Favorite Celebration Food
Beef wellington has always been my favorite celebration food and is often enjoyed during festive seasons, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. It’s not only a comfort food, but also a festive dish that brings happiness to the table. I always wanted to recreate a vegan beef wellington. However, I was either too busy during festive seasons, or didn’t want to “force” vegan food on my family. Despite all this, I finally made the vegan version of this famous British dish and I am so glad that I did!
Celebrateing Life
While I was making this vegan beef wellington, my brother popped into the kitchen and asked, “What’s the special occasion?” I thought for a second, then replied, “Nothing special, just celebrating life.”
#MakeChesterProud
Ever since 2017, July has become my least favorite month of the year. On 20th July 2017, my childhood hero, all-time-favorite singer and role model, Chester Bennington, decided to take his own life. I have never felt more devastated in my entire life. I felt like Chester is the only one who understands how I feel deep inside. He expressed my feelings through his music. After Chester’s passing, whenever I came across any setbacks or difficulties, I will tell myself, “You got this! Let’s #MakeChesterProud “
Ok, enough about Chester. So one of the main reason I decided to make this vegan beef wellington is to celebrate life. In this world that is full of negativity and frustration, sometimes all we need is an “excuse” to relax and celebrate. You might say, “With COVID-19 and all the injustice and hypocrisy going on in today’s world, what’s there to celebrate?” LIFE. It may sound cliché, but living is a blessing. Celebrate what you have when you have them.
Sometimes You Just Need To Improvise
Recently, I have been focusing more on reducing waste (you can check my zero waste granola recipe), so I prefer to improvise with ingredients I have, instead of purchasing them just because it’s a more “traditional” way to do so.’
Puff pastries are usually used when making traditional beef wellington. However, as I mentioned in my previous blog post that I am gluten intolerance and I do not have any GF puff pastry at home, I used GF pie crust. So, if you are totally ok with gluten, go ahead and use normal puff pastry! Or if you can find GF puff pastry in your grocery store, use it. Here I chose pie crust because I got some leftovers while I was experimenting with GF pie crust the other day.
Vegan Beef Wellington For Everyone
In order to make a beef wellington that even meat-eater will love, I used Beyond Beef for the “beef” part. As for the pâté and duxelles layer, I used a mixture of mushrooms, chestnuts and lentils. Making this is actually not as complicated as I expected, all you have to do is to prepare each layers, assemble them, then bake it. Although it’s quite time-consuming, the smell and taste of freshly baked vegan beef wellington make it totally worth the effort!
Serving Suggestions
I like serving it with some baked tofu fries and roasted veggies, with a side of ketchup and mustard. But if you are feeling fancy, feel free to top it off with some vegan gravy! 😎
Vegan Beef Wellington (Gluten-free)
Course: MainCuisine: BritishDifficulty: High8
servings30
minutes50
minutesIngredients
- Beef Filling
1 pack of Beyond Beef ground (about 453g)
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
- Mushroom Pâté
3 cups brown button mushrooms
1 cup cooked chestnuts
1/2 cup cooked lentils
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 shallots (diced)
1 tsp thyme
Black pepper and salt to taste
- Gluten-free Crust* (Better prepare the night before)
1/2 cup Gluten-free oat flour
1 1/4 cup arrowroot starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 3/4 cup full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup refined coconut oil (melted)
250g vegan butter, cubed (chilled, not melted)
- Glazing
2 Tbsp plant milk (I used soy milk)
Directions
- Beef Filling
- Place the flawed Beyond Beef ground onto a piece of cling film. Shape it into a log, then wrap firmly with the cling film. Place in the fridge while you prepare the mushroom pâté.
- Mushroom Pâté
- Place the mushrooms, cooked chestnuts and cooked lentils into a food processor. Pulse a few times until they stick together. You don’t want to over-process it as it will be too mushy. You want the mixture to remain some texture.
- Heat a pan on medium heat. Once the pan is hot enough, add the diced onion and minced garlic. Fry for about 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
- Pour in the mushroom pâté mix. Fry for another 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture dries out a bit. Now, turn off the heat and add thyme leaves. Keep stirring the mixture until everything is well incorporated.
- Pour the mushroom pâté out and let it cool on a plate.
- Gluten-free Crust
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- Gently pour in coconut milk and coconut oil. Gently fold the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients until a dough forms. The dough should be smooth and shiny, but shouldn’t stick to the bowl. If the dough is too dry, add water, 1 Tbsp at a time.
- Cover the bowl and chill the dough for at least 2 hours
- Place the chilled dough and butter into a food processor, pulse until small butter pieces are incorporated evenly over the dough.
- Place the dough ball back into the bowl, cover and chill for another 1 hour.
- Assembling the Beef Wellington
- Heat your pan over medium heat, fry the beef log until it turns golden brown on all sides.
- Brush the fried beef log with 2 Tbsp of mustard.
- Place a large piece of cling film on your counter. Spread the mushroom pâté evenly on the cling film. Make sure the width is slightly larger than that of the vegan beef log, as you want the pâté layer to cover the log fully.
- Lay the beef log at the edge of the mushroom pâté. Tightly roll the pâté over the beef log into a sausage shape, just like you are making a giant sushi roll. Twist the ends of the cling film so it holds tightly together, then refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up
- Now, take the pie crust dough out from the fridge. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a large rectangle that is big enough to cover the vegan beef log. For me, I prefer the dough with the thickness of around 3mm. Make sure you have a large enough rectangle to wrap the beef log up and trim off the excess pastry.
- Roll the pastry around the beef log Then pinch the edges to seal and trim off any excess. Wrap the wellington tightly in cling film and chill for another 10 minutes, or overnight for better result.
- Preheat oven to 200°C. Glaze the wellington all over with plant milk and bake for 40-50 minutes. Or until the pastry turned golden brown.
Notes
- * You can also use ready-made store bought (GF) puff pastry or (GF) pie crust.
- * You can use the GF pie crust recipe for other recipes and it freezes well. So if you want, you can double the recipe and store the other half in the freezer for later use.
