Fall is one of my favorite times of year, especially around Thanksgiving and Hanukkah/Christmas: welcoming family and friends into my home for a holiday meal is a way to connect, make memories, and enjoy the company of the ones I love. Over the years, I’ve collected a variety of vegetarian holiday recipes to serve to family members with these specific dietary needs so that there’s plenty of dishes that everyone can enjoy.

A few years ago, I was a first-time host of a family Thanksgiving dinner that included a few people with vegetarian and vegan diets. I was overwhelmed trying to figure out what to serve for a meal that has traditionally made meat the star of the table. My first thought was to just make vegetarian/vegan versions of the typical recipes–which would have been perfectly great–but then I thought I’d get more adventurous. Lots of sophisticated palates show up at my holiday dinners!

Are you cooking for someone with a dietary restriction? Looking to lighten up your meals? Just want to add some diverse dishes to your cooking repertoire? Here are my favorite vegetarian holiday recipes that are easy, crave-worthy, and elegant–the perfect dishes to spice up this year’s get-togethers.

Plan your wow-worthy fall dinner party with the following tips, which each include one of my favorite recipes:

• Start with a spectacular soup
• Embrace surprising, flexible recipes
• Elevate simple ingredients with new flavors
• Find new fall twists on old favorites
• Remake a classic

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1. Start with a spectacular soup

Soup is the perfect starter for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, especially if you keep it light. As family and friends gather in the late afternoon or early evening, soup offers a warm, comforting way to settle in. Plus you can make soups ahead of time and simply reheat on your stove top, freeing up oven space.

Of course, many soups are already vegetarian friendly, and almost any recipe can be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable stock for chicken stock. You could opt for a broth layered with a fall vegetable like squash or parsnips, adding in carrots, potatoes, and any other number of ingredients.

There are lots of great vegetarian soup recipes, but one of my holiday favorites is curried coconut-carrot soup. Creamy and fragrant, this bright-orange soup adds a dazzling pop of color to any holiday table. It’s perfect for Thanksgiving, of course, but works for any fall or winter dinner. The combination of ginger, curry, and chili flakes will warm your guests right up, and leftovers (if you have any!) keep well. Best of all, this holiday recipe is vegan–but you’ll never know it, thanks to the rich coconut milk.

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2. Embrace surprising, flexible recipes

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I love recipes that allow for flexibility in swapping in ingredients you have on hand. This is especially useful when cooking for larger groups for the holidays–if you run out of something, or forgot to buy it to begin with, a flexible recipe is easy to work with and won’t add stressful, last-minute trips to the grocery store.

When it comes to vegetarian holiday recipes, Sephardic jeweled rice is my absolute favorite, hands down. With its Syrian-Lebanese roots, it’s a favorite at my table for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, an autumnal harvest celebration, because the dried fruits and pumpkin seeds are a perfect match for the season–but I serve it year-round every chance I get. My guests love it too, and many have asked me to share the recipe.

This dish of golden rice is warmly spiced with cumin and made sweet with dried fruits including apricots, figs, and cherries, and then topped with “jewels” of pomegranate seeds. Although the list of ingredients is a bit long, it’s an easy dish to cook and assemble and the finished dish is just gorgeous.

The best part of this recipe, though, is that you can mix and match any of the dried fruits or toppings that you like or have on hand. Try raisins, dried cranberries or mango, pine nuts, slivered almonds, or cashews as a substitute or in addition to any of the listed ingredients. Get creative! The fragrant, golden rice is a a welcoming base to just about any add-ins you can think of.

You can usually find pomegranate seeds in your local supermarket’s refrigerated section, but I like to buy the fruits in season (October through November) and seed them myself. There are many ways to get the seeds out, but I find it easiest to do the bowl-of-water method:

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3. Elevate simple ingredients with new flavors

Many of my vegetarian friends have commented that they feel overlooked when it comes to main courses. Sometimes, they’re relegated to making a meal out of all the side dishes, which can leave some diners feeling unsatisfied. Why not make a hearty, healthy main dish for everyone to enjoy this holiday season?

Cabbage may not be the first thing that comes to mind for vegetarian holiday recipes to make beyond New Year’s, but I highly recommend this dish of turmeric and coconut-braised cabbage with chickpeas. This is a meal that will impress your guests and fill them up with healthy, fiber-rich ingredients. The lightly spiced chickpea-and-cabbage combination is perfect over white rice for a filling dinner. Garlic and ginger are classic partners that will make your mouth water and smell divine as they’re simmering. Add this recipe to your repertoire–it could be a game-changer at a Christmas dinner.

Brown mustard seeds can be found at Indian/Asian groceries or are easily found online. Serve this with the suggested accompaniments of cilantro and lime wedges for a hit of fresh, acidic, bright flavor.

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4. Find new fall twists on old favorites

An easy go-to when cooking holiday meals for vegetarian guests is pasta, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Baked ziti and lasagna are classics for a reason–they’re delicious!–but there’s so much room to get creative with pasta dishes.

One of my favorite vegetarian holiday recipes is butternut squash stuffed shells, a pasta dish I have served at Thanksgiving and on New Year’s Day, as well as at weekend potlucks with friends. It’s a twist on traditional stuffed shells made with tomato sauce. Instead, try adding in butternut squash to the ricotta and spinach filling and topping the whole thing with the surprising flavors of fried sage leaves and browned butter.

This recipe is a delicious way to showcase butternut squash, which has become a popular fall ingredient. It can be a bit difficult to peel and cut a squash because of the thick rind. I find that if I microwave squash for 30 seconds or so, it softens the tough skin just enough to be able to peel and cut it without much trouble.

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5. Remake a classic

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Sometimes you want to stick to tradition, especially when it comes to iconic dishes like green bean casserole. Did you know that according to the Campbell Soup Company, the original recipe was created in 1955 by Dorcas Reilly, an employee at the Camden, New Jersey, headquarters? A classic at Thanksgiving tables, the original recipe uses good old-fashioned cream of mushroom soup and milk.

I wanted to create a vegan version a few years ago at Thanksgiving for my visiting brother. I found this recipe for green bean casserole and was intrigued because it didn’t just swap in a vegan alternative, like almond milk, but rather called for making a cashew cream to stand in for the dairy. Cashew cream is easy to make, and has a rich, full body to it.

This version of the classic casserole has a fresh, less-salty taste than the original that will have your guests coming back for second and third helpings. You can use frozen green beans, but I prefer fresh beans that I steam first because they stay firmer and keep their bright green color. When it comes to holiday recipes, this is a must-make.

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I hope you’ll add these delicious, vegetarian holiday recipes to your lineup this upcoming season to welcome family and friends to your table. I’m happy to share some of my favorites so that you can plan a creative, elegant, and festive menu. Enjoy!