Holiday recipes?

[mischiefgrrl]

Now that the air is starting to cool down (not that much, this is Southern California) and the signs of fall are here... it's time for me to plan my holiday feasts.

This is our first year going all veggie. I always spend more than one day prepping the meal. I make my own bread and then dry it for the dressing. Even the cranberry sauce is from scratch. Today I'm going to experiment with a faux turkey roast made out of seitan.

Has anyone made a faux turkey roast before? I'm going to mix ideas from a few sources. I like the pastry puff "skin" idea from everydaydish.

 

[gatsby]

A company called Now and Zen used to make a faux turkey roast with Yuba skin and it was the best. Unfortunately, they went out of business a few years ago. At one point I found a couple of recipes that used the Yuba skin, but I can't find them now. I am sure they are out there somewhere though.

The trick is to not let it dry out at all, which is tricky with these things. My trick has been to use an oven bag full of roots (potatoes, yams, rutabagas, turnips, onions, garlic...)and completely surround the loaf with the cut up roots and add a basting liquid. I also cover the loaf with spices and margarine. I have been playing around with this for a few years and I can even keep tofurky moist. Without all that fan fare the window for pulling it from the oven was to precise for a bumbler like myself.

 

[Eibhilin]

Oh my, been here dozens of times and hadn't noticed this forum before! Glad to see the Veg*ns have representation here. :3

Heeey would anyone happen to have any good Holiday recipes that are GF-Vegan? I was thinking of doing a raw Thanksgiving, but my pescetarian significant other is on the fence. (The recipes at rawbc.org/raw_holiday_recipes.html look amazing! <3)

 

[wallawally]

my fav recipe is the one from everydaydish but dont use the ketchup! as for gf or raw i have no idea but i would love a recipe if you find one, i eat way to much gluten.

i have tried cooking seitan several different ways and in my opinion wrapping in cheese cloth and boiling in stock is the best, but roasting also works well. this year instead of a roast i am going to try stuffing cabbage leafs with seitan, root veggies and some kind of binder to creat what i like to call "pilgrim fusion".

 

[mischiefgrrl]

I've experimented with a few trials. I'm taking a break this weekend due to the flu (can't eat or cook right now)

One of the better "roasts" I made was seitan with blended tofu. I wrapped it in cheesecloth and steamed it for an hour and then baked it for another hour. I think I'm going to do that one with the pastry "skin" idea - sans ketchup.

 

[chuckzvap]

We tried to bake a diner roast from scrach "what a diasaster", however, we purchased a dinner roast from clark's market, it's a vegetable & grain protein loaf by worthington, and toped it with a savory herb gravy mix to give a beefy taste.

 

[mischiefgrrl]

We tried to bake a diner roast from scrach "what a diasaster", however, we purchased a dinner roast from clark's market, it's a vegetable & grain protein loaf by worthington, and toped it with a savory herb gravy mix to give a beefy taste.

None of mine were disasters, but I think adding some vegetable rather than just seitan and tofu might be more for me. Maybe some shredded carrots and zucchini for flavor and texture.

 

[Jessa]

Mischief, have you tried Quorn's turk'y roast? I think it's amazingly close to the real thing:

quorn. us

 

[mischiefgrrl]

I might give that one a try. I was hoping for something I would make myself from scratch since that's my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. Cooking! If nothing else I can settle for that and put my efforts into the sides and gravy.

 

[Jessa]

I might give that one a try. I was hoping for something I would make myself from scratch since that's my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. Cooking! If nothing else I can settle for that and put my efforts into the sides and gravy.

I think it's delicious- all of Quorn's products are. You could always buy a Quorn roast now and try it, and decide to stick with it or not.

Let me know what you think!

 

[mischiefgrrl]

I finally found a Quorn roast after searching allll over LA. I don't know if this is the only roast they do or if there's a holiday size one, but the one I found is pretty small for a holiday. I bought two and a tofurkey. I figured Thanksgiving is a feast so we can have more than one faux roast to choose from.

