How To Handle Thanksgiving This Year If You’re Vegan

“It’s not always necessary to have meat on your plate.”

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On today's episode of BuzzFeed Daily, we broke down the top pop culture headlines AND discussed vegan Thanksgiving food alternatives. You can listen below or scroll down to read more about the interview!

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So let's dive right into it! Recently we talked to Chef Lyana Blount, the creator of Black Rican Vegan, about the best vegan dishes to try this Thanksgiving. Here's some of what we learned:

BuzzFeed Daily: So, before we get into these dishes, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got into cooking?

Instagram: @blackricanvegan

Lyana Blount: I've been cooking since nine years old. I always wanted to help my mom and my aunt in the kitchen, and I was left with the responsibility to cook for my siblings when my mom was at work and I just grew a passion for it. It was also like a love language. I'd cook for my friends and family, and just hearing the feedback that my food is amazing and it made them feel good — it always made me feel good. So it was definitely truly a passion and something I love to do.

BuzzFeed Daily: When did you start Black Rican Vegan and what made you want to put a vegan spin on traditional Puerto Rican food?

LB: Black Rican Vegan was a thought I had in 2016. That's when I first went vegan and I was learning about how the animals were kind of suffering before they hit our plates. And I was into the holistic lifestyle, so I wanted to make a change to not eat meat. So I started to get creative at home because it was hard to find places that had a lot of vegan options, especially in the Bronx, New York, where I'm from. 

So I just started to try out different things. And fast forward four years later, during the pandemic, I picked up the hobby again, once I had time to cook because I was stuck at home and I was like, "OK, I thought of Black Rican Vegan. We already had a logo. Let me just make a blog." So I started to make recipes and show everyone what I was doing with food, and everyone was amazed, and now it's turned into a whole business.

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BuzzFeed Daily: So, Thanksgiving is this week, which can be tough for people who don't eat meat or dairy. Do you have any advice for vegans who are attending a more traditional Thanksgiving, where everything is basically swimming in butter?

@peanuts / GIPHY / Via giphy.com

LB: I would just say to bring your own food. I know my Puerto Rican family, even though it could be just like rice and beans, they put a lot of ham flavoring or meat alternatives into the food. So I know that preparing food for myself before going to the gathering is important. And also, it kind of opens up the family to something new and makes them try out something that you bring. And if it's good and they love it, then it would be something you could bring all the time.

BuzzFeed Daily: I feel like people hear vegan food and they're like, "Oh my gosh, that's so different." But really, there are so many sides to choose from that are vegan. It shouldn't even be that revolutionary. So what do you say to people who turn up their nose at vegan food on Thanksgiving?

@theoffice / GIPHY / Via giphy.com

LB: I would say that they eat vegan food every day, if they eat vegetables and sweet potato yams and maybe some collard greens without the meat. You're eating vegan all the time, it's not always necessary to have meat on your plate.

BuzzFeed Daily: OK, I want to talk about one of your dishes, Jackfruit "Vernil." Tell us a little bit about this dish.

Black Rican Vegan / Via blackricanvegan.com

LB: So it's kind of a vegan twist on the Puerto Rican traditional dish called pernil. Pernil is pork shoulder that's cooked in the oven and roasted until tender. And I loved it when I was younger, but ever since I went vegan, I wanted to find a different way to kind of enjoy those flavors by not using meat. And I thought that jackfruit would be a perfect substitute. I seen someone make a barbecue pulled pork, and I was like, "OK, well, we use pork to make pernil. Maybe I could do it to make 'vernil.' And that was one of the dishes that kind of blew up my page, and it was just pretty cool to have that alternative and share it with the world and show that you can make vegan options out of traditional dishes.

BuzzFeed Daily: Up next is your Fried Oyster Mushrooms, which is a spin on fried chicken, and our listeners should definitely go to your website to check out the photo of this dish because it looks amazing. So what was the inspiration for this one?

Black Rican Vegan / Via blackricanvegan.com

LB: I was playing around with mushrooms and I seen someone [use mushrooms for] a chicken alternative and I said, "OK, let me try some fried chicken." So I perfected the recipe using flour, potato starch, and some seasonings — and we got some [vegan] fried chicken. And I use oyster mushroom because when it's marinated in seasonings and vegan batter, it gets tenderized, and when you cook it and you bite into it, it looks and kind of tastes like chicken, depending on how you seasoned it.

BuzzFeed Daily: OK, so the last recipe I want to talk about is vegan meatloaf, which I honestly have not seen that often. How do you go about making vegan meatloaf?

Instagram: @blackricanvegan

LB: I think you can make it in a lot of different ways. I like to make it with Beyond Meat, some mushrooms, some vegetables, and kind of treat the Beyond Meat as if it's real meat, and just season it the way you would season vegan meatloaf, of course, without the meat, some vegetables like celery, carrots, bell peppers, onions, some vegan worcestershire sauce, and rosemary and put it together and you've got some meatloaf. It's really good.

BuzzFeed Daily: Where can our listeners find your delicious food?

LB: Bake Off. Find me on all social media platforms at @BlackRicanVegan, and they can also check out my website BlackRicanVegan.com.

We also discussed how The Last Duel, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, flopped big time at the box office — and who Ridley Scott thinks is to blame.

Filippo Monteforte / AFP via Getty Images

He said on WTF with Marc Maron: "I think what it boils down to. What we've got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cellphones. The millennian do not ever want to be taught anything unless you're told it on a cellphone.

"This is a broad stroke, but I think we're dealing with it right now with Facebook. This is a misdirection that has happened where it's given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think."

Plus, the 2021 Grammy nominations are in!

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BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, and ABBA were all nominated for the first time, and "Agatha All Along" from WandaVision was nominated for Best Visual Media.

Meanwhile, Jay-Z snagged three nominations, bringing him up to 83 total — the most of anyone.

As always, thanks for listening! And if you ever want to suggest stories or just want to say hi, you can reach us at [e-mail].

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