seitan roast with sausage and pear stuffing and onion-cider gravy

The holidays are fast approaching - it seems faster and faster each year and I seem to get slower and slower with preparing for it! As I was making the Food Network Friday dish last week, I started thinking of different ways to stuff seitan, different methods to cook said stuffed seitan and the different occasions that would be great to have it at.

Last year I did the Holiday Roast, which most resembles a turkey in texture and stature. This year, I wanted to have another option, equally elegant and yet different enough from the Holiday Roast to be appropriate for the holiday table. In addition, I wanted to get it out on the blog to give folks enough time to plan for it. Hence our family's Holiday Dinner in September. Even the kids asked what we were celebrating.

The gluten contains only 8 ingredients, which I am loving a bunch. It is working out really well and is excellent without any weird seitan-y aftertaste.

The gluten is a modified version of last week's FNF, being pliable enough to stretch well and yet strong enough to not rip. I made a sausage (Tofurkey, but homemade, Field Roast or any other sausage would work equally well) and dried pear stuffing - dried apples, raisins, figs, cranberries would be great as well. The roast is braised in the oven for 3 hours and allowed to cool. On the day of the event, sear it in a pan and reheat it in the oven for about an hour. If you stuff the gluten so that it is thinner on the top than the bottom, it will bake into a thin, crispy sheet on the top, which you can see on the second pic.

I served this with an Onion-Cider Gravy, easy to make and complemented the dried fruit in the stuffing, and a Cauliflower Puree. After watching Hell's Kitchen for the umpteenth time,  Cauliflower Puree is a must have for any sophisticated 5-star meal. That and it tastes really good! Steam the cauliflower, drain well, puree in a food processor until it is very creamy, adding a few tablespoons of vegan butter. This will take a few minutes so don't stop short. After pureeing, season with salt, pepper and chives and a little bit of sugar if it is too bitter and let it cool until dinner. Reheat in a pot, stirring often for a few minutes, until hot. After making this, you too will feel a kinship with Ramsey. He can't be that bad - he went on Ellen to cut his finger. The irony.

Seitan Roast Stuffed with Sausage and Pear with Onion-Cider Gravy Recipe

holidays

The holidays can either be wonderful or a setback. When first having gone veg, this is probably one of the more difficult times since the gatherings with families can place strain on the new diet. Your little Tofurkey looks more like an afterthought than a centerpiece, and a turkey or ham can dominate the table.

That is, unless you actually have a contending centerpiece.

The dish that this Holiday Seitan Roast is in is a normal-sized casserole dish - 9X13. This is not a small roast. It has a beautiful glaze and you can see the texture is moist and lovely. We enjoyed this roast on Thanksgiving, but it is an appropriate addition to any holiday table. It is made using a variation of Tofu-Seitan (which I will be posting) and requires the same amount of cooking time as a turkey would, although it needs no brine.

The Truffle Green Bean Casserole is an upscale version of a regular green bean casserole, but I couldn't stand another holiday with the same old green beans. This is one of those dishes that the holidays would not be the same without, yet needed a revamping. I made it with porcini mushrooms and truffle oil.

Lastly, is the Yule Log Cake. This is made with the same cake batter that I made for Olive Garden's Tiramisu, but baked the batter in a sheet pan and rolled it around a cocoa-cream cheese filling. The frosting is a chocolate ganache. This is tricky to roll and fill, but I love its looks.

The holiday recipes are coming; I am also trying to catch up with the MoFo recipes, so stay tuned.

HOLIDAY ROAST RECIPE POST HERE

Holiday Roast

Truffle Green Bean Casserole

Yule Log Cake

RECIPE UPDATE FOR HOLIDAY ROAST : this dish has been tested and revised is featured in the cookbook "Everyday Vegan Eats," by Zsu Dever. 

YULE LOG CAKE PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

How-To Make Seitan Using a Mixer

halloween stuffed biscuits

Happy October!

This is my favorite time of the year, the weather is cool, the wind is blowing and the holidays are approaching.

Autumn and Spring as to die for!

It was a hike day today and I wanted to introduce the kids to October in fashion. I made this Jack-O-Lantern biscuit to honor the upcoming fest and stuffed it with a simple Boca crumble mixture. I just sauteed the crumbles with onions and garlic and added a little mustard and ketchup to give it some binding. It was truly simple, but that is probably why the kids loved it.

The biscuit is a very easy recipe and they were puffed and flaky and crispy. I rolled it out, cut 2 circles (about 4-inches in diameter) for each Jack-O-Lantern, put about 1/4 cup filling on the bottom one, cut the eyes and nose (don't forget the nose like I did!) and a mouth, placed it on the filling and sealed the edges. Cut some stems from scraps and bake the scraps too, for a snack.

To make the filling, saute a package of soy grounds with 1/2 cup of onion and 2 minced garlic. When the grounds are browned, add 1 tablespoon ketchup, 1 tablespoon yellow mustard and salt and pepper to taste.

Make the biscuit dough recipe below and cut the dough into 12 (4-inch diameter) circles. Make eyes, nose and mouth on 6 of them. Put about 1/2 cup of the filing on the other six circles, top with the cut-out circles, seal the edges and spray with a little oil or brush with a little milk.
Bake.

So successful!

Cost Breakdown:

flours: $1.50

Earth Balance, baking powder: $.50

almond milk: $1

Boca crumbles: $4

mustard, ketchup, onion, garlic: $1

Total to make 6 Stuffed Biscuits:

$8.00