Haglund skips fake meat dishes such as Tofurkey, explaining that rather than trying to mimic meat, she’d rather sidestep it all together—especially, she says, because there are so many delicious things you can do with vegetables. She even taught a class on Thanksgiving sides in Winston-Salem once.

When Liz Pagano approaches Thanksgiving or any potluck meal for that matter, she tries to make something really good without any fake meat or fake cheese. A dish that’s trying not to seem vegetarian will always be compared to its meaty counterpart, she says. And that will make it less popular with the carnivores present and can make it less appealing for former meat eaters, too. Instead, Pagano tries to come up with something tasty and completely different.

As anyone who’s been vegetarian for long enough knows, it’s not uncommon to show up at a restaurant, cookout, or family meal and find that there’s very little to eat—maybe just the coleslaw, or a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mustard. That’s why a lot of vegetarians will offer to bring something to a meal like Thanksgiving so they know they won’t have to go without.