When you’re on the AutoImmune Protocol (aka the AutoImmune Paleo diet), it’s easier to list what you can’t eat than what you can.  An AIP Thanksgiving may seem downright depressing, as so many key parts of the traditional Thanksgiving meal are off-limits.  Some things I can’t do anything about — there’s no way to make pecan pie AIP-compliant, for instance, since the very heart of it is nuts — but I’ve rounded up some recipes that provide similar alternatives for every segment of the Thanksgiving meal.

A Few Notes

Before we get started, a couple caveats: not all of these recipes were originally created to be AIP, so a few of them contain minor ingredients that are not strictly AIP.  If you’re in the reintroduction phase, you may be able to use them as-is, but I’m including these recipes because I believe the ingredients in question are minor enough that you can simply omit them.

Specifically, a few ingredients contain white or black pepper, or nutmeg.  Now, nutmeg is a primary ingredient in pumpkin pie spice (so don’t use jarred pumpkin pie spice, either, if you’re strict AIP; make your own), and it’s not AIP-compliant, but mace is. (Long story short, these are two closely-related parts of the same plant, so the flavor is similar.)  You can simply substitute mace for the nutmeg, 1:1 (equal amounts).

Also note that some recipes give AIP options in the alternatives among the ingredients, not as the primary ingredient, so pay attention.

I’ve included notes about which flours and starches are used in the baked goods, so you can get an idea of which ones will work for you based on what your body tolerates and what ingredients you can procure.

Want More?

The Allergy-Free Holiday Table (by Amanda Torres, MS & Davina Hawkins, IMBA)Buy NowHoliday on the Autoimmune Protocol (by Bre’anna Emmitt)Buy Now

AIP Dinner Rolls & Bread

My daughter’s favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the dinner rolls.  Fortunately for her, she can eat them — but I can’t.  I wouldn’t expect an AIP dinner roll or biscuit to approximate the flavor of a wheat-based roll, but they can serve the same function within the meal.

Autoimmune Paleo Dinner Rolls from The Curious Coconut

Amanda says this recipe is “not nutrient-dense.” That is, this one is about the experience of eating, not about packing in the whole foods.  It uses tapioca starch and coconut flour, and incorporates gelatin.

AIP Dinner Rolls from Sarah Ballantyne (The Paleo Mom)

This dinner roll recipe comes from Sarah Ballantyne, author of The Paleo Approach. (If you browse her site, be aware that, although all her recipes are paleo, not all of them are AIP.)  It uses green plantains & cassava flour.

AIP-Friendly Paleo Biscuits from Heather Hollandaise

These AIP-friendly paleo biscuits use cassava flour.

AIP-Friendly Paleo Biscuits from Back Porch Paleo

These also use cassava flour, and, y’all, these are a mile high!  I don’t know how she managed to get AIP biscuits to look just like biscuits from any good Southern restaurant!

AIP Veggie Mash & Other Not-Potatoes

Let’s face it, nothing else is going to “taste just like” mashed potatoes.  (I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy when people say that and they’re just not close.)  But they can still be delicious and, like rolls or biscuits, fill the same role in the meal.

Mashed Plantains from Vegan Chronicle

Of all the foods in this section, plantains are probably one of the most unlike potatoes in their overall form, but most like potatoes in their finished flavor.  Strange as it sounds, these cousins of bananas make a surprisingly good potato substitute.

Mashed Turnips and Parsnips from Food.com

This particular recipe is not AIP.  (It contains margarine, soymilk, and vegan mayonnaise.)  But turnips and parsnips are AIP-friendly, so if you’re comfortable in the kitchen, you can use the instructions for cooking the turnips and parsnips, and mash with the fat of your preference.  (If you want to add coconut milk, you can.  When we mash potatoes, we usually use mostly the cooking liquid and skimp on the milk.)

Mashed Turnips from Low Carb Yum

These mashed turnips are AIP

InstantPot Rutabaga Mash from Recipes from a Pantry

Replace the nutmeg in this rutabaga mash with mace, or leave it out.

InstantPot Cauliflower Mash from Recipe This

I like mashed cauliflower, but personally I’d skip the cauliflower mash for Thanksgiving dinner, only because we’re typically already serving other vegetables that are more similar to cauliflower than to the root vegetables.  I think I’d personally prefer to stick with one of the root veggie mashes. But cauliflower has the advantage of being more familiar for a lot of people, and you might rather go with “familiar and comfortable” for your holiday meal.

Honey-Roasted Parsnips from Recipes for Men

This recipe for honey roasted parsnips is not AIP, as written, but it looked too delicious to omit!  The original recipe uses butter and flour, but given how they’re used, I think they would be easily substituted with another cooking fat and AIP-friendly flour.  Other recipes with similar coating use cassava flour.  (This is also not an American recipe, so the oven temperature is in Celsius.  180 C is equivalent to 350 F.)

Sweet Potatoes/Yams

Sweet potatoes are already AIP, so it’s just up to you how you prepare them.  If you just cook and mash them, they’re totally AIP.  If you pile them with butter and brown sugar, they’re not.  But you can mash them with AIP-compliant fats and season with maple syrup, date sugar, or coconut sugar.

And check this out; this company makes IP marshmallows! If topping your sweet potatoes with marshmallows is essential to making the meal feel like a “real” Thanksgiving dinner for you, give these a try.  (I haven’t tried them myself, because I just stumbled across them while working on this post.)

Green Veggies

Green beans (and snow peas) are technically legumes…but they’re also a little different from “regular” legumes, in that they’re typically consumed green, with the pod.  These are still out when getting started on an AIP diet, but those who have been on AIP for a while and are loosening the reigns might be good with green beans.

