Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This is the ultimate festive centrepiece. Meat-free beef, brushed in a rich chestnut and mushroom pâté, encased in flaky, golden puff pastry. Serve this with all the trimmings and lashings of this vegan gravy and your festive meal is complete! This can be made ahead of time and then baked on the big day, so you’ve got more time to work on other things. I love a big roast dinner, but anything that can help cut down on the work while I’m doing nine million other things is very much appreciated. I’ll break this blog post down into sections, so you can follow along bit by bit and then everything will come together at the end

Step One; Make the “Beef”

For this I’ll be using my corned beef style seitan, as it’s got the perfect colour to act as the beef for this vegan Wellington. This will be enough to serve four or five, so it’s a half size of the seitan I usually make

You’ll need;

1. 100g vital wheat gluten
2. 20g chickpea flour
3. 15g nutritional yeast
4. One and a half teaspoons of the following; onion granules, garlic granules, dried rosemary, dried thyme
5. Half a teaspoon of salt
6. One vegetable Oxo cube
7. One tablespoon of soy sauce
8. 50g roasted beetroot
9. 125ml water

Method;

• This is exactly the same as how I make my other seitan recipes, so no surprises here. First start by mixing together the dry ingredients into a bowl, these are the items listed in the first five points listed above
• Next, add the remaining ingredients into a jug or blender, then blend until smooth. It should be a very vibrant shade of pink
• Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a dough forms. Knead the dough for three to four minutes or so
• Once you’re ready to cook, place the dough onto a cling film/baking paper/foil lined working surface and then wrap the dough. Ensure no water can touch the dough directly while it’s cooking
• Place the wrapped dough into a small pan of boiling water. Replace the lid and boil for half an hour. Once cooked, leave to cool fully to room temperature before popping it into the fridge

Okay, that’s the first step done. Now, the pâté

Step Two; Make the Pâté

This will make roughly 240g, the leftovers would be ideal served as a starter with toasted bread, crackers, pickled onions, etc. Or you can serve it as part of a cheeseboard with dairy-free cheese

You’ll need;

1. One tablespoon of dairy-free butter
2. 100g red onion, sliced
3. 150g baby chestnut mushrooms, sliced in half
4. Three cloves of oak smoked garlic, or one clove of garlic if you can’t get oak smoked garlic
5. Half a teaspoon of tarragon
6. Half a teaspoon of dried parsley
7. One tablespoon of nutritional yeast
8. 100g roasted chestnuts, here’s how I make them
9. Salt and black pepper to taste

Method;

• Melt the dairy-free butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once melted, add in the onion and fry for ten minutes, or until softened
• Next, add in the mushrooms and stir them through the onion. Give the mushroom five minutes to cook, stirring every now and then
• Then add the garlic, the oak smoked garlic adds a wonderful flavour, but you can replace this with regular garlic if preferred. Give the garlic two or three minutes to become fragrant, but don’t brown it
• Season with herbs, nutritional yeast, salt and black pepper. Once everything is cooked transfer the contents of the frying pan to a blender
• Add the chestnuts into the blender too, then blend until smooth. Set the pâté aside to cool

Finally, Assembling the Wellington

This is the final part. Brush the “beef” in the pâté, wrap the whole thing in pastry, then brush the pastry with vegan egg wash. The vegan egg wash was something I recently came up with, it recreates the colour of an egg wash without containing any eggs. So the resulting pastry has a warmer and more attractive colour once baked

You’ll need;

1. The vegan “beef” you made earlier
2. Two tablespoons of the pâté
3. 285g ready-rolled puff pastry
4. One tablespoon of dairy-free milk
5. One pinch of ground turmeric
6. A pinch of freshly cracked black pepper

Method

• Allow the pastry to come to room temperature and then unroll it. If it starts to crack, it likely isn’t warmed up yet and this is a sign to leave it a little longer
• Once the pastry is unrolled, pick the “beef” up and brush the underneath of it with one tablespoon of pâté. Then place the “beef” , pâté side down, onto the pastry
• Brush the remaining pâté over the top of the “beef” in an even layer. Bring the pastry up and wrap the “beef” with it. Fold the pastry to fully seal in the “beef”
• Use a sharp knife to trim away excess pastry. You can use the offcuts to make any decorations you like. I like cutting out leaf shapes, as they’re pretty easy to cut out and they make the pastry look pretty. Just brush a little milk on any pastry that you want to use as decoration, so that it will stick to the pastry wrapped “beef” fully
• Next, mix the pinch of turmeric into the dairy-free milk. Mix until the turmeric is fully incorporated and there are no lumps. Once mixed, liberally brush the pastry with the wash. Sprinkle the black pepper evenly over the pastry
• Bake the Wellington at 200°C/180°C fan assisted for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to stand for 15 minutes after baking before serving

Serve with any trimmings you fancy, plus plenty of gravy

This is my last recipe for 2025, thank you for the support you’ve shown me over this year. I hope that you end your 2025 on a pleasant note, and I hope you have a wonderful 2026. I will be back in the new year with more easy vegan recipes. Until then, you can find me posting on Instagram if you’d like to follow me over there