whites and/or whipped cream
• Chocolate (melted or powder)
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• Sugar

For a vegan mousse, silken tofu takes over for the eggs and dairy, so all that’s left is the chocolate and sweetener.

Most of us don’t associate tofu with desserts, but silken tofu is special. This type of tofu is made without curdling the soy milk resulting in a smooth and silky texture.

When stirred in a blender for mousse-making, silken tofu takes on a perfect pudding-like consistency.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie is the quintessential Thanksgiving dessert.

Non-vegan pumpkin pie usually contains egg in both the filling and the crust.

But since the filling is mostly pumpkin, it’s no big deal to tweak the details. Egg is used as a leavening agent and a binder, which can be accomplished by other ingredients like high-pectin fruits, vegan mayo, silken tofu, or tapioca starch.

As for the crust, eggs are used to add moisture, hold ingredients together, and make the dough more workable, but are far from a necessity. Making a plant-based pie crust isn’t the easiest culinary feat, but as long as you’ve got flour and a fat source, you can make it happen.

If you manage to concoct a functional crust, the rest is easy. Your plant-based pals will be thrilled to have this holiday classic on the menu.

Tunisian Baklava Pistachio

If you’d like to turn to the pros for one or two of your Thanksgiving desserts, we at Layla’s Delicacies would love to be a part of your feast.

For a sweet treat that’s vegan and mouth-wateringly delicious, try our Tunisian Baklava Pistachio.

From Turkish origins, baklava spread throughout the Mediterranean region, becoming a classic dish in numerous lands.

A Layla’s Delicacies, our Tunisian Baklava Pistachio is nutty and sweet, but not too sweet—a bit of restraint with the syrup allows for a more balanced and diverse bite.

The center of our baklava consists of two crushed nut layers—pistachio and almond—Stacked between two sweetened filo sheets.

Each bite is a rich and decadent mix of sweet and savory, and crunchy and chewy.

As for our ingredients list, we’ve adapted our methods over time to make a 100 percent vegan baklava, using olive oil and syrup instead of butter and honey. We love the results and you will too.

Holiday Cheer and Delicious Sweets

Thanksgiving dinner—and the desserts that follow—should always include a few of the classic dishes, but can try some new foods or different takes on familiar favorites.

If your feast is partially or entirely plant-based, Layla’s Delicacies has some sweets for you. Serve some baklava or another Mediterranean favorite like almond fingers or Samsa Pistachio.

”All of the Layla’s Delicacies I’ve had were amazing. I really love that there are so many vegan treats. The Samsa pistachio is light and crunchy and so delicious.”
— Heather H., ★★★★★ Verified Layla’s Delicacies Reviewer

To accommodate your plant-based feast, we’ve got a wide selection of vegan treats. Can’t pick just one? Try a gift box and sample an assortment of exquisite snacks.

Our baked creations are as beautiful as they are delicious. If you’ll be a guest this Thanksgiving, you can’t go wrong showing up with a Layla’s gift box.

For more culinary inspiration, and lots of plant-based food guides, visit our blog. If you have any questions, contact us or visit our frequently asked questions page.

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