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.)
I know you’ve gotten enough comments for this recipe so far, but I had to add mine. I finally got around to making this last night and it came out awesome. I also had to bake it longer so it was firm in the middle but the wait was worth it! I served it with caulipots and garlicky kale.
Glad I stumbled upon this website; my week to cook. Tried this recipe out last night and we all (even our 2yr old) loved it. I substituted portabello for the shitake. I really liked the stuffing and I’m probably going to add more bread crumbs next time. Thanks for the recipes.
Hi Isa! I have a quick question – If I had to make this a week ahead of time (which I likely will), should I bake it and then freeze it and thaw on the day of the meal? Thanks!
That should work just fine! I would baste it with broth while you reheat so that it doesn’t dry out.
I’m allergic to yeast and wonder if there’s a substitute for the nutritional yeast in this recipe?
I am surprised that gluten is not so easy to find and that even some natural stores do not carry it! I make sietan, but this recipe I will try for sure.
I was sent here from the Slashdot website
Looks great and I am so making it for Thanksgiving.
The seitan looks airy in the pictures, did you use any kind of riser such as baking powder or is it just natural air bubbles?
Thanks,
Alex
Made this the other night and served it with a mushroom wine sauce. It was delish!
Can this be put together before actual baking time? For instance a day or two before Thanksgiving?
Was yummy! Last night was a dry-run ready for Christmas.
90 minutes and it was cooked to perfection. Delicious. Next time I might mix it up a bit and put some tinned corn into the roast.
Made this last night for my seitan-phobic hubby. His response: would it be very difficult to make two loaves at once? 🙂 This (x2) will definitely make an appearance for the extended family for Thanksgiving – 3 days from now!
Has anyone made anything like this using gluten free breadcrumbs (millet bread) and an all purpose gluten free flour instead of vital wheat gluten? Thoughts?
Thank you so much for giving all the details of this. I can’t wait to make it for Thanksgiving (and I’m not actually vegan… I just LOVE seitan!!)
I am making this for our family thanksgiving and I know it will be wonderful!! I’m so glad you gave me the idea of stuffing the roast..this should be yummy!!!!!
To the person allergic to yeast…I’m sure you could make it without it and maybe if you felt the need add a bit extra of the vital wheat gluten…but really it should be fine without it I would bet. I do seitan either way and it works fine.
That looks delish! When you say “Vital wheat gluten” does that mean you can buy it at a whole foods, pre packaged?
Amazing! I made this today in anticipation of thanksgiving tomorrow and I can’t stop eating it! I was a little concerned because my dough seemed really wet. I added approximately an extra 1/4 cup of vital wheat gluten and it worked! This is my first attempt at seitan and I feel confident I can make anything now! Thanks Isa!
I just made this and it is so delicious. I baked it for an hour and 40 mins and it came out perfect, just like the picture. Thank you for sharing this recipe! I have made quite a few things from PPK and they always turn out fantastic the first time.
I made this yesterday for Thanksgiving and it turned out FANTASTICALLY! Gourmet level quality, I am in love. Thank you!
I made this yesterday and it was delicious!!!! The stuffing stayed put and the roast was big enough that I had a couple of slices for breakfast this morning…yum!! Note…my oven runs a bit hot for the setting, so an hour was fine for me and if I had left it in longer it would have burned, so please don’t assume you need longer than an hour.
The texture was just right, with gravy it was amazing, and I think it even tasted better this morning heated up with no gravy. I just picked it up and ate it…lol. So wonderful!!!:)
i made this this year for thanksgiving with different stuffing. it’s super easy to make. it’s really good. i don’t recall how long it took. it definitely was over an hour. i just kept an eye on it. definitely rotate the roast and flip it so it browns evenly.
Amazing. My entire family eats meat and they loved it when I made this for thanksgiving. Baked seitan is my new favorite thing ever.
My bestest lady partner made this for Thxgivin and it was…so…good. I just ate some leftovers for lunch and felt I needed to comment. Thank you magical vegan wizard.
Just made this for Thanksgiving and my non-vegan husband loved it. I can’t wait to make it for my family this Christmas. Thank you for saving the holidays!!
This might be my Christmas roast. It looks luscious.
does anyone know if it is possible to reduce the amount of gluten and increase the beans? will it still bind nicely?