Ho, ho, ho, only a week and a half to go! Can you believe it? It’s gone so fast for me. Time to have a good think about what to cook for the Xmas table, I think. This year’s Xmas “pièce de résistance” is a Beet Wellington with a twist.
I made a beet Wellington two years ago and while I still stand by that recipe, I decided to shake things up a little while keeping the general theme and flavour profile the same. Inspired by my vegan sausage rolls recipe, I swapped the beet filling for a combination of firm smoky tofu for texture, nuts, herbs, aromatics for depth of flavour and a baked beetroot for colour. This version has a bit more of a bite and tons of umami. It has quickly become our household’s latest favourite. We’ve eaten it several times already this autumn and we will be bringing it to our Xmas dinner this year too. Our lovely friends, Annette and Jeff, have invited us over for Xmas dinner this year. Not only that, they are not vegan, but volunteered for the dinner to be completely vegan! They initially offered to cook everything themselves, but that just felt so unfair, especially as they have a very energetic toddler to look after , so we’ve decided to split the workload. We will be bringing the centrepiece and a dessert while they will be tackling all the side dishes. We are so touched and are really looking forward to our get together. It is not easy being vegan at Xmas and most people are so attached to what they habitually eat, that we would not dream of talking someone into not cooking their usual Xmas staples for our sake. So we are really really grateful to them for being so open-minded and welcoming. It’s so nice! As you can see, this recipe is a little more complicated than what I usually tend to share, but it is Xmas so we are pulling out all the stops. If you have the time, I would encourage you to cook the filling (both the beet and mushroom components) and the gravy the day before as their flavours will have a chance to develop and the overall taste of the dish will be improved hugely. Well, I really hope you won’t be put off by a bit of process and you’ll make my Wellington for Xmas or, if you don’t celebrate it, a special occasion that warrants a bit of a treat. And I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we have!
2 tbsp olive oil 3 shallots, roughly diced 2 garlic cloves, sliced 1 carrot, roughly diced 2 celery sticks, roughly diced 15 g / 0.5 oz dried porcini mushrooms, well rinsed 4 button or chestnut mushrooms, sliced 1 medium beetroot, peeled and sliced a few sprigs of thyme a few sprigs of rosemary 1 bay leaf 1 tsp red miso paste 1 tbsp nutritional yeast 240 ml / 1 cup white (or red) wine salt and pepper, to taste 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp cornflour / cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tbsp water
DUXELLES (MUSHROOM PATE)
600 g / 21 oz button mushrooms 2 tbsp olive oil 2 shallots, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, finely diced a few springs of thyme, leaves picked salt and pepper, to taste
DUXELLES ASSEMBLY
***I know that Jus-Rol and Pepperidge Farm are definitely vegan and that Dufour definitely isn’t. If in doubt, check the packet for more details. This amount of filling makes a Wellington of the following dimensions 20 cm x 6 cm x 13 cm / 8″ x 2.4″ x 5″, which is enough for 8 people. If you wish to make this dish larger, simply multiply all the ingredients by 1.5 apart from the pastry, which should be big enough for a larger log – I had lot of offcuts.
