The Dish | Beyond the Bird

WITH TWISTS ON TURKEYSet the holiday table

When we switch over from goblins to gobblin’ sides, you know it’s time to talk turkey – the holidays have officially arrived.

Turkey is the centerpiece of Thanksgiving season, but restaurants don’t need to replicate a traditional table to leave guests feeling thankful. Consider classic ingredients, flavors, and presentations, then transform them through a trend-setting prism to create buzzworthy specials.

Sliced turkey with starches and veggie sides looking a little tired? Performance chefs have

experimented with Hispanic and Asian fusion concepts to craft irresistible casual handhelds that taste like Thanksgiving but look fresh, exciting, and Instagrammable.

This time of year, many eateries will offer turkey as the heart of a seasonal menu or catering selection. We suggest standing out by spreading your wings and centering your holiday plates around turkey alternatives, like pork tenderloin, pork chops, swordfish, and rainbow trout. Diners will still get the COP deliciousness they crave, while

restaurants have flexibility with price points, inventory, and beverage pairings.

Late fall is also cozy sipping season. Along with your conventional beverage program, try mixing in a few warm, comforting libations that taste like the holidays. For the October Dish, our chefs poured over recipes to create a toasty autumnal drink lineup, featuring a hot toddy, spiced coffee, and a festive amaretto sour.

Cheers to a successful holiday season! We hope you enjoy this parade of harvest delights.

Birria

CONTIGO® BIRRIA SAUCE

Ancestral Mexican meat stew recipe with fast and easy prep

CONTIGO®

TORTILLAS

Versatile and

with a

CONTIGO® CHIMICHURRI

Vibrant blend of parsley, lime, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and spices

RIDGECREST® TURKEY BREAST

Sauce & Serve

At home for the holidays, the traditional can be comforting. Maybe it’s a turkey prepared with grandma’s family recipe; maybe it’s a mac & cheese or mashed potato side that your uncle always brings. Thanksgiving is a feast to look forward to for that reason. But for restaurants, the traditional should be an entry point, not necessarily the destination.

Here, we take two major traditional elements of a Thanksgiving meal – turkey and cranberry sauce – and reconfigure them in a kind of Hispanic street food presentation. Ridgecrest Turkey is marinated and then roasted in zesty Contigo Chimichurri sauce. Garlic, pineapple juice, sugar, a chipotle puree, and cranberries are combined and then added to Contigo Birria sauce for a harvest citrus topping that will almost certainly be better than whatever's happening in the football game.

Serve this sweet and savory Thanksgiving goodness on warm Contigo Corn Tortillas so guests can fold ‘em up and chow down as they like. Save some leftover cranberry sauce for additional dipping.

Processed from farm-raised turkeys

Lettuce Eat

Some guests may be craving turkey as a traditional base for their Thanksgiving meal, but via an invigorating flavor profile that helps them reinvent the holiday –minus the planes, trains, and automobiles needed to travel internationally of course.

For this Asian-inspired turkey twist, we start with diced Ridgecrest Turkey Breast tossed in a blend of Asian Pride Teriyaki and Chili sauces. We then add onion, water chestnuts, and ginger from Peak Produce to the marinated turkey.

Once the turkey achieves a caramelized glaze, it’s time to lay it in the Peak Butter Lettuce leaves, which serve as crisp and refreshing handhelds. Sprinkle with cilantro, green onion, and sesame seeds for extra bits of color, texture, and bold flavor.

Looking for inspiration to add some creativity to your Thanksgiving menu?

Go beyond the traditional this holiday by offering your guests a Latin-inspired twist on their Thanksgiving meal. Spice up traditional stuffing with the addition of Custom Culinary® Tomatillo Serrano Sauce, a frozen, ready-to-use product. For the gravy, consider Custom Culinary® PanRoast® Turkey Flavored Gravy Mix, substituting cranberry juice for some of the water and adding in Custom Culinary® Habanero Orange Sauce for a unique, but delicious flavor enhancer.

ASIAN PRIDE® TERIYAKI SAUCE

Rich soy flavor with fruity sweetness

A Little

TLC

A staple of holiday tables, pork tenderloin can be a rich, fork-tender alternative to turkey.

Allegiance Pork is sourced from a single Midwest family farm. Coupled with our exclusive, cutting-edge PathProven® program to ensure 100% all-natural consistency, Allegiance represents the top 20% of hogs available in the U.S. For this plate, warm autumn harvest spices surround the succulent tenderloin.

