Feasting seems to be on everybody’s minds during the last six weeks of the year, given food provides a surefire way to bring together friends and family. However with increased health concerns and increasingly globalized palates, “trimmings” are considered more appealing than the proteins (turkey, ham, etc.) constituting the main event. Some people also look for a broader selection of plant-based dishes to balance out heavy traditional stuffings and potatoes, and lighten the load ahead of New Year’s resolutions accumulating during those six weeks.

“It’s important to note that our recipes aren’t just for certain diets and most of our clients are neither vegetarian or vegan,” said Sid Garza-Hillman, wellness programs director and certified nutritionist, Stanford Inn.

As its Ravens Restaurant is open to hotel guests and the general public, he emphatically pointed out the goal is to make the holidays extra special with dishes everyone will enjoy. All Ravens’ adaptations mirror traditional holiday foods. Popular standbys include plant-based encrusted tofu, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, cranberry-orange sauce, green beans and wild mushroom crepes. The Christmas menu may include guest favorites such as zucchini and asparagus gratin with a cashew béchamel, and hand-made holiday sweet corn tamales.

Osteria 57, in New York City’s West Village, focuses exclusively on pescatarian and vegetarian menus. This holiday season, Executive Chef Riccardo Orfino teams with clinical nutritionist Asia Rosso to create a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal that will “benefit both diners and the planet.” The four-course, family-style meal served at the restaurant or prepared to go includes Brussels sprouts and kale salad with roasted carrots, fried shallots, walnuts and apple cider dressing; butternut squash lasagna; a mushroom “Wellington” served with a chestnut cranberry stuffing and sides of sweet potato gratin and mashed cauliflower; and a home-style apple pie.

Jill’s Restaurant inside St Julien Hotel & Spa in Boulder, Colorado, will roll out its popular Thanksgiving brunch in the hotel’s ballroom with both vegan and vegetarian dishes and a three-course, fixed-price Thanksgiving dinner in the restaurant. Highlights coming out of the kitchen include Munson Farm pumpkin soup; vegetarian stuffing; pumpkin ravioli; roasted heirloom carrot salad; vegan mushroom risotto with ratatouille; and family-style sides including whipped potatoes, glazed yams and grilled asparagus and, for dessert, flourless chocolate cake.

Executive Chef Katie Reicher of Greens Restaurant, a San Francisco institution since 1979, will prepare to-go vegan and vegetarian Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts ideal for travelers visiting the homes of friends or family or those looking to bring holiday cheer to business colleagues. Her spin on Thanksgiving dishes include cornbread stuffing, lemon sumac-roasted Brussels sprouts and pumpkin cheesecake made with pumpkins from the restaurant’s partnered farm Green Gulch Farm. The Christmas menu features a Wellington with porcini gravy and potato gratin with garlic chive butter, and much more. The restaurant will be open for New Year’s Eve, when Chef Katie will stir up a fixed-price menu. Reservations are highly encouraged given the restaurant’s popularity and Golden Gate Bridge backdrop.