Wrap pretty much anything up in pastry and you’ve won my heart. I am a big pastry fiend, so I especially love it when we start getting into the cooler season and I have an excuse to eat it on the regular. Be it in pies, as a tart base, or in something like this magnificent vegan beef wellington recipe.
I first made one as a teenager (pre-vegan) from my Jamie Oliver cookbook. It was made with a beef fillet and wrapped up in a crepe, mushroom duxelles, and puff pastry. I remember making everything from scratch. It was a complete faff, but the end result was just so amazing.
Equipment:
- Food processor optional
Ingredients:
Vegan beef
- 350 g Vegan mince
- 250 g Cooked puy lentils
- 1 Brown onion finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Tomato puree
- 1 tbsp Wholegrain mustard
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Black pepper ground
Vegan mushroom duxelles
- 50 g Vegan butter
- 1 tbsp Rapeseed oil
- 250 g Chestnut mushrooms
- sprig Fresh thyme
- 100 ml White wine
Wellington
- 4 slices Vegan ham I really like the M&S vegan ham slices
- 500 g Puff pastry block
- Rapeseed oil for cooking
Vegan egg wash
- 1 tbsp Aquafaba or use vegan milk & maple syrup
Instructions:
Prepare the vegan beef filling
- Get a large mixing bowl and add all of the vegan beef ingredients
- Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix together all of the ingredients until they form a firm meaty mix
- Roll the vegan beef mix into a large sausage shape and then cover tightly in cling film
- Put it in the fridge whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients, or leave overnight if you want to prepare everything the night before
- If you are ready to start cooking your vegan beef wellington, turn your oven on to 180 °C
Make the vegan mushroom duxelles
- Clean your mushrooms using a kitchen towel
- Finely chop the mushrooms, you can do this with your knife or a food processor. If you are using the latter then make sure to only pulse it gradually so you avoid turning it into a paste
- Put your frying pan onto a medium-high heat
- Add your 50g of vegan butter and 1 tbsp of rapeseed oil into the pan and heat through until the butter melts
- Add in your mushrooms, a pinch of salt and the sprig of thyme
- Cook on a high heat for about 10 minutes, until the butter and oil have evaporated. Make sure to stir often to stop it from burning or sticking
- Pour in your white wine and cook for another 10 minutes, until the wine has cooked off and the mushrooms have formed a paste
- Take the mushrooms off the heat and scoop them into a bowl to cool down
Brown your vegan beef
- Using the same pan as your mushroom duxelles, pour in a small amount of rapeseed oil and heat up on a medium heat
- Unwrap your vegan beef and carefully place it into the pan
- Fry off each side of the sausage until it has browned, this should only take about 6 minutes to do
- Remove your vegan beef from the pan and set aside to cool
Roll out the pastry
- Cut off 1/3 of your pastry block and using a well floured rolling pin and work surface, roll it out into a thin and even rectangle shape. Move it onto a baking parchment lined baking tray
- Roll of the remaining pastry so that is the same thickness as the bottom, but it will be a lot wider so that you can wrap it over the top of the vegan beef. Set it aside on a well floured work surface
Line the vegan beef
- Get a piece of cling film on your work surface and place the vegan ham slices 2 by 2
- Spread over the vegan mushroom duxelles
- Lay your vegan beef on top in the middle
- Using the cling film, wrap the vegan ham & duxelles around the vegan beef
Build the vegan beef wellington
- Place your wrapped vegan beef into the middle of your pastry base
- Drape the top half of the pastry so that it lays evenly over the top of your vegan beef
- Using your hands, press down on the top of the pastry so that it wraps tightly around the top of the vegan beef and meets the edges of the base pastry layer
- Using a paring knife, cut the excess pastry around the edges, leaving about 1cm around the edge
- With your hands, squish together the edges of the pastry so that the bottom merges with the top of the pastry
- Brush over your vegan egg wash and score the top of the pastry
- Place the tray with your vegan beef wellington into the oven and cook for about 40 minutes, until the pastry is golden all over
Serve your vegan beef wellington
- Once your vegan beef wellington is out of the oven, transfer it over to a serving plate
- You can either cut it into slices before serving or allow people to cut their own slices straight from the plate
- Serve it with roast potatoes, a creamy mustard sauce, and some cooked greens
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