Use the pulldown menus to visit other Food Central sections:
Recipes ---------- Today Recipe Swap	Resources ---------- Additives Alcohol Beer Beverages Coffee Dairy Fat Fruit Grains Herbs Italian Meat Organic Seafood Snacks Southern Sweets Tea Veggies Vitamins	Restaurants ---------- Atlanta Baltimore Boston Chicago Dallas Denver Detroit Fort Worth Houston Las Vegas Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis New Orleans NYC Orlando Philly Phoenix Pittsburgh Salt Lake San Antonio San Diego San Fran Seattle St. Louis Wash, D.C. ---------- Amsterdam Athens Bangkok Beijing Berlin Brussels Cairo Copenhagen Dublin Florence Frankfurt Hong Kong London Madrid Mex City Montreal Moscow Munich Nairobi Paris Prague Rio Rome Singapore St. Pburg. Sydney Tokyo Toronto Vienna Zurich

From Medical Correspondent Linda Ciampa

This vegetarian turkey is made from tofu and is called "Tofurkey"

(CNN) -- The holiday meal usually centers around some form of meat -- be it ham, turkey or roast beef. But you don't have to go hungry this season if you're a vegetarian.

One alternative is "the unturkey" made from wheat gluten. "It doesn't taste exactly like turkey," said one sampler. "It's more spicy than turkey."

The growing focus on healthy eating has many people craving a change and even considering a meatless holiday meal. But, vegetarian cookbook author Diana Shaw doesn't think cooks should focus on what they won't include in the meal. Instead, her vegetarian cooking celebrates the produce of the season.

"I don't refer to it as meatless cooking, because when you call it meatless that implies something is missing -- that would be like referring to French cuisine as jalapeño pepperless," she says.

Shaw's suggestion for a vegetarian holiday meal includes spinach salad with orange slices, sweet potato soup topped with cinnamon, a nest of couscous filled with peppers, dried fruits and chick peas, and a steamed apple cake.

"This is really, really good food that happens to be healthy," says Shaw.

The numbers are just a fringe benefit in Shaw's opinion. "You don't cook from the nutrition numbers, you cook from the flavors," she says.

But if your holiday table won't be complete without the traditional turkey centerpiece, there's always Tofurkey -- turkey made from tofu. The reviews may be mixed, but Tofurkey, complete with stuffing, comes in at less than 200 calories and five grams of fat per serving.