Vegan Wellington
30 Nov 2022
This Vegan Wellington recipe is a twist on the classic Beef Wellington. Instead of being filled with a joint of beef, tender beetroot is used to give the Wellington texture and flavour. For some extra flair you can decorate the top of the Wellington using any scraps of pastry. But, it’s more traditional to score the top, allowing the pastry to expand.
Once it’s out of the oven it’s time to serve up. Serve with all of the usual trimmings: roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips and other roast vegetables. If it’s Christmas then why not add a few brussels sprouts to the plate. Plenty of plant based gravy finishes it off nicely.
Whether you’re serving this for a special occasion or as part of your normal Sunday roast it's a delicious main course that will leave you feeling full!
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized beetroot
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 400g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
- 150g pre-cooked chestnuts, finely chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- Ready to roll puff pastry
- Plant milk
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/gas 4.
2
Remove the leaves and roots from your beetroot and place into a large pan of boiling water.
3
Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes or until fork tender.
4
In the meantime, add the diced onion to a pan with the vegetable oil and garlic.
5
Sweat the onions for 8 minutes before adding the chestnut mushrooms and chestnuts.
6
Cook for 10 - 15 minutes or until all of the moisture has been cooked out of the mushrooms.
7
Leave the mushroom and chestnut mixture to cool.
8
Once cooked, remove the beetroot from the pan and, once cool enough to touch, remove the skins by rubbing them vigorously.
9
Trim the ends of the beetroot and then trim a little off of the bottom of the beetroot so that they rest flat against a work surface.
10
Place the trimmed beetroot to one side and leave to cool.
11
Once the mushroom mix and beetroot have cooled, roll out your puff pastry.
12
Roll out two pieces of puff pastry, one wide enough for the mushroom mix and beetroot to sit on. The other being wide enough to cover the mushroom mix and beetroot.
13
Spread 1/3rd of the mushroom mix on the bottom piece of puff pastry then place the beetroot on top in a row.
14
Spread the rest of the mushroom mix all around the beetroot so that they are covered completely.
15
Lay over the top piece of puff pastry and stick the edges together by pressing gently with a fork.
16
Score the top of the pastry with a criss cross pattern.
17
Brush the top of the Wellington with the plant milk then place into the centre of the oven.
18
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
19
Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
Top tip
Making the wellington is simple. First we need to prepare our beetroot. We do this by boiling them for roughly 30 minutes or until they are fork tender. Once they are cooked you need to rub off their skins as we don’t want them in our final dish. This can be a messy process and if you don’t want bright pink hands then consider wearing gloves!
Next we make our mushroom and chestnut mix. This is easily done by cooking onion, garlic, chestnut mushrooms and ready cooked chestnuts in a pan.
We need the mushroom mix surrounding the beetroot for two reasons: firstly it tastes delicious, and secondly it creates a barrier between the beetroot and puff pastry to make sure the pastry stays crisp rather than soggy.
Once cooked we let both the beetroot and mushroom mix to cool and then we assemble with our sheets of ready rolled puff pastry. Most ready rolled puff pastry is vegan but do check the packet and avoid anything described as “all butter”.
Once you’ve turned the cake out onto a piece of baking paper you need to tightly roll the sponge while it is still warm. Rolling the cake while still warm makes sure it’s flexible enough to roll without cracking. You then leave it to cool while rolled up. Once it’s cooled you unroll, fill and then roll up again. It’s quite a few steps but the finished spiral of chocolate sponge is worth it.