A Diabetic-Friendly Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a harder holiday for blood sugar than Halloween. Halloween’s trouble is mostly in one candy bowl. On Thanksgiving, the carbs are all over the table: stuffing, potatoes, rolls, sugary cranberry sauce, and then pie.

I still want the meal, not a sad substitute for it. So I went through the plate one dish at a time and looked for where most of the sugar and starch comes from, then changed that part and left the rest alone.

The menu

The turkey. An herb-mayo roast turkey is the easy part for blood sugar, since turkey has almost no carbs. A coat of herb mayonnaise, homemade or store-bought, helps the skin brown and holds the herbs in place on the whole bird.

The stuffing. Rye and sage stuffing is the most carb-heavy dish here, at about 18g per serving. It uses dense rye, which I wrote about in Breads I Like Using, with plenty of sage, and you can add mushrooms for bigger servings.

The casserole. The healthier green bean casserole swaps the canned soup for a from-scratch mushroom cream sauce, so it still tastes like the classic. Crispy fried onions still go on top, just like the original.

The gravy. Make-ahead gravy is a classic brown roux gravy with only about 4g of carbs per 1/4 cup, and you can make it days before the holiday.

The cranberry sauce. No-sugar-added cranberry orange sauce takes 20 minutes and has about 6g of carbs per serving, nearly all from the fruit.

The pie. Low-sugar pumpkin pie has a press-in sunflower seed crust and about 10g of carbs per slice. If you’d rather skip the crust, it comes down to about 6g.

What it adds up to

A serving each of the turkey, stuffing, casserole, gravy, and cranberry sauce comes to about 43g of carbs, or about 35g net of fiber. A slice of pie brings it to about 53g. Your own target may be different, and these are estimates, so it’s worth checking your glucose to see how a meal like this works for you.

Protein first

Earlier this year I wrote about what I got wrong in my first year, and eating protein before carbs was one of the biggest lessons. It works well at a holiday table. Start with a couple of deviled eggs (leave off the eyeball decorations), then have your turkey and green beans before the stuffing.

If you want more on the table, the low-carb apple crisp makes a good second dessert, and cottage cheese cloud rolls can fill the bread basket.

A make-ahead timeline

• Up to a week ahead: Make the cranberry sauce.
• Sunday: Move a frozen turkey to the fridge to thaw.
• Monday or Tuesday: Make the gravy, leaving out the drippings until Thursday.
• Tuesday: Toast the rye cubes for the stuffing.
• Wednesday: Salt the turkey in the morning, then bake the pie, cook the stuffing vegetables, assemble the casserole, and make the herb mayo.
• Thursday: Coat and roast the turkey. While it rests, mix the stuffing with its eggs and broth, then bake it alongside the casserole at 375°F. Finish the gravy with the pan drippings right before serving.

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you get to enjoy the whole table and feel good afterward.