When it comes to Thanksgiving feasts, turkey isn’t always what’s for dinner.

Some people forgo the fowl because they just don’t like the taste. Others avoid it for ethical or religious reasons.

Take Alan Eisenberg.

He’s an attorney who has practiced in the Kenosha and Racine areas for more than 40 years. Eisenberg, 68, of Milwaukee, used to eat meat, including turkey, but he stopped 15 years ago.

You won’t find turkey on his Thanksgiving table. Instead you’ll see a Tofurky Roast. Produced by Turtle Island Foods in Hood River, Ore., it’s made from organic, non-genetically engineered soybeans.

“I’ve been on a hunt for years for something like this,” said Eisenberg, who has enjoyed this turkey alternative for at least the last five years.

Kenosha resident Anita Mysore, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, doesn’t eat turkey or Tofurky. Instead, Mysore, who is from Bangalore in the southern region of India, sometimes brings her native dishes to holiday potlucks.

One of her favorite dishes to share is Cut Green Bean Curry, which is made with toor dal, a lentil. She serves it with long-grain rice, pairing it also with a refreshing cucumber salad.

She said staple foods in southern India, including her native state of Karnataka, are long-grain rice often eaten with curry and lentils, spinach, green beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and a variety of other vegetables.

While her family is from a Hindu caste, which practices vegetarianism, Mysore said she maintains a meatless diet out of habit and choice but not for religious reasons.

“I was born into a family of vegetarians. I have chosen not to eat meat,” she said. “Nobody is holding me to it on the grounds of religion, but it has become my principle now.”

Eisenberg became a vegetarian after he was persuaded to give up veal.

“My ex-wife converted me to giving up veal for ideological reasons,” he said. “She was a voracious reader and scholarly about it, and once she found out how veal came to be veal she couldn’t handle it. That was the first thing that went.”

Eisenberg, who was diagnosed with diabetes in 1970, gradually eliminated all meat and fish from his diet because of chemicals and the processes, both manmade and naturally occurring, that can taint them. It helps him manage his diabetes, and he believes his vitality has improved because of it.

This Thanksgiving, Eisenberg is having a friend prepare a Tofurky dinner. He’s often the only one at the table not eating meat, he said.

In addition to the Tofurky Roast, the Turtle Island Foods dinner comes with Cranberry Apple Potato Dumplings, a Tofurky Giblet and Mushroom Gravy, Wild Rice, Whole Wheat Bread Crumb Stuffing and even a wishbone the company calls the Tofurky Jurky Wishtix. The meal cooks in about an hour.

There are several brands of tofurkey on the market. Some are made from seitan (wheat protein) while others have a base of tofu (soybean protein). They can be homemade or purchased pre-made, then oven roasted or baked.