Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. Hands down.

I love everything about it. The family and friends, the weather, and alllllllll of the food.

I have made many seitan roast over the years for the holidays. Some stuffed, some not, some with crispy skin, some without. But never yet had I made a vegan holiday roast that was stuffed with crispy skin.

I have no idea why not, but I knew this year it was exactly what we needed and what I was going to make. A vegan stuffed turkey roast with crispy skin!

And trust me, making your own vegan holiday roast is probably WAY easier than you may think. Making seitan is actually pretty easy and super affordable!

You can stuff a seitan roast with just about anything, but one of my favorite foods in the whole word is cranberry sauce.

I can not imagine a holiday meal without a side of whole cranberry sauce, so that is what I deiced I would use in my vegan turkey stuffing this year.

I started with some stale, few day old sourdough slices, added some onion, almonds, herbs, and to make things simple, whole cranberry sauce from a can. There is no shame in using canned cranberry sauce, especially when you can not find fresh cranberries.

In October, in Florida (when I was testing this recipe) there were no fresh cranberries to be found. If it is cranberry season when you are making this, then I have a super easy recipe for some fresh homemade cranberry sauce! By all means do whichever you like or is readily available at the time.

Adding a crispy skin to your seitan breast is as easy as soaking a few sheets of rice paper and draping them over before you bake. They make such a nice thin, convincing skin on you vegan turkey and are so easy to work with! You can skip the skin part if you don’t have any rice paper or just are not into that. If you do, just mist the dough with some oil and sprinkle with your favorite seasoning before wrapping in foil and baking. The method for baking otherwise would remain the same as if you were adding the skin!

If you can not have tofu or are soy free you can check out another easy vegan turkey breast with jackfruit on our site. You could easily make that seitan recipe and stuff it with this stuffing, or make it as is and not stuff it!

There are so many other vegan meat options that would suit any holiday dinner on our website if this one does not appeal to you. Just check the meat substitute category for lots of options or even our Fall and Winter Holiday Menu E-Book. It is a full holiday meal menu start to finish! A main dish, side, deserts, and even cocktaisl. It is also loaded with video content to help you along while you are cooking!

Just know that you don’t have to settle on an overpriced, not very tasty, store bought roast this holiday season. You can make your own, super affordable, vegan stuffed turkey holiday roast right at home, and it is actually pretty easy to do! Don’t let seitan making intimidate you because it is actually really, really, easy to make!

So go, stuff a vegan turkey roast, and have the very best homemade holiday season!

Happy Holidays, Y’all!1

INGREDIENTS:

16oz block super firm tofu (the kind that is vacuum sealed in little water)
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2-3/4 cups water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons neutral flavored oil ( you can replace with water if you are oil free)
2 tablespoons tapioca starch or corn starch
2 teaspoons onion powder
1-2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 tablespoon No Chicken Better Than Bouillon
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon salt optional if you feel like the bouillon is not salty enough

STUFFING:

1 can whole cranberry sauce
3 large slices stale bread (I used sour dough)
1/3 cup sliced almonds or any chopped nut your prefer.
1 small yellow onion finely diced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1-2 teaspoons No Chicken Better Than Bouillon
2 teaspoons dried sage
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 teaspoons dried thyme
1-2 teaspoons dried rosemary

Rice Paper Skin:

2 tablespoons white wine (or water if you don’t want to use wine)
3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons Herbs de Provence or you can use a mix of rosemary, thyme and some sage.
1 teaspoon Vegetable Better than Bouillon
3 sheets rice paper

*I used high protein tofu in a vacuum sealed package and this what I strongly advise using. It is much firmer than regular firm tofu and has less moisture and a more chewy texture. If you opt to use regular firm tofu you will need to press it first and remove as much liquid as possible. You may need to adjust the amount of water in the recipet as well. Add the water last, adding just enough to accomplish a firm dough.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

