- My mom has been super open and accepting
to me eating a plant-based diet.
She has helped me veganize a ton of recipes,
and she's taught me everything I know about cooking.
Hi, I'm Rachel, and this is my mom.
- Hi, I'm Carla.
- And we're gonna host a vegan Thanksgiving.
This will be my fourth Thanksgiving that I've been vegan.
And while my family still makes a turkey,
we've veganized all of the sides.
So the green bean casserole, we use non-dairy milk.
The stuffing is vegan.
We just use vegan butter in the mashed potatoes.
And my dad and my brother don't even notice.
It's been really easy and great.
- [Carla] One of the concerns I had
when we decided to veganize the Thanksgiving dinner
was that we would lose our traditions.
And I have found that I don't miss certain things,
and we are starting new traditions.
- [Rachel] I used to always make the gizzards
with my dad on Thanksgiving,
and we'd have that as a little pre-Thanksgiving snack
while watching the parade.
But then I started to find
that we just replace these traditions with new ones.
So now my dad and I will have different special beer
every year and try something new.
- [Carla] I think what we also realize
is that it's really about being together
and enjoying a meal as opposed to the individual foods.
I try to eat plant-based,
but I can't say I do it 100% at all.
When I go in the grocery story, I almost never buy meat,
because I feel you on my shoulder disapproving (laughing).
Some of the things that I realized that I cook
are already vegan, and I had never thought of it.
For example, when I was growing up,
grandma would always make pasta pasil,
which is peas and onions and pasta.
Sometimes I have a recipe with broccoli rabe
and cannellini beans and lemon.
So there are a lot of things that you might enjoy
that are already vegan.
You don't have to go crazy thinking about looking
for something new that's vegan.
So this Thanksgiving we're going to have
a mushroom Wellington.
This is a delicious recipe
that Rachel brought into our lives.
And I've given it to people I work with who love it.
And it's just great.
First of all, we all love mushrooms in my family.
So you layer mushrooms and potatoes and spinach
and wrap it in a puff pastry,
and it's just really, really good.
And it looks very beautiful and elegant,
so it makes a really nice presentation.
- [Rachel] So I think that deserts
are one of the easiest things to make vegan.
I've made a few videos in the past.
I've made vegan chocolate chip cookies
and vegan fudgy brownies.
And I just don't think that anyone would eat that
and know that it's vegan or think it doesn't taste good.
I think they taste exactly the same.
So I saw a recipe online for a vegan pumpkin cheesecake,
so I thought that'd be a fun recipe to try out with my mom.
And this cheesecake came out awesome.
I was so impressed by the texture and the creaminess of it.
And I know that I've been vegan for a few years now,
but the one thing that I definitely do not miss is dairy,
because it's just so easy to replicate the texture,
the creaminess, with things like coconut milk,
silken tofu, cashews.
It's just something that I think
a lot of people would really love if they tried.
And I just think that making little changes like this
without taking away from the food are so important,
because they have such a big impact on the environment
and on our health and on animal welfare
and can really add up and make a big difference.
- [Carla] When Rachel cooks vegan for me, I'm thrilled.
Her cooking is so delicious.
And I have often said to her that if she moved home,
I would be 100% vegan if she cooked for me every day.
And she also enjoys feeding people.
I see that when I watch her.
And I was always the same way and so was my mother.
So you do get pleasure when you give food to people
and you see them enjoy it.
- Now let's try this cheesecake.
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Mm, that's the stuff.
- Very good.
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