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.)
This sounds otherwise fab but I am not making something with that much salt and soy sauce in it. I will have to experiment between now and Christmas to see what seasoning mods I can make. It looks beautiful.
Looks amazing. I love making seitan and I have been going crazy trying to find a stuffed, baked recipe like this for my Christmas dinner. Looks perfect! Cant wait to try it.
Very timely! I think I’ll try to modify this to go inside a puff pastry shell, which I was planning to do with slightly different fillings. Thank you!
Have just gotten in to making my own wheat meat. Will be trying this over christmas I think. Yum, yum & thrice yum!
It looks amazing! Well done on completing your quest for the perfect roast. I made one of Vegan Dad’s last year but I must have messed it up somewhere because I got the texture totally wrong. I definitely want to try this… being in the UK we don’t have thanksgiving but this will be just fantastic for Christmas,
Hi this looks great for my family for Christmas. I live in england and cant get vital wheat gluten here. Is there a substitute ?
We couldn’t resist, my husband and I needed to taste it as it came out of the oven… It’s delish! Didn’t have fresh shiitakes, but it worked really well with rehydrated ones.
Hi lara,
I live in England too; I couldn’t find wheat gluten for ages, then found it on veggiestuff.co.uk.
http://veggiestuff.co.uk/acatalog/vital-wheat-gluten-flour.html#aNUV9999
This roast sounds fantastic! Love the middle of this 🙂
I have this in the oven as we speak. It comes together just like the sausage (you know, the one that changed the way we eat!) and bakes up beautifully! Thanks for sharing!
Ok, Isa, I am making this right now (with a cornbread & vegan sausage stuffing) for tomorrow! Question: after baking it tonight, should I let it cool completely still wrapped in the foil and then just stick it in the fridge? I’m thinking I’d just reheat it tomorrow in the same foil wrapping, never having opened it (oh torture! I want to see it tonight!!).
SO excited!!!
P.S. I took lots of pics of the steps and will post to my blog, maybe later tonight!
This looks amazing!
Oh man–wish I had this recipe a few days ago! Going to do it for xmas though! YUM!
In the directions for the filling, it mentions drizzling in the broth with the lemon juice, but I don’t see how much broth to add. So excited about this recipe – the filling already smells delicious! Thanks!
Anyone know anything that would taste good and replace the fennel seed? Neither I nor my sisters can stand fennel or fennel seed.
Other than that, this looks great. You think it’d last a couple days? I could make it and then have lunch for a couple days, that’d be awesome!
Alexander, Isa’s recipes are flexible! You can just leave out the fennel seed or sub something you all like a lot (hot pepper flakes? more sage? dried rosemary?)
Make it!!
This was ok…the stuffing makes it though. I found the seitan to be kind of lacking…I even used the added salt. Someone else might like it though.
This is exactly what I came here looking for. I want something that isn’t tofu “turkey”
Thanks for the years of effort to make our Thanksgiving tasty.
Whew! Finished the post with pictures of making and assembling the roast for anyone who is interested. It was really fun and easy guys, DO IT.
http://veganfazool.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-not-too-late-make-isas-seitan-roast.html
Can’t wait to eat this roast tomorrow!! Thank you so much for your amazing talent, Isa!
XOXO
Thank you so much for the step-by-step! As I said a few comments ago, I am not neat or coordinated enough to do that. Can’t wait to see it roasted!
Made mine tonight as well. STELLAR. Seriously, I think this one is idiot-proof, and I KNOW that it’s delicious! My only concern is not eating it all before tomorrow! I may need to make a seitan en croute just in case.
THANKS, ISA!
I made this for Thanksgiving dinner. I accidentally put 2 tbs of DRIED thyme before my boyfriend re-read the ingredients to me and I said “WAIT… fresh!?” I thought 2 TBSP sounded like an aweful lot. Luckily, we had just dumped it in and I was able to fish a lot of it out. So, in the end the roast was rescued. The texture, consistancy, and moisture level was really good as well as the flavor. I would reccomend this recipe and may even use it as a template for other stuffed roast experiments.
Made this tonight to test for Xmas. Tasted delicious. Only problem I had was that it came out a little bit soft and chewy. My oven is temperamental so I’m wondering could this texture be a result of over or under cooking?
Wonderful. Looking forward to trying this. Thanks for posting your work. Can’t have the soy sauce, but I would think adding extra salt will substitute. Have a great meal tonight!
I just made this as a roast without the stuffing. It’s really good! I ended up baking it for an hour and 45 minutes. It’s really good!
I made it last night and it was fantastic. I’ve only ever made seitan by steaming it so I was a little curious about baking it. Turning the roast every 20 mins. gave it a nice brown finish. It was plump and very flavorful. The gravy went very well with the dish. Thanks for posting!
I’m really impressed! Looks absolutely wonderful! I just have to try to make this 😀
ps: love your blog and books <3
Hello! First time writting! Just to say I love your blog and I love your books! 🙂
I wish you the best!
