Serves 6 to 8
Active time: 1 hour || Total time: 2 hours
I know. I’m posting a roast recipe on the Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving. I’m sure everyone already has their menus planned and I’m late to the party. But this roast almost drove me to the brink of madness Call of Cthulu style, so I had to defeat it! And defeat it I did.
After about 20 years and twice as many tries I’ve got a fabulous centerpiece stuffed roast that I’m proud to show off to the neighbors. Succulent seitan stuffed with herbed meaty shiitakes and leeks. The seitan is mixed with pureed pinto beans to give it great, juicy texture and even a hint of pink color. It’s really similar to my sausage recipes which I used as a base recipe. The stuffing is coated with bread crumbs, which keep it perfectly packed into the roast when you slice it, instead of falling out all over the place. It all comes together when baked in a familiar tinfoil wrapping.
I don’t know what took me so long to get it right. Maybe someday I’ll be ready to talk about it. But right now, let’s get roasting!
There are a few recipe notes before you begin:
~For best results, use a salty homemade vegetable broth. Salt is integral to the flavor of the seitan, so if your broth isn’t seasoned then add a teaspoon or so of salt to it.
~You’ll also want to spoon broth over the roast before serving, to keep it from being dry. Of course you’re going to be coating it in gravy, too. But the broth is a nice touch. If you’re slicing and serving, ladle on spoonfuls of broth on each individual slice, too. You can’t have too much juice, here!
~This roast reheats perfectly. Refrigerate in its wrapper for up to 3 days before hand. When ready to serve, preheat an oven to 350 F and cook for 20 minutes. This will dry it out a bit, so use the broth hints above for sure!
~Use a steak knife for the easiest slicing.
~I used storebought breadcrumbs but if you use homemade, use 3/4 cup.
~This makes enough for 6 hungry people. If it’s not Thanksgiving or another holiday, and people are not totally stuffing their faces, it serves at least 8.
For the filling:
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 oz shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced (rough ends removed)
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, cut into thin half moons
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
For the roast
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup cooked pinto beans, rinsed and drained (fresh or canned)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed or finely chopped
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed between your fingers
1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed between your fingers
Several dashes fresh black pepper
First prepare the filling:
Preheat a large pan, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Saute the mushrooms and leeks in oil until soft, about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper, garlic and thyme. Cook for about 2 more minutes, stirring often.
Sprinkle in the breadcrumbs and toss to coat. Cook the mixture, stirring very often, until the breadcrumbs are toasty and the mixture is relatively dry. This should take about 5 minutes, and the breadcrumbs should turn a few shades darker.
Drizzle in the broth and lemon juice and toss to coat until moist. If it still seems dry drizzle in a little extra olive oil. Set aside until ready to use.
Prepare the roast:
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a food processor, pulse the garlic until well chopped. Add the beans, broth, olive oil and soy sauce and puree until mostly smooth (a few pieces of bean are okay, but they should be no bigger than a pea.)
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, herbs and spices. Make a well in the center and add the bean mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts coming together to form a ball of dough. Knead until everything is well incorporated.
Now we’re going to roll out the seitan and form the roast. Place two pieces of tin foil (about 18 inches long) horizontally in front of you. The sheet further from you should overlap the closer sheet by about 6 inches. This way you have enough foil to wrap around the whole roast.
On a separate surface, use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the seitan into a roughly 12 x 10 rectangle. If any pieces rip, don’t worry about it, just use a pinch of dough from the ends to repair any holes.
Place the filling in the lower 1/3 of the seitan rectangle, leaving about 2 inches of space at both ends. Make sure the filling is compact, use your hands to form it into a nice, tight bundle.
Now roll! Roll the bottom part of the seitan up and over the filling. Keep rolling until in it’s in a log shape. Now pinch together the seam and pinch together the sides to seal. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it will snap into shape when baking.
Place the roll in the center of the tinfoil and roll up like a tootsie roll, making sure the ends are tightly wrapped. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for an hour*. Rotate the roll every 20 minutes for even cooking.
