The other day, I was invited to a Christmas dinner. It was some kind of potluck where everyone was bringing their own food, and as the only vegan, I wanted to make sure to make something that even meat eaters would love. Also, I wanted to make sure I had something good to eat myself.
So I dove into the depths of the interweb, looking for inspiration, and found exactly what I was looking for: Avant Garde Vegan’s Christmas Roast! The only problem was that it was made with dried fruits, cranberries and other sweet flavours, which wouldn’t have worked really well. See, mixing sweet and savoury foods might be common in some cultures, but not really in the French/Belgian culture, and I wanted to make sure everyone would like it. So I decided to switch that for mushrooms and truffle! Cause what says Christmas more than truffle? In my eyes, nothing. And I even served it with some mushroom – truffle gravy!
So I took inspiration from this recipe, and here is the one I came up to.
Oh, and if you were wondering: it was a huge success and everyone loved it!! I was so happy!
Ingredients
ROAST:
Wet
2 tbs Truffle Oil
1 red onion (or 2 small)
1 leeks, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 pinch all spice
1 pinch paprika
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 tbs dried sage
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 cup button mushrooms
1/2 of a small jar of truffle paste (mine was 80g and I got it from an Italian caterer)
1/2 cup chestnuts, chopped small
1 cup white wine
1 cup vegetable stock (preferably homemade)
1 tbs miso paste
Dry
2 & 1/4 cups Vital Wheat Gluten
3 tbs Chickpea Flour
Spice mix rub
Cayenne pepper
All spice
Dried sage
Dried rosemary
Truffle oil
Roasting Ingredients
1/2 to 1 cup white wine
2 cups veggie stock
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
Fresh thyme & rosemary
1 tbs miso
2 tbs truffle oil
Pastry
1 roll shop bought vegan puff pastry
Other 1/2 of the small jar of truffle paste
Soy milk
GRAVY :
1/2 cup button mushrooms
1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons truffle oil
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
4 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups veggie stock
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Pepper to taste
Recipe
· Chop the leek, onion and garlic very finely
· Pour 2 tablespoons of truffle oil in a pan on medium high heat, and sweat the leek, onion and garlic with the salt, pepper, all spice, paprika, nutmeg, sage and rosemary
· Chop the mushrooms in cubes (not too small because they will get smaller while cooking)
· Once everything is soft, add the mushrooms and chestnuts to the pan and sauté for about 5 minutes
· Deglaze the pan with the white wine and let simmer for a few minutes
· Add the stock and miso paste, mix and let simmer for about 2 more minutes and turn off the heat
· Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
· Let the wet mix cool a bit
· Add the wet mix to the dry ingredients, add the truffle paste and mix well
· Preheat your oven to 150°C/300°F and knead the dough for about 10 minutes (the longer you knead, the better the texture will be)
· Put the dough aside and let it rest for about 10 more minutes
· Roll the dough in a sausage shape as pictured on the photo
· Rub the spice mix rub all around the roll
· Wrap the roll in a piece of fabric (preferably a cheese cloth, but I didn’t have one so cut open a produce bag and it worked perfectly fine). Tie each end.
· Place the roll in a baking tray with the roasting ingredients
· Bake for 2 hours at 150°C/300°F (the original recipe said 180°/350°F but some comments said it was too high, which is why I lowered it.) After an hour, pour some of the roasting liquid over the roast
· Let the roll cool down for 30 minutes to an hour, and remove the cloth
· Put the roll in the middle of the puff pastry and cover it with the rest of the truffle paste
· Wrap the roll with the puff pastry (watch the video to see how I did it)
· Brush some soy milk on top to make the roast shine
· Bake on 180°C/350°F until golden (approximately 30 minutes)
· During that time, make the gravy:
· Heat the oil over medium heat in a pot, with the onion, garlic, and mushrooms, until brown
· Sprinkle flour and stir for 2 minutes
· Add vegetable stock, a little at a time, whisking constantly, until smooth
· Add soy sauce and pepper, simmer until thickened
· Slice the roast and serve with the mushroom gravy!
