The fourth Thursday each November, Americans gather around tables laden with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie to feast and to give thanks for the bounty of the season. But with turkey as the meal’s centerpiece, do vegetarians feel excluded from the meat-centric festivities?
Thanks to Tofurky, a meat alternative made of tofu, or soybean protein, and wheat protein, vegetarians are no longer limited to just the side dishes. Some Tofurkys even include fake wishbones so vegetarians can have a more authentic turkey-eating experience. Towerview co-Editor-in-Chief, Ashley Mooney, however, said fake meat isn’t for all vegetarians.
“I never liked fake meat because if it’s going to be meat it might as well be meat. It shouldn’t be something in between,” she said.
One year, Mooney’s family overcompensated by buying her her own Tofurky.
“It was really disgusting. I could not take more than a bite of it,” she said. “My mom spent the next two weeks yelling at me about how I wouldn’t eat the Tofurky that she had specially bought for me.”
Fortunately for Mooney, she is perfectly content eating stuffing, bread, vegetables and “a lot of pumpkin pie.”
“I would rather eat meat than eat another Tofurky,” she said.
An odd coincidence, Mooney chose to become a vegetarian when she was nine-years-old after seeing a documentary on Animal Planet about how turkeys are equally good pets as dogs.
“I just felt weird about eating something that I would want as a pet,” she said. “You wouldn’t eat your dog on Thanksgiving.”
Does Mooney feel like she’s missing out on a central part of the quintessential Thanksgiving experience?
“Not really, I definitely compensate by eating double of everything else,” she said, adding that pumpkin pie is her favorite dessert year-round. “And there’s more turkey for the dog.”
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