Vegetarians long have known a Thanksgiving secret the rest of us are reluctant to admit – it’s all about the side dishes.

Think about it. Once you’ve taken the obligatory slice of turkey, a dutiful spoonful of gravy and maybe haggled a bit over the dark meat, what you really want is more stuffing. More mashed anything. More syrupy sweet potatoes. And definitely more pie. Pie of any kind.

“Absence of turkey can be a very positive thing,” said New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, whose upcoming book, “VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00,” is dedicated to learning to make do with less meat. “Most people have roughly 360 dinners a year that have ‘absence of turkey.’ We eat it on Thanksgiving because we’re supposed to.”