* I may update the time in this recipe because I’ve gotten a few comments that said it took up to 90 minutes to cook completely! So for now I would say just do a test my poking the roll with tongs. It should feel very very firm. If it doesn’t, then bake further.
Remove from oven and let cool. Unwrap, slice and serve! (See recipe notes for keeping moist and reheating.)
bravo, it’s gorgeous.
xo
kittee
Oh. My. Gawd. Why is this coming into my life so late in the holiday season? I’m going to need to make this for Christmas now and wow my friends and neighbors. Love it!
Don’t worry! It’s not too late and made of things most people have on hand! Tis a thing of beauty!
oh my gosh OH MY GOSH oh my GOSH, this looks SO good!! i may just have to change my plans and make this for thanksgiving!!! bravissimo times infinity!! it looks fantastic!!!
This recipe sounds great and although I have a menu planned out for this Thanksgiving, I think I will make a change! 🙂
This looks like you nailed it Bravo! I love salting things, and here’s a little game I made up that you can play with guests, called how high can we go. I take guests BP before we sit down to dinner and then just after they finished my well salt seasoned dinner. This is pretty and who would suspect the salt content?
This is beautiful! I will be trying this recipe over the next couple months in hopes of perfecting it for my 40th birthday celebration. Thank you so much for sharing!
I guess I WONT be making pizza on Thursday!
Which of your fabulous gravies did you pair with the loaf? Looks amazing!!!
Wow, Isa, this sounds AMAZING!!! Would greatly benefit from a video on how to do all the steps… please say you’ll do one!
Beautiful! I’ll be making this this week for sure.
Aaron, with his fabulous seitan making skills, could pull this off!
Luckily for me, my only plan was to bake a Tofurkey . Now I can do this instead! YAY!
I have a shroom-a-phobic spouse. I am thinking of skipping the stuffing… or maybe adding some of my usual wild rice/sour dough/ mire poix/ sliced almonds/ dried cranberry/ chardonnay stuffing.
MMMM. I think most stuffings that hold together will work. Just be careful not to overstuff, you wanna be able to roll it.
IsaChandra: Where’s the seitan in the ingredients..Cannot find it.
It’s the vital gluten four – when mixed with liquids and cooked that is seitan
This looks way better than the Tofurkey basketball I ended up buying! A must try for Christmas!
So glad I am a procrastinator! This will be on my table for Thanksgiving!
Looks great! Is there a separate recipe for the gravy?
Sha-wing! Totally making this for Christmas dinner.
Please divulge which gravy that is. It looks a little like the chickpea from VWV.
It’s this gravy I make from breadcrumbs. I call it Breadcrumb Sauce. I never wrote it down, I just make it when I have a need for a quick quick gravy. Maybe someday I will write it down. But the chickpea gravy would be great here, or the navy bean gravy. I think the mushroom gravy would be too many mushrooms, but could be good, too!
TOO MANY MUSHROOMS???? Never!!!
This looks amazing! I really want to try it–thanks for doing so much work to figure it out, so I don’t have to. You’re great!
Yum! I have already bought my tofurkey for Thanksgiving, but I think I will make this for Christmas! I’m not a fan of shitakes, though love mushrooms otherwise, but I think I will try using regular old stuffing in the middle to make it a bit more “traditional”. Can’t wait to try this!
WOW. As in, this makes me contemplate risking gluten contamination even for just. one. bite. Instead, I’ll just make it for the fam and admire it from afar, enjoying it vicariously (and pain free) through them.
Aww, that makes me sad! I tried really hard to come up with something gluten-free but it just wasn’t working for me. I shall try again soon.
Looks Amazing lady. You might’ve just changed the vegan thanksgiving for so many peoples.
Dear Isa – THIS POST JUST MADE MY DAY! Holy moly! It looks fantastic and is exactly what I am feeling like today. Stuff waiting for Christmas! And I reckon this is going to serve 2 😉
This looks really wonderful and I’d love to give it a go! I agree with Jasmine that it would really benefit from a video or at least pictures of the steps of making and assembling the roast, for those of us with tired brains who like cooking shows.
