The smell of roasted cauliflower has become one of those warming ‘hygge’ experiences as winter develops. Add a flaky pastry, like an edible down jacket to the dish, and you have created a ‘Roasted Cauliflower Wellington’.
After a google search about the term Wellington for a vegetable pastry dish it seemed to cause some culinary confusion. There’s lots of conflicting theories, but it is agreed that the beef dish was named after the Duke of Wellington and his victory at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Now we are feeling a little conflicted about what we should really name this dish. Our version contains no beef and no war has ever resulted in celebrating a cauliflower wrapped in pastry! The French were happy to refer to their traditional fillet of beef dish as a Wellington, will the plant based community be so accepting?
This dish could be a wonderful centre piece for a vegan Thanksgiving or Christmas day, with roasted potatoes and all the favourite veggie trimmings. Parts of this dish can be prepared in stages, but to make sure the pastry stays nice and flaky, the final roasting of the cauliflower needs to be done on the day of festivities.
We love adding gravy to our roasted vegetables so we have included our favourite vegan recipe: caramelised onion gravy. This can be made in advance. One medium sized cauliflower will generously serve 6 people.
I medium sized cauliflower
2 sheets of vegan puff pastry
2 garlic cloves
2tsp onion powder
1tsp liquid smoke
2tbsp soy sauce
A dash of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
5 Sun dried tomatoes
1 garlic cloves
400g mushrooms
50g walnuts
2tbsp of fresh parsley
2tsp olive oil
2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut off all the outer leaves of your cauliflower. Make the marinade by blending the ingredients into a smooth paste. Turn the cauliflower upside down and pour some marinate between all the spaces, using the rest of the marinade to coat the top of the cauliflower. Wrap it in foil and roast for about an hour or until it's tender. When the roasted cauliflower is nice and tender, we use a skewer to check, uncover and roast for another 15 minutes until golden brown.
For the paste: soak the tomatoes in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Roughly slice the mushrooms and sauté in a pan with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. When the mushrooms have cooled, blend them with the sun dried tomatoes, walnuts, fresh parsley and nutritional yeast.
Evenly distribute the mushroom paste over the head of the cauliflower. Put one sheet of pastry on a baking tray. Place the cauliflower over it and gently cover with the second sheet of puff pastry. Carefully shape and fold the pastry around the cauliflower, then cut off the excess of pastry. Seal the edges with a fork and decorate the Wellington. We just scored our pastry, but you can be as creative as you want to!
Bake at 180°C (350°F) fan assisted for 20-30 minutes, until the pastry turns crispy and golden.
Allow the Roasted Cauliflower Wellington to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
2 onions
2 Garlic cloves
1tbsp Oil
500ml of vegetable stock
3 tbsp Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
3 tbsp cornflour
Optional extra tbsp of olive oil
Thinly slice the onion and garlic, fry gently for about 20 minutes in a tbsp of olive oil. The onion should be caramelised. Add the soy sauce, the veg stock and the Nutritional Yeast and simmer for about 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour with a little water into a thick paste and then add slowly to the gravy mix. Stir for another 5 minutes. The gravy should now have thickened. You can now serve it , but we like to blend into a smooth gravy. As we blend we add an extra little bit of olive oil to make it really glossy.
We are really looking forward to sharing our sharing our meals with more guests this winter. With so much uncertainty we really hope that everyone has the chance to have love and laughter around the dinning table. Maybe you would rather we cooked your meal for you while you explore the mountains and relax at MoaAlm Mountain Retreat this Christmas? If escaping to the Austrian Alps seems the perfect way to celebrate, then check out our snowshoe and yoga holidays this winter.