A combination of ground cumin, paprika, and pork rub from our adventurous Magellan brand is mixed with toasted and crushed McCormick® Coriander Seeds to form the seasonal crust. Simplot Simple Goodness™ Pearl Onions and Peak® Red Grapes are then tossed and seared in the savory pork juices for a touch of Thanksgiving flavor. Deglaze the harvest elements with red wine and West Creek Red Wine Vinegar to finish the dish with a robust, earthy red color.

Cheers!: Make Holiday Beverage Sales Pop

ALLEGIANCE® PORK TENDERLOIN

Duroc-based genetics for highly marbled pork

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Played Well

Looking for a way to save time and labor on your Thanksgiving sides this year?

The Thanksgiving show can’t go on without accompanying sides. And with all that goes into making this holiday special, you need to save on prep time and labor when and where you can. With Simplot® Simple Goodness™ Premium Vegetables, you can do just that. They are pre-washed, sliced, and trimmed, so you get 100% useable product with zero waste. Or try a riced cauliflower and make a statement this season with a versatile, low carb, but flavorful substitute in place of rice, flour, grains and legumes.

ALLEGIANCE® PORK TENDERLOIN

Delivers the most consistent and exquisite pork in the industry

Center Stage

Pork Wellington takes gorgeously marbled tenderloin and coats it in a flaky brown puff pastry – the best balance of tender meat and baked tastiness for the holidays.

Our hand-selected Allegiance Pork is seared on a skillet, with onion, garlic, and a seasonal mixture of chopped Granny Smith apples, Craisins®, and salt & pepper cooked in the pork’s natural sauces. Thyme and apple cider evoke even more farminspired flavors.

A side of buttery, roasted Brussels sprouts adds rustic, green color that complements the pink and golden hues of the Wellington. This is the ideal visual representation of an alternative turkey Thanksgiving plate.

Sourcing Season

Thanksgiving kicks off a season of great food stories. Tell your story and stand out! click here for more info.

PEAK® GRANNY

PIANCONE® BALSAMIC GLAZE

4% acidity and a cooked down grape combined with Modena balsamic vinegar

Chop Around

Some diners prefer pork tenderloin, while for others, the bone-in, roasted visual appeal of marinated pork chops might be perfect for setting the Thanksgiving table. Here, an Allegiance Pork Rib rack is cooked with a Cuban-influenced mojo marinade featuring Ascend® Lemon and Lime juices, oregano, and authentic Roma® Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The lightly charred chop is served over a bed of Simplot® Good Grains™ Cilantro Lime Rice, expanding on the island aesthetic. Roastworks® Sweet Potatoes from Simplot are cubed and crispy for an easy-prep side with both Thanksgiving and Cuban touches. The potatoes also provide a harvest contrast to the white rice.

But it’s the cranberry ketchup topping that will leave guests giving thanks. Cranberries, apple and orange juice from Ascend, Guest House® Honey, Magellan Cinnamon, red onions, and a Piancone Balsamic Glaze are simmered and pureed for a cornucopia of sweet holiday flavors. The deep red of the ketchup gives an added burst of color and texture to the plate.

Chef Talk

This mojo marinade comes together quickly and really enhances the flavor and tenderness of the pork. Any extra marinade makes for a great baste. Make cranberry ketchup ahead of time to let the flavors develop and get creative on the many other ways it can be featured.

Stew

Chef Talk

Posole verde is satisfying, savory, and beautiful, all in one hearty bowl. The combination of Allegiance Pork Belly and Pork Loin yields rich depth of flavor and a tender bite. Make this brothy stew a day or two ahead and allow it to marry, then finish with bright, crisp garnishes at service.

ALLEGIANCE® PORK BELLY

Decadent product for concentrated flavor and versatility

WEST CREEK® CHICKEN BROTH

No MSG and zero grams of trans fat

ALLEGIANCE

PORK

Raised on a local farmer-grown corn diet

PEAK® RED CABBAGE

Vivid color with a fresh, peppery taste

Go for Green

Dining trends continue to revolve around international flavors, comfort items, and a hint of spiciness. Warm up adventurous eaters and stir up a new Thanksgiving tradition with a stew steeped in Mexican culinary heritage. Pozole verde is made using a base of hominy, dried maize kernels recalling the earliest Thanksgiving customs, and pork – in this case, both Allegiance Pork Belly and Pork Loin. The verde, or green, characteristics come from roasted tomatillos and Contigo® Green Chiles. McCormick® Fajita Seasoning and Magellan® Ground Cumin infuse the bowl with hearty flavors and an earthy broth.

And it’s not Thanksgiving without veggies picked at peak time for optimum taste and color. Shredded red cabbage, radishes, cilantro, and lime from Peak imbue the pozole with ripples of crunchy texture, bright colors, and Mexican-inspired tanginess. With the buzz this special generates, your new tradition will be trending on social media feeds every Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving with an International Twist

Don’t let Turkey Day get too traditional. Take thankful diners on a world tour. Click here to change it up.

