Wednesday Food Blogging

Celebration Seitan and Stuffing Roast

A worthy holiday feast: Celebration Seitan and Stuffing Roast

It's always a challenge to find a vegan centerpiece for special occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas. The spectacle of a turkey is such a traditional experience for most of us that replacing it requires a truly magnificent dish. Lasagna just won't cut it. 

When I first became vegetarian, it was the subscription to Vegetarian Times that kept me supplied with original ideas for the holiday centerpiece. Every year they supplied in their November and December issues a couple of holiday main dishes, and, since there was no internet to speak of then, these options were welcome. 

Our family's favorite over the years has been this seitan and stuffing loaf, covered with puff pastry, that appeared in the 1995 holiday edition of Vegetarian Times. Ironically, it was one of the first main dishes I made for our newly vegetarian holiday table, but it's still my family's most requested dish. 

But when I was asked to make it this year, I knew it needed a bit of updating. Back in the nineties I'd never heard of tarragon, or even imagined that I could make my own seitan, nor did my pantry contain a magical ingredient called "liquid smoke."

I've updated the recipe, included an easy recipe for seitan, and upped the herb quotient considerably. 

It's a pretty inpressive centerpiece, and I guarantee your family won't miss the turkey or the ham if you put this in front of them. 

Slice open to reveal layers of seitan, stuffing and puff pastry 

Keep reading for the recipe, and click here for a printable version.

Thanksgiving approaches, ready or not

'Grace'

I'm trying to decide what to make for Thanksgiving dinner. We're invited to two dinners, one Thursday and one on Saturday. Since the British don't celebrate Thanksgiving, it's simply another work day here, so we Americans cram our holiday in whenever we can.

In the past I've made Bryanna's seitan "turkey", sometimes as a roulade with stuffing inside. I've also made Breast of Tofu, stuffed with cornbread dressing. And I've served various dishes involving puff pastry and filo dough. (Not at the same time.) Here's one that just popped into my inbox, from Vegetarian Times.

I'm considering bringing Cornbread and Pinenut Stuffed Cabbage Rolls to Thursday's dinner with friends, since it can be a main dish or a side dish. For Saturday's large international gathering, there's a vegetarian Shephard's Pie in the last issue of Gourmet (yes, I got my hands on it!) I may make, along with the delicious Roast Garlic Gravy from last year's holiday issue. (Here are more vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes from Gourmet.)

This year I've seen more vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes than ever before, online anyway. That gives me a great feeling, that more of my little friends won't be bred and forced to live in cramped Butterball conditions, only to spend their final moments in pain and fear.

And then there's those pesky CO2 emissions.

Enjoy your holiday, if you celebrate, and if not, well, it's a great day to see a movie, isn't it?

Speculaas Cookies

Speculaas cookies, like windmill cookies minus the windmills.

If last fall was my Porcini Period, this winter is definitely my Speculaas Season. After buying 7 jars of Speculoos paste in Belgium, and a large package of the Belgian biscuits, I talked my Dutch friend into procuring me some special speculaas spices. She also gave me a couple recipes, which I was easily able to adapt to suit my purposes.

Speculaas cookies are like the windmill cookies that are available almost everywhere. Crisp and spicy, they're named "speculaas" from the Latin word for mirror, because they mirror the shape of the wooden moulds used to form them. I didn't have the moulds, but I'll be sure to look for them before next Christmas, when I intend to bake these in time for St Nicholas Eve (December 5).

If you don't have a Dutch friend, you can mix the spices yourself. I have approximated the blend below. If you can find the moulds or a cookie stamp, all the better. I simply formed the cookies into rectangular logs and baked them like that. You may also want to sprinkle flakes of almonds over the top. You may have seen so-called windmill cookies prepared like that, but I'm more of a purist when it comes to speculaas.

The Belgian biscuits, called Speculoos, are slightly different from the Dutch version. They're carmelized, which gives them a unique taste. Try to find them if you can. Otherwise, I'm not going to get into the Dutch/Belgian differences when it comes to biscuits. Wars have begun over less.

Meanwhile, I think I'll go have another one. Just looking at that photo makes me want to dunk one in my tea.

Thanksgiving: What's a vegan to do?

Before you decide what to eat on Thanksgiving, give some thought to the birds that, fortunately, won't make it to anyone's dinner table this Thanksgiving. And then give them some cash. Turkey feed ain't chicken feed, you know.

For $25 you can adopt a turkey from Farm Sanctuary. The birds stay there—don't worry, you don't even need a back yard, just a credit card. You can even choose which turkey you'd like to adopt. They're all adorable, though, so it's a hard decision!

Next, try a turkey substitute. Here's my pre-Thanksgiving post from last year. It has several links to vegan non-turkey recipes suitable for Thanksgiving. And here's another meatless loaf that just came across my wire, from the Meatout Mondays email list I subscribe to.

You can also check out Gentle Thanksgiving for more. That mushroom gravy may very well make its way to my Thanksgiving table this year.

(By the way, we usually celebrate Thanksgiving, even though it's not a holiday in Britain. Most Americans here celebrate on the Saturday after, since they don't get the day off work.)

Don't let cruelty mar a day that's especially for giving thanks. It's really easy, and delicious, to avoid eating turkeys these days.

Spinach and Tofu Strudel

Christmas in June?

With all my phyllo (filo) dough experimentation, it's beginning to feel like it's holiday season instead of June. This dish, as well as the Tofu-Mushroom Phyllo Parcels I posted last week, would make excellent vegan holiday dishes. These strudels could be made ahead and heated up (around 30 minutes in a hot oven) for a busy day meal. I'd crumble some phyllo sheets over the top during the second bake, since they have a tendency to fall off as the roll is handled. 

We served this with a plate of fried eggplant—or aubergine, depending where you are. The deliciousness was almost too much, for an ordinary Saturday in June.

Directions below.