It’s the season where the siren call of your couch feels more seductive than ever or is it just me? I find myself having to work hard against this pull towards being a bit lazy and sedentary at this time of the year. I joined my local gym in the hope of keeping the lazy gremlin at bay and I continue to meet my personal trainer in the park once a week despite the fact that it’s getting a bit too cold for comfort right now. Thanks to Xmas and birthday presents from Duncan, I have plenty of warm exercise gear in my wardrobe so I have no excuse. I also need to offset a number of Thanksgiving and Christmas test cooks – like today’s recipe – as they tend to add up over the course of a few weeks…

As my American friends are about to celebrate Thanksgiving next week and many other countries are slowly gearing towards Christmas, this week I have got a new plant-based centerpiece that anyone can enjoy. It’s a delicious vegan roast stuffed with roasted pumpkin, cranberries, chestnuts and sage. It looks impressive, but it’s not that hard to make actually.

Although I am still big fan of this Vegan Wellington I came up with years ago, I realise that some of you may be after a pastry-free festive main that can easily be made gluten-free too. If that sounds alike a good idea, you are going to love this no seitan vegan roast. I’ve streamlined the process as much as I could and took plenty of step-by-step photos to help you assemble it with ease. Here is a brief walk through the key ingredients and process.

Oh and if you are after a gravy to go with it, I have three flavour packed vegan gravy recipes on this site:

• Vegan beet & wine gravy
• Vegan cider gravy
• Vegan mushroom & miso gravy

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

SQUASH/PUMPKIN: I made the stuffing with roasted butternut squash as it’s such a beautiful vegetable with heaps of colour and so seasonal right now. You can use any type of firm eating pumpkin or squash, it will work just as well. The weight given in the recipe is AFTER peeling and coring.

CHESTNUTS: roasted chestnuts, which tend to appear on the supermarket’s shelves around this time add delicious richness and seasonality to the stuffing.

CRANBERRIES: roasted in the oven cranberries, sweetened with a touch of maple syrup provide a lovely pop of festive colour and sour taste. I used fresh cranberries, but you could also use frozen – they will simply need a few more minutes in the oven.

BREADCRUMBS: I used coarse breadcrumbs to shape the filling and to absorb any extra moisture. You can also use roughly crushed croutons, pretoasted and coarsley ground up pecans, walnuts or pumpkin seeds both in the stuffing and in the tofu layer. Leftover cooked brown rice or barely also works well in the stuffing (not so much in the tofu layer). The idea is not to make the stuffing solid – I don’t move the stuffing at all until it has a layer of tofu around it as it won’t stay put – but to fill in all the nooks and crannies between chunkier and more textural stuffing ingredients. As the tofu layer is minced smooth, I really wanted to have some texture in the stuffing.

HERBS: fresh winter herbs are instrumental in making fragrant and aromatic festive fare, but you could use dried if fresh are unavailable. I used rosemary, thyme and sage in the tofu layer and sage in the stuffing.

SMOKED FIRM TOFU: smoked firm tofu is the key ingredient of the outer layer. Once baked, it forms a nice firm layer around the stuffing that’s not as firm as seitan. I recommend using smoked tofu as it’s flavour is usually well judged and evenly distributed, but if that’s unavailable, add some liquid smoke or smoked paprika to the tofu layer. The key to a good exterior layer is to press tofu well. If you are in a rush and your tofu is still quite waterlogged, you could skip the stock althoghether and add psyllium husk powder straight to the food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Once processed, it will bind with the other wet ingredients in the mixture and activate this way.

BALSAMIC VINEGAR: I added thick (aged) balsamic vinegar to the tofu layer and to the glaze. It’s worth purchasing a better quality balsamic if you can as it is much more flavoursome and more syrupy.

WHITE MISO PASTE: adds an extra depth of flavour and some saltiness. If white miso paste isn’t available, you can use red miso – which is a bit more intense in flavour so add less, taste and then decide if more is needed.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST: a staple vegan seasoning used to add flavour. If you don’t have any, skip and use a touch more miso adjusting to taste.

PSYLLIUM HUSK POWDER: PSYLLIUM HUSK POWDER: is a powerful wholefood plant-based binder. It can be found in health food shops, in pharmacies (as it is also used as a source of insoluble fibre to help digestion) and online. It exists in the form of powder and whole husks – I recommend the former as it’s more potent and doesn’t impact texture of foods.

I tested the same dish with FLAX SEEDS and while it can work I feel that psyllium offers superior texture. To use flaxseeds, use twice as much (4 tbsp) of GROUND FLAX SEEDS and only about a couple of tablespoons (30 ml) of stock instead, but be aware that the layer ends up less flexible and it is therefore prone to cracking during assembly and baking. You can smooth out the cracks that form during assembly with your hands. It has much lower moisture content so bake it at 180° C / 355° F for only about 25-30 minutes before glazing. To prevent cracking when using flax, go for an easier – baking tin – assembly procedue – see METHOD.

OAT/RICE FLOUR: use either oat or rice flour to give the tofu layer more body and help it bind together better during baking.

SALT: although, I’ve indicated the amount of salt I used, please be sure to taste (there are no animal products in anything so it’s safe to do so) both components and adjust to your palate. I used coarse flake salt (Maldon brand) so if you are using fine salt you may want to use even less than I did.

Start off by roasting squash/pumpkin and cranberries, which will go into the stuffing and shallots and a whole head of garlic, which will go into the exterior layer.

Once your shallots and garlic are roasted, peel them and chuck into a food processor with the remaining tofu layer ingredients. Process until homogenous. The mixture should not feel wet but it should stick together well once squeezed. If it feels wet, add a bit more flour and if it’s too dry a small amount of water until it feels right.

Once you are happy with the tofu mixture, spread it on a piece of greased baking paper, compacting it really well with your hands.

Use a rolling pin to even it out – you want roughly a 26 cm / 10 square that is approximately 1 cm / 0.4″ thick.

Arrange the stuffing mixture in a thick snake close to (but leaving a bit of a margin) one of the edges of your square – ideally you want the stuffing parallel with the longest edge of the kitchen foil for easy wrapping. Using the paper gently roll the tofu layer around the stuffing – don’t move the stuffing – rather fold the tofu layer over it. Seal two meeting ends of the tofu layer together (get the end of the paper out of the way) and place the whole log on its seam. Tighly wrap in a double piece of kitchen foil and refrigate for a few hours (overnight is best) to settle.

Gently transfer to a baking tray, unwrap with care, grease and then bake in a hot oven until firmed up and browned all over. Glaze it twice baking the glaze for a few minutes each time.

Once baked, allow it to settle before tucking in.