The Stuffing: Take the stale bread and place it in a food processor or blender and bread it down to a crumb.
Finely dice the onion and give it a sauté in a pan with a little oil. Cook until translucent. Add it along with the bread crumbs, all of the seasoning, and the full can of cranberry sauce to a medium size bowl, and mix well. You can taste the filling after you mix it up and add more seasoning if you feel like you need it. Set aside.
The Turkey Breast: Break up the tofu and place it into a food processor with the regular metal blade. Run the processor for around a minute until the tofu is broken down.
Add all of the remaining ingredients and let the food processor run for a couple of minutes. You want the mixture to form a dough. Letting the processor run will help knead the dough. We want this seitan to be firm so we need it to knead for a bit. If you dough seems a bit too dry, you can add another few tablespoons of water, just don’t add too much more! I start at 1/2 cup and work from there.
If you do not have a food processor you can break down the tofu in a blender, then mix the remaining ingredient together by hand in a bowl. You will have knead the dough very well by hand on a clean surface for several minutes.
Once you have a smooth but firm dough, remove it from the food processor and place on a clean counter. Knead the dough with your hands for about a minute, forming a large rectangle shaped the dough (see above picture.)
Scoop the stuffing into the center of the dough and spread it out in an even layer leaving an inch or so border around the edge of the rectangle untouched by the filling. It is important to not let the stuffing touch that outside edge of dough! Wet dough does not like to stick together and tends to rip!! If you fill like you have too much stuffing then take a bit out. This will vary deepening on the size of bread slices you used You don’t want to overstuff the roast.
Fold up the longer sides over the filling, then begin rolling the vegan turkey roast from one of the short ends as tightly as you can while keeping the filling from all squishing out! Once the roast is all rolled up, use your fingers to pinch and smooth out the ends and the underside seam. Just be careful not to rip any holes in the dough while pinching it!
Take a piece of aluminum foil about 3 times the size of your roast. Spray or brush it well with some oil.
Add all of the ingredients for the rice paper skin, except the rice paper, to a shallow dish or pie pan and whisk. Place one sheet of rice paper into the liquid and let it sit there until it becomes completely soft. This takes several minutes. Gently lift the rice paper from the dish and place it in the middle of the foil repeat with a second piece of rice paper and kind of overlap it a bit on the first piece. Place the “turkey” roast on top of the paper and fold the edges of the rice paper up around the roast. Continue with the other 2 pieces of rice paper just the same as the first, draping each one over the top of the roast and tucking or pressing the edges of the paper around the roast. The paper should be very soft and sticky, and cling well to the roast.
Spray the top of the vegan turkey, and all over the rice paper with some oil or you can brush it. This step is needed to help prevent the rice paper from sticking to the foil.
Fold up the foil around the roast making a nice tight pouch Place the pouch on a cookie sheet and into the oven on the middle rack.
Allow the vegan turkey roast to bake wrapped in the foil for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes CAREFULLY open up the foil. The rice paper may have stuck a little, just gently pull the foil back. If it sticking a lot you can spray a little oil into the foil pouch as you are pulling it back and tends to help it pull away. Some rips in the skin is ok, it won’t really be noticeable! Just smooth it back down with a spoon in any spots it ripped. Allow the vegan turkey roast to bake an additional 30 minutes unwrapped.
Remove the roast from the oven and let cool a bit at room temperature. Loosly recover the roast and place into the fridge to rest for AT LEAST 6 HOURS. THE BREAST MUST REST!!! Seitan requires a rest to firm up and get that meat like texture we are trying to accomplish. If you do not allow the breast to rest you will likely not be pleased with the texture!
After you have allowed the vegan turkey roast to REST, you can reheat it in the oven at 350 degrees. Place the roast on a baking sheet with a piece of foil lightly draped over the top. Let the roast heat for about 20 mintues or so to heat through. After about 20 minutes uncover the roast and brush the skin with some vegan butter. Let it bake for another 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crispy.
Slice to serve with your favorite side dishes and extra cranberry sauce!!

TROUBLE SHOOTING:

If your turkey roast comes out looking bready once you slice it, and has little holes throughout it, you likely have an oven baking hotter than it is registering. You can get an over thermometer to check the temp, or knock the temp back 20 degrees the next time you bake it. You can also let it bake for 40 minutes wrapped up, and unwrapped for 20 minutes.
You may have also not kneaded the dough long enough. Make sure you let it knead for a minute or two. The longer seitan knead the firmer it will be and we want a rather firm seitan for this recipe.
If your roast forms a “skin bubble” that defates after you have let it rest, then you likely did not wrap the foil tightly enough. Make sure it is wrapped tightly!
If the rice paper is sticking too badly to your foil you can first wrap the roast in parchment paper sprayed with oil then in the foil. I have always just wrapped it right in the foil but have had people claim this is their method and that it works well.

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