Deep down this year’s Christmas main course is so lovely. Literally. Because our roast made from beetroot, lentils and nuts is not only coated with a delicious layer of mushrooms and chestnuts, but also with a layer of puff pastry. This way, no taste can escape and the roast stays nice and juicy inside. Of course, it also looks good. So it’s worth the work threefold. At least.
The role model for the dish is the classic Filet Wellington. A fillet of beef (initially probably even horse fillet) wrapped in a puff pastry coating with a duxelles (a very finely chopped mass of mushrooms). The name probably goes back to the first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley. If you’re like us now and the name doesn’t ring a bell at all: he was the British military leader who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo. So the dish was probably invented shortly after 1800.
Fortunately, more than 200 years later, everything is a little bit different. England is no longer fighting with France and we neither cook with horse nor beef. With us, a hearty vegan roast made from beetroot, lentils and nuts is the centerpiece. We are also adding chestnuts to the mushroom duxelles. So the dish tastes even more like winter and Christmas. A few spices shouldn’t be missing either. A no brainer. But that’s basically it.
The biggest work is chopping up the ingredients. If you have a really good food processor, you have a clear advantage here. If you (like us) only have a semi-good stand mixer or maybe just a hand blender at home, you should do the chopping in several stages. It takes a little longer, but it also works wonderfully. In theory, of course, it could also be done without any technical aids. Chopping by hand could well take another 200 years though.
After the preparation, the beetroot roast is briefly pre-baked and then the really beautiful handcraft begins. Put some mushroom duxelles on top of the puff pastry and then add the roast. This is then neatly wrapped with the remaining mushroom and chestnut mixture and finally covered with puff pastry.
If you’re smarter than us, you put the roast on the puff pastry rotated. In other words, the long side of the roast should be parallel to the shorter side of the puff pastry. Exactly the other way around than in the pictures. So in the end you won’t have any problems sealing the wellington. Unfortunately we only noticed afterwards. At least we can now tell you that the puff pastry can be stretched a little if necessary and small holes can be mended with leftover dough. 😉
We serve our vegan Filet Wellington with red cabbage with apple, oven baked brussels sprouts and our vegan gravy. Due to the puff pastry coating and the lentils in the roast, in our opinion you don’t necessarily need an additional side dish. Of course, mashed potatoes, bread dumplings or potato dumplings would also go wonderfully with it.
Vegan Beet Wellington
Ingredients
Beetroot Roast
- 500 g beetroot, raw
- 1 can green lentils, 240 g drained weight
- 100 g walnuts
- 50 g sunflower seeds
- 75 g oatmeal
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp rosemary, chopped
- 1 tsp smoked paprika powder**
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Mushroom and Chestnut Duxelles
- 650 g mushrooms
- 100 g chestnuts, cooked
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp thyme
- salt + pepper
- vegetable oil
Puff pastry
- 1 package vegan puff pastry, 275 g
- 1 tbsp plant milk, for brushing
Preparation
- Peel the beetroot and chop it roughly just like the onion and garlic. Drain the cooked lentils well. Puree all the ingredients of the loaf in a food processor or with a hand blender to a relatively homogeneous mixture. However, this can still be a bit lumpy. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and form a roast that is almost as long as the short side of the puff pastry. Pre-bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. Let cool down.
- In the meantime, finely chop the mushrooms, onions and chestnuts in the food processor. If you don't have a food processor, you can chop the ingredients very finely and after frying and cooling, chop them well again.
- In a pan, fry the mushroom and chestnut mixture with some vegetable oil at medium temperature. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Keep frying until most of the liquid has boiled away and everything has combined well. Now let the mass cool down as well.
- Take the puff pastry out of the refrigerator and roll it out. Now first place a thin layer of mushroom and chestnut duxelles on the puff pastry the size of the roast. In such a way that the long side of the roast is parallel to the short side of the puff pastry. Put the beetroot roast on top. Cover the roast with the rest of the duxelles from all sides. Press everything down well. Fold the puff pastry together and seal the seam well. Cut off any excess puff pastry (can be placed on the roast as a decoration or used for other dishes).
- Place the roast on a baking sheet and brush with the vegetable milk. Place in the preheated oven and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes.
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