I also developed a new recipe last night that knocked our socks off! I combined the idea of a seitan roast and a nut roast. Using a food processor I finely ground 1/3 cup each of raw cashews, hazelnuts and walnuts with some carrots and zucchini. Then added chickpeas, liquid smoke, 5 cloves of garlic, a dash of chili powder, dash of sweet paprika, powdered onion and poultry seasoning. Then added a cup of cold water and vital wheat gluten to form a dough, rolled it in foil and steamed for an hour. The texture is a little too mushy, I'll do less chick peas next time and grind the nuts a little less - the flavor was absolutely incredible! We have leftovers and I'm craving them like crazy right now but I have to go to work. Might put some in a container with a steamed potato to take with me.

 

[Jessa]

I finally found a Quorn roast after searching allll over LA. I don't know if this is the only roast they do or if there's a holiday size one, but the one I found is pretty small for a holiday. I bought two and a tofurkey. I figured Thanksgiving is a feast so we can have more than one faux roast to choose from.

I also developed a new recipe last night that knocked our socks off! I combined the idea of a seitan roast and a nut roast. Using a food processor I finely ground 1/3 cup each of raw cashews, hazelnuts and walnuts with some carrots and zucchini. Then added chickpeas, liquid smoke, 5 cloves of garlic, a dash of chili powder, dash of sweet paprika, powdered onion and poultry seasoning. Then added a cup of cold water and vital wheat gluten to form a dough, rolled it in foil and steamed for an hour. The texture is a little too mushy, I'll do less chick peas next time and grind the nuts a little less - the flavor was absolutely incredible! We have leftovers and I'm craving them like crazy right now but I have to go to work. Might put some in a container with a steamed potato to take with me.

They are small...but they're solid. I am making 4 for our Thanksgiving dinner (we'll have 6 adults and 4 children- I expect to have a fair amount of leftovers).

I will bet you won't even touch the tofurkey. Bleh.

 

[Dredbull]

I have an idea for a cranberry sauce that has been bothering me for a week now.

I am doing 2 different sauces with fresh cranberries, raw sugar and filtered water.

1st is a organic honey crisp and cranberry with apple brandy and fresh ground cylon cinnamon and cloves. Doing a mix of one apple peeled with cinnamon clove mix apple brandy and organic apple cider in a food processor then the cranberry cooking and simmer down.

2nd like the first but with oranges and grand marnier and cinnamon ginger blend. '

I will let you all know how that turns out.

 

[mischiefgrrl]

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We had both Quorn and Tofurky roasts. Quorn is very much like the real thing. Tofurky tasted like seitan and wasn't bad. I liked the gravy that came with it and actually added some more spices to it. We also had baby red mashed potatoes with garlic and rosemary, mushroom, green bean and asparagus risotto, pumpkin muffins for breakfast and for dessert; pumpkin pie and pecan tart. My kiddo and I are stuffed and ready for bed!

 

[Dredbull]

Ours is going on today, My cransmashed sauces as I am calling them turned out AMAZING!

A bit thinner than I would have liked but fresh cranberries in sauce cannot be beat. They have a spiced sweet tang to them.

I also did a pair of cheese spreads that are soo good, been sitting getting massive flavors.

 

[shivadance]

You have that right Dred, fresh cranrelish is awesome! I threw some together last year with orange juice, honey, sugar and I can't remember what else. Loved it! Not as thick as I wanted, but good.

We went pre-processed this year, I'm embarassed to say.

But the Tofurkey was good (don't like the stuffing but like the 'turkey' part itself). I can't make gravy and haven't found a really good package gravy. At whole paycheck I found their brand of premade vegan mushroom gravy. Light colored like a chicken type gravy. Figured it was worth a shot. Holy moly, it was DELICIOUS! I couldn't belive it! Tasty premade vegan gravy. Paired especially well with the tofurkey.

I wish as a family we could get away from fake meat on Thanksgiving, but it's what they want so I can live it with I guess.

Hope everyone had a great veggie Thanksgiving!

 

[Dredbull]

I did end up getting the orange way to sweet more a cranberry desert topping.

The apple was a freaking hit.. the ones who were not prepaired for sweet tart and savory were amazed and ate the hell out of it.

No the rest of what everyone brought was a carnasarious fest. They were getting over the sauce and the anouncement of me not smoking. The veggie pro thing might not have gone over so well.
I did make a jalepeno artichoke cheese dip that was demolished with beer and bread in no time.