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Indian Thanksgiving #1: Trial Dinner Menu

Indian Thanksgiving #1: Trial Dinner Menu

Tonight is a trial run of my new fusion cuisine: Indian Thanksgiving food.

By the way . . . I hate that name. Can you help me come up with something better? Every time I type “I-N-D-I-A-N T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G,” I feel like I am making some horribly culturally insensitive reference to what a Native Americans eat or do on Thanksgiving.

I can even throw in a nifty prize from my swag pile to the person with the best suggestion. 😉

The Goal

I have been doing quite a bit of research, brainstorming, and wild imagining for this Thanksgiving. But not so much in the testing area. I have been really focused on creating something original and playing with flavors of the different styles of cooking I have learned.

But it is time to get some real world feedback, so I have invited some unsuspecting victims over to be my guinea pigs.

As always, I have devised more dishes than I actually need, so if something fails miserably, I can quickly and easily sub it out with something more palatable.

The Plan

It is a week night. And my cooking adventures have a way of stressing my husband out (probably should have figured that out . . . um . . . before we got married, right ;)). So, I am not undertaking any of my more interesting projects today, like pumpkin kulfi ice cream pie or fall vegetable bhaji with sweet potato pau.

Nevertheless, I have tried to hit the bases on as many of the traditional areas of Thanksgiving cooking as I can. Here is the list again (from my planning post)

  • turkey √
  • potatoes √
  • stuffing √ (sort of . . . I think rice counts)
  • sweet potatoes √
  • cranberries √
  • vegetables √
  • rolls √ (sort of . . . I am making a type of individually sized bread product)
  • pie √
  • drinks √

The Menu

One unexpected snafu with making an Indian Thanksgiving is that many Indians are vegetarians. Thus turkey presents a bit of a problem.

Our group of friends is about half and half or less depending on the night. If you are playing along at home and want to cook a scaled down version of this menu for folks at home, you can leave out the lentil dish.

But for those dear friends that are coming over tonight, please note that I am making a vegetarian main as well.

  • Turkey Korma with Ginger and Cinnamon
  • Fragrant Rice
  • Garam Masala Mashed Potatoes (or Subzi)
  • Sweet Potatoes in Sweetened Coconut Milk
  • Lentil and Green Bean Casserole
  • Cranberry Stuffed Parathas
  • Masala Spiced Gluwein

And the real kicker . . .

  • Pistachio Crusted Coconut Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Saffron Cream
    (based on this luscious hazelnut version from 101 Cookbooks)

A Few Notes

1. I’d love to say that I will make this in 30 minutes, but parathas are time consuming beasts. Once I have demoed a few dishes, I will put together a 30 minute Indian Thanksgiving for you.

This turkey dish should only take 20 minutes, so I think I’m off to a good start on that.

2. I think that I failed to mention a few of these dishes to my husband, so don’t tell him about the menu yet. Thanks!

3. A few of these recipes are from Madhur Jaffrey’s new cookbook At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, which I highly, highly, highly recommend. But you can email me and I will send you the above recipes if you would like them.


  1. Sat

    23 November

    You forget that your husband has the blog on his rss reader and is already palpitating! 😛

  2. Debarati Dutta

    24 November

    Gabi,

    I would love to see the recipe for the pumpkin kulfi icecream pie. Its sounds so exotic and innovative. Your current menu plan looks wonderful and brings together both cultures beautifully. Who dare say: “East is East, West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” In your kitchen, they sure do meet in many happy ways. 🙂

    I am looking forward to your e-mail. Do write when you have the time.

  3. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by 30 Min Dinner Party, Bhavani. Bhavani said: Indian Thanksgiving Menu #1 | The 30 Minute Dinner Party: It's the first test run of my Indian Thanksgiving food… http://bit.ly/h4a6KO […]

  4. hima

    24 November

    I’m so excited to hear about the results of your Thanksgiving. My mom struggled through making chipotle sweet potatoes — apparently, following directions is not so much her forte.