Monday, December 8, 2008

seitan holiday roast

when i was vegetarian, we would buy the quorn turk'y roast for thanksgiving meals. since that isn't a vegan option, i opted to get my hands wet and create a homemade 'faust' this year. not to mention, it was the first time i ever worked with seitan. i used the very basic ingredients from vegan with a vengeance, but apart from that, it was a miss v creation. not too shabby, i must say.


for the roast:
  • 2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 2 tablespoons unbleached flour
  • 2 tablespoons thyme, sage & rosemary mix
  • 1½ cups veggie broth
  • 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons vegan worcestershire sauce
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 celery stalk, minced
  • 1/8 small onion, minced
for the broth:
  • 2 cups veggie broth
  • 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
  • 2 tablespoons thyme, sage & rosemary mix
  • 1/2 celery stalk, minced
  • 1/8 small onion
optional: 4 baby red potatoes

for the roast, mix up the the first four dry ingredients. for the spice mix, just throw in whatever tastes good - i used thyme and sage as they remind me of thanksgiving flavours. mix the rest of the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. for the onion and celery, i used a magic bullet to mince them up as i didn't want large chunks in my roast. slowly combine the wet into the dry ingredients, kneading as you go. knead for at least 2 minutes, and then divide into two small roasts.

put the roasts into a 1.5 quart baking dish. if you want, cut up the baby potatoes to bake with the roasts. mix up the broth ingredients, and pour half into the baking dish with the roasts. bake at 395°f for about 25 minutes. at this point, most of the broth will have evaporated. pour in the second half of the broth and bake for about 20-25 minutes at 340°f. serve warm.

as a side note, i cut my roasts into slices before i baked the second time. this allowed the juices to really get in and marinade the roast. but that's completely optional.

20 comments:

Meg said...

YUM! I still haven't tried Seitan! This looks so good!

jessy said...

oh WOW! your roast looks awesome & soooo tasty! mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

allularpunk said...

this looks yummy! i might try it out for my xmas roast, since my thanksgiving seitan creation was a bit of a disaster. for me, trying brand new recipes on stressful holidays is apparently not a good idea. so i'll most likely try this out in the next couple weeks first!

Amy said...

Mmmm I've made all sorts of seitan but have always been scared of doing a roast. I want one for Christmas though. Yours looks great!

Anonymous said...

I can say firsthand, this was delicious! after i had it, i thought "ooh i'd love to make this for us at home" but i'm not sure if i can tackle this project... i'll just wait for next thanksgiving.

Anonymous said...

Oh yum - I love seitanic roasts! Great idea on slicing it before the baking - I'll have to try that next time I make something similar!

Anonymous said...

You made your own roast? That's very impressive!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

looks really good! I'm contemplating doing something similar for chrimbo!!

Jenn Shagrin said...

Awesome...thank you :) Definitely make the mini crepes at the very least. I had a bunch left over and I just kept eating them with some agave nectar. They remind me of something I used to eat when I was a kid, I just can't figure out what.

And this is one very rockin' roast.

Bianca said...

I've always wanted to create my own T-Day roast, but I always cop out and buy one. Maybe next year....

HangryPants said...

I tried seitan for the first time Friday. It was from the whole foods salad bar. I liked it. Is it tricky to get right?

Joanna said...

this looks great!!! cool creation.

we had a tofurkey this year but i wasn't a fan.

allularpunk said...

re: boozy silk nog

yeah, actually, i think the texture of their nog is different from last year. it seems thinner than before. less...noggy. more...like nog flavored soymilk, ya know? i want that stuff to be like a thin pudding hahaha... which sounds totally gross. i do rum instead of bourbon though because the smell of bourbon makes me think of my grandma, who used to drink bourbon and 7ups every night before dinner when we visited. not that it makes me sad or anything (she's still alive and kickin'), but i just can't bring myself to drink something that reminds me so strongly of something my grandma drank. weirds me out for some reason. anywho... long comment over. have a loverly day :)

Nurit "1 family. friendly. food." said...

Brave girl!

VeganCowGirl said...

I agree with the last post - brave girl. I have had some wickedly bad luck with making seitain roasts - but it looks as though you rocked the recipe! Looks great.

Anonymous said...

We should have this more often than just holidays... I loved it!!

Anonymous said...

This was delicious. I love seitan but have never made it myself since I thought it was very difficult to make. I cooked the roasts with potatoes and carrots. I used tamari instead of soy sauce. Next time I'll cut the tamari/sauce soy to 1/3 cup for the roast and 1/3 cup for the broth since I did find it a little salty. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe.

Chef E said...

This looks great...bet it taste good too...I tried sneaking veggie chili in on my friends hubby, but he knew something was up...

Anonymous said...

I may be a bit late to jump on this comment train - but this looks mouth watering! Were you pleased with how it turned out?? I haven't tried cooking seitan yet and am looking for the right "first recipe" - this may be it!! :)

Anonymous said...

I've made this roast several times since uncovering the recipe on this site. I find that the texture of the roast is much better when i place aluminum foil over the dish. It's less chewy. This is easily one of my favourite dishes.