Now before I even introduce this dish I need to give a huge thank you to my amazing boyfriend Simon who was kind enough to share his recipe for his Christmas roast with me. We make this every Christmas but he is the one who has come up with this recipe and worked on modifying it and perfecting it for years now, so this is all thanks to him, with another acknowledgement and thanks to Gaz Oakley (Avant Garde Vegan) for introducing us to the seitan christmas-roast technique that has heavily inspired and influenced this dish.
This roast is quite a bit of work and needs to be started the day before you eat it as it does require resting overnight in the fridge. I highly recommend turning cooking this roast into a nice pre-christmas activity for you and the family/your partner/your friends as even though it is time consuming it can be a pretty fun and social activity! One of my favourite parts of the holiday is definitely cooking with my loved ones and this dish is definitely well suited for that. Pair this roast with your favourite gravy, roast veg, potatoes and any other side dishes you find essential to the holidays and enjoy!
Ingredients For the roast:
1 yellow onion (160g)
2 cloves garlic
120g walnuts
100g dried cranberries
1 vegetable stock cube
2 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp neutral cooking oil
375g mushrooms
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp allspice
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
400g vital wheat gluten
For roasting:
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 vegetable stock cube
500ml water
100ml cider (I used an apple flavoured one, you can use a non alcoholic alternative here if you wish)
1tsp whole black peppers
1 large pinch of salt
½ orange
1 tbsp white miso paste
1tsp dried rosemary
For assembly:
about ½ cup cranberry or lingonberry sauce (depending on which is easier for you to find)
2-4 sheets puff pastry (depending on the size of the sheets)
Method:
Start by making the “dough” for the roast. Finely mince garlic and onions, and roughly chop cranberries, walnuts and mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms in a pan until golden brown. Add the onion and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another few minutes. Add cranberries and walnuts. Add a stock cube, miso paste and 500ml water. Cook until the cube has dissolved. Add the balsamic vinegar, allspice, nutmeg and soy sauce. Cover with a lid and the mixture simmer for 10 minutes, add salt to taste. At this stage the mix should be “too salty” as it will get a lot milder after you’ve added the gluten, so don’t be afraid of oversalting it at this stage. Once seasoned, add the gluten to a bowl, add the wet mix in and knead vigorously for several minutes (about 10-15 minutes) until everything is well combined and gluten strands start to form and it firms up. The more you knead this the “tougher and meatier” the texture will be once the roast is done. Shape the dough into a “log” and wrap it up tightly in aluminium foil. Poke holes in the aluminium foil all around the log. Now we’ll move on to the ingredients for roasting. Slice your orange and onion into segments, give the garlic cloves a smack just to smash them up a bit. Crumble the stock cube into the water along with the miso paste and stir until dissolved. Add this mixture along with the orange, onion, garlic, black pepper, cider, salt and rosemary to the dish. Give it a bit of a whisk just to ensure the ingredients are well combined and place the aluminium wrapped roast into the dish. Bake this in the oven at 180C for 2 hours, giving the roast a flip halfway through the cooking time to ensure it cooks evenly. Remove the dish from the oven once the time is up, remove the roast from the dish and place the aluminium wrapped roast on a plate/tray in the fridge to rest overnight. If you wish you can use the liquid in the baking dish to make a gravy, otherwise just get rid of it.
The day of making the roast, leave a few sheets of puff pastry on the counter to thaw for a few minutes before rolling them out slightly and either pinching the ends of the sheets together or placing them slightly on top of each other and “rolling” them together with a rolling pin. The amount of puff pastry you use and the amount of flattening/rolling you do will totally depend on what kind of puff pastry sheets you use, so I cannot be too accurate here. The important part is that it is enough to cover the whole roast. Once the puff pastry is rolled out, unwrap your roast from the aluminum foil, spread a layer of lingonberry or cranberry sauce all over it and place it in the middle of the puff pastry. Wrap it tightly, making sure to seal all of the edges. Flip it to ensure the sealed edges are underneath the roast (that way they won’t have to show up on the final result) Optional: cut out some leaves or other fun shapes from any leftover puff pastry and stick them on top to decorate. Place the roast on a tray lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven at 200C until the puff pastry is nice and golden. This should take about 40 minutes, and you might want to turn it halfway through to ensure it cooks evenly. Once golden, remove from the oven and let it rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing it up and serving with your favourite side dishes!
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