XOXO!!
I agree, too. I just don’t have the capability to do something like that. I’m not sure how bloggers do that stuff, my kitchen always looks like a bomb hit it while I’m cooking.
Not too late for me! I’m still contemplating which seitan to make. This will be it! Thanks so much for doing it again, Isa!
That’s so beautiful! It was worth the wait!
Oh man. I was planning on making a different roast, but now you post this! I didn’t buy pinto beans, all I have is black beans, hmmm. Do I dare sub? Oh no!
LIttle late to change my holiday menu but that looks too beautiful not to try it out soon. Terrific.
wow this is amazing!!!! no thanxgiving here in itlay but i’ll save this recipe for xmas!!! thanx a lot.
This looks amazing! I’m looking forward to trying it. Maybe I’ll make it with a different stuffing as my boyfriends hates mushrooms, but I think it looks really delicious with the shiitakes. Just one question: should there be broth in the stuffing? It’s in the instructions but I don’t see it on the ingredient list.
Will definitely give this a go for Christmas dinner. Of course, I will have to try it before hand…can’t wait. It looks delish!!
Thanks for posting this! Exciting! Quick question – for the stuffing, you say drizzle on the broth and lemon juice, but I don’t see how much broth to use for the stuffing. Can you add that in? Thanks!
I fixed it, 1/4 cup!
Too late for Thanksgiving day, but I’m have a Thanksgiving party for friends in two weeks…this is on the menu now!
Bravo!!! I’m going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving but I’m tempted to try this over the weekend! Wow!
This looks great Isa. I think you’re just in time! I just have to mention, I must be the only vegan who hates mushrooms LOL. I’m going to set aside some of my traditional (albeit, whole grain, reduced fat and healthy version) bread stuffing to put inside this instead of the shiitakes. Thanks for working on this. By the way, just got your pie book and am looking forward to putting it to use. I know that it will be good, because I already have your cookie and cupcake cookbooks and they have won over the skeptics. Thanks for everything you do! Happy holidays!
This looks so good; can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
Wow. Such an impressive looking entree. This will be perfect with my famous vegan gravy!
The instructions say “Drizzle in the broth and lemon juice and toss to coat until moist.” for the stuffing, but the stuffing ingredients don’t list any broth. How much should I add? I’m getting ready to make this, I guess I’ll just toss a bit on until it looks damp?
Thank you for catching that! I was sooo beat when I wrote it out I am surprised I got anything right. It should be 1/4 cup veg broth, I’ve updated the recipe.
Thanks Isa for this awsome roast recipe! I have been searching for something like that for a big christmas dinner with my friends, and want it to be really great. Think this one will totally do it!
Nice. I might try this instead of my plan of making an attempt at a turkey shape with the chickpea cutlets recipe tomorrow. Although I was looking forward to making the white tassles…
Very interesting recipe. I’ve made seitan using beans before, white kidney or red kidney. And the texture is quite different when it is baked in the broth versus boiling in broth. I’ve also made the seitan using tofu and oats in combination with the gluten. I will definitely try this out. It looks amazing.
Why do you have to use olive oil in everything. It is 100% fat and can contribute to a heart attack. Haven’t you seen forks over knifes or read Caldwell Esselstyn’s book?
http://www.theveganrd.com/2010/10/olive-oil-health-and-advocacy.html
It will decently be something for Christmas! Looking forward:)!!! Thank you so much for an wonderful site!
Love from Stockholm, Sweden
Wow this is so awesome! I think I am going to add this to my Christmas menu for sure!
this is it!!! I am making it tomorrow. Thank you SO MUCH.
This looks amazing! I’m a South African living in England, and will now be celebrating Thanksgiving just so that I have an excuse to make this! =)
When you reheat the roll, do you bake it inside the tinfoil, or unwrap first?
I did it both ways and it worked fine, but I think it will be faster if you keep it inside.
Haha Can i ORDER this from you?
I wish I saw this earlier! Christmas, perhaps!
No matter how many times I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to make good seitan.