How to Have a More Sustainable, Wellness Boosting Thanksgiving this Year! New Recipe Included!

Thanksgiving is traditionally an American holiday but it is gaining more and more traction within the UK, as a wholesome event which reminds our family and friends to be thankful and cherish those around them.

However, it has a become an event of mass consumption where millions of pounds of turkey and other foods are wasted. Therefore, in the spirit of a greener Thanksgiving, we here at Ellactiva have come up with some top tips on how to make sure that in this year’s celebration, we can do as much to minimise our waste and carbon footprint while giving us a beauty wellness boost.

1. Plan Ahead

It can be rather complicated hosting an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner, even if due to Covid the number of guests is small or we are even celebrating just among our family members. However, between people’s preferences and guests bringing too much of their own contributions, food can end up being too easily wasted. This can be easily prevented by communicating ahead with all the guests to find out about their food preferences and also to decide who will bring what.

2. Source Sustainable Ingredients

 An important aspect of having a sustainable Thanksgiving is making sure that the ingredients which you use come from an eco-friendly source, so rather than doing your Thanksgiving shopping at the last minute why not take some time to nip down to the local farmers market? These markets often provide more sustainable and organic ingredients at a better price than found in typical supermarkets and also by shopping here you help support small businesses which have been struggling due to the pandemic.

3. Why not consider a Vegetarian meal?

In the wake of cop26 many people are experimenting with a Vegetarian diet in order to have a more sustainable lifestyle, so maybe this year you can experiment with a new type of dish rather than serving up the same old turkey. Perhaps you could make Barley Stuffed Squash or a Vegan Pumpkin Risotto? When it comes to vegetarian options for thanksgiving there are such a wide variety of dishes that you could make which could satisfy the tastes of everyone at the table!

4. Try this Wellness Boosting Mini Pumpkin Pies

We came up with a recipe for Mini Pumpkin Pies which will not only look amazing at your table but will help boost your body’s health as well as rejuvenating your skin, as pumpkins are stuffed with lots of skin friendly vitamins and minerals.

Ingredients for serving 6

Crust

1 ½ cup ginger snap type biscuits, broken into small pieces

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup of pecans (plus 2 tbsp chopped pecans for topping, optional)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup seeded soft dates

Filling

400g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

1 tablespoon golden caster sugar

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon fresh ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.

Grease 6 small tartlet tins with melted butter .

Place the pumpkin in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 mins or until tender. Drain it and let it cool.

Combine all crust ingredients in a food processor on high until well combined. It will start to ball up.

Press 1/6 the of crust mixture into each tartlet tin and place into the oven.

Cook crust for 5 minutes, remove from oven, set aside.

Mashed the cooled pumpkin and add all the filling ingredients and stir till combined.

Fill crusts all the way with pumpkin filling, cover the tins with foil and place them into the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the tins from oven and uncover.

Garnish each mini pie with chopped pecan, return to oven for an additional 5 minutes, remove from oven.

Allow pies to cool. Enjoy! 

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