This tasty mushroom & tofu wellington is a great way to veganise a better know but less healthy version. This dish is also far more environmentally sound and less cruel than the original meat version! It’s easy and quick to make and will wow your guests at a dinner party as it is a superb “entree” dish.
The main thing is to get the right tofu, and tasty mushrooms – portobello or flat mushrooms are best – button mushrooms varieties are too tasteless. The best tofu is either medium firm or firm from a local Chinese supermarket. It really could be either – but possibly medium firm is better. Sliced and marinaded, tofu is full of flavor, and has a great texture.
The other unmentionable dish has several thick layers of a now banned substance (at least from being produced in the UK) due to the cruelty inherent in its production. In this recipe, it’s replaced with a much healthier and more environmentally sound and cruelty free version – namely thick tasty mushroom paste.This is smeared liberally on the layers of tofu which holds it all together while the pastry is wrapped around it.
The whole thing relies in it’s appearance and appeal on some trusty puff pastry. I would prefer to use wholemeal, but sadly, Sainsbury’s who used to make and sell ready rolled wholemeal puff-pastry have sadly stopped stocking it. I keep hoping someone will start doing it again, but so far I haven’t been in luck.
Oven dishes like this mushroom & tofu wellington are great for dinner parties. This is because you can put them in the oven, and then concentrate on the rest of the preparations. So this is one of my favourite oven dishes partly for that reason.
Mushroom Tofu Wellington with mushroom "foi gras" & peppers or "bacon".
Equipment
- large stainless steel or aluminium baking sheet
- Food processor
- Actifry or wok
Ingredients
- 1 pack pack of tofu firm – I get it from the Chinese shop near Chapel Arts Centre It's around £1.35 for 600g
- 500 g of flat or portobello mushrooms.
- 1 whole medium red onion
- 1 pack pack of ready rolled puff pastry I use Sainsbury’s as it’s the largest sheet
- Either 1 large or 2 small green/red peppers or a small aubergine.
- 15 g /Half a bulb of garlic
- 2 mushroom stock cubes
- 2 teaspoons of yeast flakes
- Tablespoon of soy sauce.
- 2 Teaspoons green vegan pesto Sacla is a good brand to use
- 30 g (Small bunch) of fresh basil
- teasps Marinating ingredients to taste: Soy sauce garlic paste, smoked paprika mirin, balsamic vinegar
- pack A pack of v-bites vegan “bacon rashers” OR 1 large red pepper or 2 small ones
Instructions
Marinating the tofu
- Tofu from Chinese shops generally comes in 3 blocks, and looks like this.
- so, slice the tofu into 12 fairly thin slices – that’s each block into 4 thinnish slices
- Add a marinade of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, mirin (if you have it) garlic paste & balsamic vinegar. You can add paprika or smoked chilli, and oregano too.
- Cover and leave to soak overnight or for a few hours at least.
making the mushroom paste, griddled peppers or V-bites "bacon".
- Cut peppers into 4 good slices top to bottom and griddle on a highish heat until nicely cooked - a Cuisinart grill is great for that. Ditto for the “bacon” if you’re doing that option. Just use one option – not both.
- Sauté the mushrooms until well done in some olive oil.
- As they come to finish cooking add in the basil and continue until it is well wilted.
- Transfer to a Magimix or similar and add in the stock cubes, green pesto, yeast flakes and a little of the marinade, and blitz until a smooth thick – but spreadable – paste is created.
- Add more marinade/water if too thick
constructing the Wellington
- You can of course make your own puff-pastry - but it's pretty tricky and the results are uncertain - so I just buy a commercial vegan one - Sainsbury's or Jus-Rol are both vegan.
- Unroll the puff-pastry shortly after removing from the fridge – don’t leave it out at room temperature too long, or it will go too floppy.
- Lay it out on the greaseproof paper it comes in (well Sainsbury’s does) with the short sides to left and right of you and on a large enough baking sheet.
- Then put a layer of the mushroom paste (as wide as the strips of tofu) on the bottom of the pastry in the middle and running from left to right.
- Then add a layer of the griddled “bacon” if you’re doing that option, otherwise the tofu, then a thin layer of the paste.
- Continue until you have 3 layers of tofu interspersed either with just mushroom paste, or mushroom paste and “bacon”.
- When you’ve added your final layer of tofu (3 in total) add the final ¼ of the mushroom paste, and if you did the “bacon” version, finish off there with a final slice of “bacon” or if the pepper version, lay a layer of peppers last thing.
- Carefully fold over one side of the pastry on top of the stack – keep it as tight to the stack as you can and use the grease-proof paper to manipulate the pastry into the right place.
- Then moisten the top of this flap with soya cream (or soya milk) and then fold the other flap over on top.
- Then roll/flip the whole thing over by lifting the shorter/nearest side of the greaseproof paper, so that the join is then underneath – (there’s a little bit of a knack to it the flipping/rolling – but don’t hesitate – just flip it deftly) this stops the pastry from opening during the baking.
- Bake for around 30 mins until golden brown on 200°C non-fan.
Notes
• If you do the “bacon” version, there won’t be enough space to add the peppers, and the same is true if you do the pepper version. You can only fit so much in and still be able to complete the wellington – there has to be enough pastry overlap to keep the whole thing together.
• Be creative – there are loads of possibilities with this dish – right now, I’m trying to think up a version involving tomatoes, vegan cheese, red onions, and bacon……. Mmmmmm – it’s sounding good already….!
• This is another variation on the tofu with a replacement for the hideous Foi gras, and the almost as hideous beef slices. It uses mushroom paste (thanks Jamie for suggesting that in one of your recipes)