Isa, I am making this now – it’s in the oven. The pics look like the outside of the roast is browned and crisp. Did that happen just by being wrapped in the foil or did you brown the outside somehow?
It happened in the foil! Where ever it comes in contact with the pan it will brown. Just be sure to rotate it.
Thank goodness you sent out this recipe! I wasn’t going to do anything for Thanksgiving, but this motivated me. It was a hit! The filling was so tasty that it almost didn’t last long enough to be placed in the seitan roll. We didn’t have stuffing this year and it was the perfect replacement! The one thing I did wrong was not rolling it out think enough and the seitan came out a little doughy. It was very tender and not dry at all.
It is in the oven right now. Thank you!
omg, this was delicious. and ours wasnt dry at all. Thank you Isa!
Looks delicious! Maybe for Christmas?? Also, I made the peanut butter cheesecake from Pie in the Sky for thanksgiving today. It was great! No one in my family is vegan except for my son and me. My brother in law choose it over my mother in laws non vegan pies. She thinks she is the best cook and no one would ever want to eat “my food”. I think it really bothers her that I bring all of my own food. He took a bite and said “this is really good. do you have the recipe? Was it on line?” Just wanted to let you know that it was a big hit! Can’t wait to try another recipe from the book!! Thanks!!
I made this today and was excellent! thank you for an awesome recipe and a great thanksgiving dinner!
I made this today with a simple bread stuffing and it was delicious! I used a touch too much salt in the broth but the texture was just perfect. I often have trouble with seitan being either too tough and chewy or too soft but this was right on the money. The recipe is so easy also–no basting or boiling–just pop that foil tootsie roll in the oven! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! Happy Thanksgiving!
I had to keep it in the oven a lot longer than 50 minutes, at 50 it had the same consistency as when it went in. I have an oven thermometer so I know it wasn’t that. It was delicious!
Thanks for the feedback! What kind of wheat gluten did you use?
Just made this today… it was amazing! I used soy flour instead of nutritional yeast, as I didn’t have any on hand, and it turned out fabulously!
I made this for dinner today too. It came out perfect! Perfect texture, complex flavors, and good looking too. Thanks for posting it just in time!
This was fantastic, thanks for it! I used black beans that I had on hand from earlier in the week, and regular mushrooms, and it was still too awesome for words.
I dunno about other bloggers, but I have a helper going behind me and cleaning everything up while I’m cooking, so I do get some photos taken along the way. (Helper took the photos too, since my fingers were all seitan-y) I only got photos of 2 steps of this though.
IT WAS AWESOME! Thank you from rural Montana!
so sad that i just saw this today! looks delicious. the seitan roast i made for thanksgiving did not come out so well everything and i make of yours is always so good lol. will definitely be trying for christmas.
At the last minute, I made this but used my own wild rice bread stuffing and served it with wild mushroom gravy. Off the hook delicious. Texturally perfect. It was a potluck Thanksgiving dinner and the omni’s all tried it too. It got a 100% thumbs up review from everyone. Thanks, Isa!
This sounds delicious. I just hope the picky 2-year old will eat it!
Made this for Thanksgiving and it was SO GOOD! I did have to bake it longer than 50 min, but I think that is because I put alot of broth in with the seitan. The filling was DIVINE! I used baby portabellas and scallions, since the store was out of shittakes and leeks.
I had the same issue as Ana and Cyndee. 50 minutes wasn’t nearly enough to bake it. I’d say it was at least 90 minutes before it was done. I’m going to post later in my blog about the different filling I used and the puff pastry I added once the seitan was done, but suffice it to say this was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. The seitan itself was really excellent.
Wow, thanks for letting me know! I must have super-gluten.
50 minutes was perfect for me, I did let it rest for ~20 minutes still wrapped solidly in the foil, maybe that made a difference, let it cook itself a bit as it cooled down. Reheated on KThnxGiving and was amazing! I used the 3/4 C homemade breadcrumbs which I seasoned with basil, oregano and garlic, was fantastic. Seriously, I’ve had it for 4 meals in 2 days, I can’t get enough.
Thank you!!
It was fun to make and good to eat! Thanks hon.
Isa-amazing, as I always say. I made this yesterday, for Thanksgiving, and all of my guests loved it, even those who were wary seitan virgins. I didn’t even serve it with a gravy (I intended to make your chickpea gravy, but forgot some crucial ingredients from the store), but it didn’t matter because it was still moist and amazing. I served it with your Garlicky Kale with Tahini Sauce, which also wowed my guests, and then we feasted on a vegan pumpkin pie by Angela LIddon. Thanks, Isa, for posting this recipe!
I followed directions exactly (except I used a plain bread stuffing), but the texture is really rubbery. I pulled it out after 50 minutes, but it was so rubbery I couldn’t even cut it. I put it back in the oven for another 50 min. That definitely helped, but the texture is still pretty rubbery. It tastes good (I sliced some of the leftovers and fried them up today) I just wish the texture was nicer. I got my wheat gluten form the bulk bin at my local Whole Foods. (I also don’t think I over mixed it).
Thank you, I’ve updated the directions to tell people to bake longer.