Taste the Rainbow

Chef Talk

Adding chopped pecans to the cornmeal and panko breading helps to bring out the subtle sweetness of rainbow trout. If available, coarse chop the pecans by pulsing in a food processor before adding. When chopping fresh herbs, wash and dry before cutting — wet leaves turn mushy when chopped.

TROUT FILLET

Mild and buttery flavor with medium flake

Trout on the Town

PEAK PRODUCE®

FRESH BASIL

Sweet and savory, peppery yet minty

As an alternative to both turkey and pork, fish can be a delicious, cost-effective solution for seasonal specials. And this rainbow trout has an outstanding Thanksgiving story to tell.

Bay Winds Peruvian All-Natural Rainbow Trout is sourced exclusively from the waters of Lake Titicaca, considered by the Incas to be the birthplace of humankind. It is farm-raised, resulting in a safe product with high levels of vitamin B.

The trout fillet ticks a number of Thanksgiving boxes as it is coated with an herb cornmeal crust, featuring crunchy pecans, tarragon, and panko. Serve with a side of sauteed Swiss chard and roasted garlic slices for a flavor-rich veggie side or buttery broccolini that offers both crunch and tenderness complementing the cornmeal crust.

Guests are craving fun seasonal LTOS for the holidays. And sweet potato fries are 3x more likely to appear in top fall LTOs compared to other seasons. Add a seasonal twist to a fall side or LTO with Lamb Weston® Sweet Potato Fries. These seasoned fries are great as healthier alternatives, but they are also the perfect blank canvas to create a variety of fun dishes. From fun flights with dips, topped with turkey and gravy for the ultimate Thanksgiving leftover poutine, to brown sugar seasoned and served with a side of marshmallow dipping sauce for a twist on the traditional sweet potato casserole, these fries offer creativity. With a variety of cuts and flavors, Lamb Weston Sweet Potato Fries can spice up your menu while keeping labor and costs low.

How can you add a fun twist to Thanksgiving & fall LTOs?

Live by theSword

Looking for another quality fish to supplement Thanksgiving menus? Bay Winds® Swordfish is a swashbuckling option with its own deliciously good story.

The fish is wild caught in the nutrient dense waters off the northwest coast of Spain and frozen at sea within six hours of being longline harvested. It is certified sustainable by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

What sets this swordfish recipe apart is the chermoula marinade. Chermoula hails from North African cuisine and tends to feature citrus flavors with herbs. Roma Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Ascend® Bloody Mary Mix imbue this relish with harvest, tomato-forward flavors and colors.

A side of Tuscan lettuce drizzled with Piancone® Wine and Basil Vinaigrette offers a crisp, acidic complement to the swordfish, and Roastworks® Roasted Herb Potatoes balance out the dish with starchy Thanksgiving notes. It’s as if a traditional feast was sent out around the globe and returned in a new form – Thanksgiving flavors subtly emerging from different components.

SPICES

Premium spices with wide appeal across menu applications

GUEST HOUSE® TEA, BREWED

Made with the finest leaves from the best gardens

Cozy Concoctions

No festive, holiday meal is complete without a toast giving thanks to friends, family, and food. Our chefs channeled their inner mixologists to craft three different cocktails that help carry on the tradition.

First is a cranberry hot toddy to keep guests warm, starring Guest House Tea and Ascend Cranberry Juice. Star anise spices, clover honey, and orange add to the complex, autumn flavors. Irish whiskey gives this toddy a boozy boost and be sure to include a cinnamon stick for stirring. Brandy or rum are excellent seasonal alternatives to whiskey as well.

Guests preferring a more chill selection may opt for an Ascend Amaretto Sour. Ascend Sweet and Sour Mix meshes with a few ounces of amaretto, cherries, and orange slices for a fresh, tangy, citrusy spirit that works well both before and after dinner.

For the perfect post-dinner coffee, consider a Coda Spiced Café au Lait. Coda Coffee is one of just a few hundred B-Certified companies for sustainability in the world, and our beans are sourced from multigenerational small farms in the mountains of South America, Africa, and Asia.

The spiced honey mixture in this recipe combines Guest House Honey Bears with ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Steamed whole milk from Nature’s Best® adds a creamy element that cuts against the seasonal spice. A splash of dark rum, cinnamon whiskey, brandy, or orange liqueur will help keep guests alert for football in the evening.

NOW THAT WE HAVE INSPIRED YOUR MENU, LET’S EXECUTE IT ACROSS YOUR BUSINESS

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Beyond the Bird

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