For that reason, I’ve included a couple green bean recipes here that are AIP except for the green beans, to satisfy the green bean casserole craving for those who can have them.  For everyone else, I’ve made sure there are some delicious-looking alternative green veggies!

Roasted Green Beans with Bacon & Shallots from Savor with Jennifer

Is there anything more to say about this?  Roasted green beans with bacon & shallots – yum!

Almost-AIP Green Bean Casserole from AIP Sisterhood

The topping for this green bean casserole uses tigernut flour, so it might be a bit harder to find.  The filling uses arrowroot.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts from The Cozy Cook

This recipe for roasted brussels sprouts also includes a ton of helpful information for those who might be roasting brussels sprouts for the first time.

Roast Asparagus & Mushrooms from My Pure Plants

The roast asparagus & mushrooms here includes nutritional yeast.  Nutritional yeast is AIP-compliant.  If you’re sensitive to it and need to avoid it, I believe this recipe should work just fine without it, but the flavor profile will change.

(Do note that a lot of nutritional yeast has synthetic folate — i.e. folic acid — added.  Ideally, look for one that does not.  You’ll want to look for one that is not “fortified.”)

Roasted Broccolini from Recipes for Men

What Gavin (“Gav”) is calling “long-stemmed broccoli” is the same thing as broccolini; you might find it at your grocery store under different names.  It looks a lot like broccoli that has been “stretched” so it’s long and thin.  The original recipe calls for butter; just substitute additional oil or animal fat.  A 180-degree Celsius oven is equivalent to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cranberry Sauce

Cranberries are already AIP-compliant.  However, all the “stuff” that’s in the cans of storebought cranberry sauce is not.  Try this, or another “clean” recipe for cranberry sauce.

Cranberry Sauce from Wellness Mama

This cranberry sauce is remarkably clean, relying primarily on other fruit juices for sweetening.  (Cranberries are pretty bitter, so they definitely need some sweetening!)

Turkey &Gravy

Fortunately for us, basic roast turkey is already AIP-legal.  Just don’t add any non-compliant seasonings, and you’re good to go.  What’s not AIP is the stuffing (or “dressing,” depending on where you’re from) — check out the next section down for alternatives.

Basic turkey gravy is also AIP-friendly if you thicken it with arrowroot and use compliant fats (like the fat from the turkey itself) and not butter.

Dressing/Stuffing

AutoImmune Paleo Stuffing from Vibrant Life Army Wife

This AIP stuffing uses plantains as the base.

AIP-Friendly Herbed Stuffing from Beyond the Bite

This AIP stuffing uses taro root as a base.

I know these recipes probably don’t approximate your family favorites, and stuffing can be a very personalized, traditional thing, but you can probably adjust the seasonings to better reflect whatever is a familiar flavor profile for you.

If you want to do some experimenting, you can also try using cauliflower or one of the AIP-friendly breads as a base.  (If you’re using bread, and you’ll be cooking it inside the bird, you might want to dry it out in cubes first, so it doesn’t get too soggy and crumble apart.)

Dessert

And what would Thanksgiving dinner be, without dessert?  The majority of the traditional Thanksgiving desserts are pies, and everyone has different favorites, so I’m providing a few pies here, but also a variety of pie crusts, so hopefully you’ll find one that works well with what ingredients you can find, and what you can eat.

AIP Pie Crust from Vibrant Life Army Wife

This Aip Pie Crust is made with tapioca and coconut.  It uses gelatin.  Like several of the recipes on this list, it has a lot of ingredients for a pie crust, but it looks amazing!

AIP Pie Crust from Eat Heal Thrive

This crust uses coconut & arrowroot.  It uses melted coconut oil and presses into the pan, so it looks like a pretty easy option, if you’re nervous about fiddly pastry dough.

AIP Pie Crust from Wendi’s AIP Kitchen

This crust uses cassava flour, and does incorporate gelatin as a binder.

AIP Pie Crust from The Paleo Mom

The pie crust from Sarah Ballantyne uses cassava flour.  Be sure to use the lard option for AIP.

AIP Pie Crust from Strictly Delicious

This is a very similar crust, also made with cassava flour & lard.  It contains some additional tips about the process and what the dough should be like.

AIP Pie Crust from Brittany Angell

This AIP pie crust uses a mix of cassava flour and arrowroot.

AIP Pumpkin Pie with Graham Cracker-Style Crust from Grazed and Enthused

The AIP pumpkin pie from Grazed and Enthused is described as “graham cracker-y in flavor.”  It uses coconut flour and arrowroot, and incorporates gelatin.

(AIP) Classic Apple Pie from Autoimmune Wellness

This classic apple pie uses arrowroot and coconut flour in the crust.  It contains no gelatin.

Lemon (Meringue) Pie Filling from No Dairy No Cry

This lemon meringue pie recipe is notable for its lack of eggs — an ingredient that’s usually pretty central to both the filling and the crust.  The crust and meringue of even this adapted version are not AIP-friendly (flour in the crust and beans in the meringue), but the filling is.

(AIP-Adaptable) Pumpkin Pie Filling from Minimalist Baker

This pumpkin pie filling should be relatively easy to adapt to make it AIP-compliant.  I would use coconut sugar or date sugar for the brown sugar, and coconut milk or another compliant option like tigernut milk for the almond milk.  The arrowroot option is already okay.

All recipe images are the property of their respective blog owners, used with permission.

AIP Thanksgiving: Autoimmune Paleo Diet Recipes for a Complete Thanksgiving Dinner is a post from: Titus 2 Homemaker

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