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Our German Thanksgiving Menu for Erntedankfest
by: Gerhild Fulson / Oma Gerhild shares German recipes rooted in family tradition.
For our family, Canadian Thanksgiving has always had a German feel. It’s our chance to bring a little Erntedankfest ... the German harvest celebration of thanks ... to our table.
There’s no turkey at the center of our dinner. There’s beef rouladen, red cabbage, potato dumplings, and plenty of gravy. Especially the gravy.
This is our family’s German Thanksgiving menu. If you’d like to serve some of these favorites for your own celebration, here’s what I make and how I get it all onto the table.
Rouladen, German potato dumplings, red cabbage, and plenty of gravy ... our family’s Thanksgiving dinner.Our German Thanksgiving Menu
- Main dish: rouladen
- Sides: red cabbage and your choice of German potato dumplings or Thüringer klösse
- Another side option: spätzle, if you'd rather make noodles
- Dessert: Blitz torte or Biskuitrolle
I’ve listed two desserts because choosing just one has never been my strong point. Make whichever your family would enjoy most. Or both.
The rouladen is the dish I plan everything else around. Red cabbage belongs beside it, and either kind of potato dumpling gives everyone a very good reason to ask for more gravy.
I grew up eating Thüringer klöße, but I also make the German potato dumplings shown in the photo above. Choose the recipe you’d like to make. You certainly don’t need two kinds of dumplings on one plate!
What I Make Ahead
A holiday dinner is much more pleasant when I’m not trying to finish every dish at once.
I make the red cabbage ahead and reheat it for dinner. The rouladen can also be cooked ahead, then gently warmed in their gravy.
If I’m making my German potato dumplings, I cook and rice the potatoes ahead of time, then chill them as directed in the recipe. That takes a good bit of work off dinner day. If I’m making Thüringer klöße, I allow time on the day for peeling and grating the raw potatoes.
I decide on dessert ahead of time, too. After all that cooking, it’s nice to know what will be waiting when the coffee comes out.
A Place for Everyone at Our Table
These days, with our son Mike and his wife Sylvie eating vegan, I also make vegan shepherd’s pie. It isn’t a traditional German Erntedankfest dish, and it isn’t replacing the rouladen or those precious dumplings. It’s simply another delicious main dish on our family table.
For me, that’s part of cooking for family. I want everyone who sits down with us to find something I’ve made with them in mind.
How Rouladen Became Our Thanksgiving Tradition
Our son Mike’s birthday is October 12, so we’ve often celebrated his birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving together. In our family, the birthday person got to choose dinner.
For years, Mike’s answer was rouladen, red cabbage, and potato dumplings. I certainly wasn’t going to argue with that! These days he eats vegan, but his old birthday request is how this became our Thanksgiving tradition.
It may not be the Thanksgiving dinner most people picture, but it’s ours. Once a meal becomes part of your family’s celebrations, it’s hard to imagine the day without it.
Is This the Traditional Erntedankfest Meal?
Erntedankfest is a German harvest celebration centered on giving thanks. It shares that spirit with Thanksgiving in Canada and the United States, but there isn’t one dinner that every German family serves for it.
The dates are different, too. In Germany, Erntedankfest is usually celebrated on the first Sunday in October, though some communities choose another day. Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday in October, while U.S. Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday in November.
Rouladen, red cabbage, and potato dumplings are traditional German foods. Serving them together for Thanksgiving is our family tradition.
That’s the part I hope you’ll take from this menu: choose dishes your people love, make room for everyone at the table, and give thanks together.
Planning another occasion? Visit my German Meal Ideas and Menus page for more dinners already put together for you.
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Comments? Questions?
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Words to the Wise
"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."
Psalm 107:1 NKJV
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Hi, I'm Oma Gerhild! As a food writer and cookbook author, I'm always looking to find ways to pass on my German heritage using local ingredients. Quick and easy. That's my goal. Wunderbar food. That's the result.
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