Stuffed Seitan Vegan Holiday Roast
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s time to make your very own vegan holiday roast! Yes, you can buy them frozen in a store, but honestly they’re nowhere near as good as this homemade version. Our seitan is soft in the middle, and has a nice crust on top flavored with mustard. It’s stuffed with apples, cranberries, mushrooms, pecans, shallots, and fresh herbs, which creates an explosion of flavors in your mouth. Cooked in white wine, it will wow your guests, and bring a warm sense of holiday cheer to your festive seasonal meals.
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Happy Vegan Holidays!
Vegans celebrate holidays just like the rest of ya’ll- when we’re not out shoving our views down other’s throats and loudly proclaiming our veganism that is. But holidays can be particularly difficult, especially for new vegans, since as a society we’ve centered so many of our holiday traditions around meat. It makes sense- back before CAFOs made it so Americans could afford meat at every meal, expensive animal proteins would be a rare treat. But now it’s just a cruel tradition, so let’s move onwards.
My family has it’s own tradition of make-your-own-pizzas for Christmas. We have a combination of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores, so letting us each create our own meal is a good way to make everyone happy. Even in the few years of my life before I stopped eating meat, we were never a meat and potatoes family, we were always more of a broccoli and brown rice group. So making this vegan holiday roast was a little bit of a foreign experience for me- I’ve really never sat down to large chunk of meat before. But honestly, creating this vegan roast masterpiece was kind of fun! My boyfriend and I had several mini Christmas dinners as I worked on the recipe, and I promise it’s a great way to plan your Christmas meal. Add a few veggie dishes on the side and some vegan gravy, and you’ll be feeling the holiday cheer.
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Looking for Holiday Vegetable Sides? Try one of these!
- Indian-Spiced Vegan Warm Pumpkin Salad
- Golden Beet & Kohlrabi Recipe: Root Vegetable Latkes
- Vegan Stuffing with Mushrooms and Apples
- Avocado Mashed Potatoes with Porcini Gravy
- Roasted Chestnut Crabapples and Kabocha Squash
- Black Walnut and Maitake Mushroom Pâté
- Roasted Sweet Potato in Cape Gooseberry Sauce
Making Stuffed Vegan Holiday Roast
Since this is a special occasion meal, I don’t mind doing a little extra work to make something special. I mean in all honesty, I almost never mind doing extra work to cook something spectacular, but I get that most people don’t have time to cook like this every day. This meal has three main steps- first making the seitan, second making the stuffing, and thirdly assembling it and baking. Make your seitan in the food processor, and then knead. After, let your dough sit for a few minutes before rolling (you could get started on your stuffing). This gives it a change to let the gluten relax a little, which will make it much easier to roll into a large, flat rectangle. Spread the stuffing, leaving an empty boarder around three edges, and start rolling from the one short side that’s completely covered. Pinch the roll closed and smooth out well so it doesn’t come apart when cooking, and cook with the seam side down (again, reducing the chance it will split apart).
Make sure you choose a baking dish with high sides that’s just a little large than your roast- it will spread out a little when it’s cooking, and we don’t want to give it too much room to spread. Once it’s in the oven, you’re going to want to bake it for at least 1 hour 15 minutes. In order to not end up with a totally dry roast, we’ve added some white wine to give it a nice flavor and keep it moist. Two times during the cooking process you’re going to want to baste your vegan holiday roast (as a long time vegan, I actually had to buy a turkey baster for this since I’ve never owned one). If you find after the second baste that you’re running really low on liquid, add another tablespoon or so of wine. Once you’re roast is cooked, enjoy! It’s great with a vegan gravy (I made a mushroom one).
Stuffed Seitan Vegan Holiday Roast
Ingredients
- 14 oz. container of firm or extra firm tofu
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- ½ tsp. smoked paprika
- ½ tsp. ground allspice
- 1 ¾ cup (210 grams) vital wheat gluten
- 1-2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 large button or cremini mushrooms, diced
- 1 large shallot, diced
- ½ cup fresh cranberries
- 2 large apples, diced
- 1 tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (such as sage, rosemary, thyme, tarragon)
- ½ cup finely chopped pecans
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 large apple, quartered
- Fresh herbs
- 5-10 allspice berries
- 3 tbsp. whole grain mustard
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients for the seitan besides the vital wheat gluten in your food processor and process until smooth. Add the vital wheat gluten and process until it forms a ball. Dust your clean countertop with a little more vital wheat gluten, and kneed for 3-4 minutes. Let the seitan rest for 10 minutes, and then use a rolling pin to roll a large rectangle, about 16x8 inches. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and move on to the stuffing.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, before adding the mushrooms and onions. Sautee for a few minutes until fragrant, then add the cranberries. Cook for 4 more minutes, until the mushrooms have lost some moisture and the cranberries are softened. Add the apples and sauté until they too have softened. Season with salt and pepper, and mix in the pecans. The mixture should be fairly dry- if not, cook longer.
- Give the stuffing a minute or two to cool, before spreading it over the seitan, leaving ½-1 inch empty long the long sides and one of the short ends. Starting at the covered short end, roll the seitan in a spiral. Pinch both ends of the log closed, and pinch the seam closed several times to insure they won’t fall apart when baking. Grease a baking dish that’s just a little larger than your seitan roast, and place the seitan roast in, seam-side down.
- Place the white wine, quartered apple, more fresh herbs, and the allspice berries along the sides, and brush the top with the mustard. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and baste with the cooking liquid. Place back in the oven for another 30 minutes before basting again (add a tbsp. more wine if needed), and then cook for a final 15-30 minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated.
- Wait 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan. Discard the allspice berries, quartered apple, and herbs. Serve with vegan gravy and enjoy!
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Served this to family for Xmas dinner. Was a big hit and loved by all!
Wonderful, so glad you all enjoyed it! Happy New Year Anne!