Seitan Turkey with Imagination Stuffing

So, it's 4:36 PM on Wednesday afternoon.  I have been cooking since 2 PM and I still have more to do.  I decided for my very first vegan Thanksgiving that I would make a Seitan Turkey rolled with stuffing.  I got the recipe for the Seitan Turkey stuffed with Stuffing here.  I've never made a seitan turkey, but I have made seitan burgers, which were very good, so I thought, what the heck.

I haven't made stuffing from scratch before, so I researched recipes to get a good idea of what I wanted in my stuffing.  For inspiration, I used the recipe for Hearty Stuffing and a recipe called Kitchen Sink Uffing from a Yahoo! Group. The Kitchen Sink Uffing game me permission to put whatever I wanted in the stuffing, so I did.

I diced a yellow onion, 4 stalks of celery, and 8 oz. of baby portabella mushrooms and sauteed them in a little olive oil until the onion and celery were translucent and the mushrooms had released their liquid and were soft.  

I added one diced gala apple, maybe 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts, and 1/4 cup of  pomegranate flavored craisins.  (Yes, I am still trying to use those up.)  

I added 1 bag of seasoned bread cubes (they were vegan), 1/4 teaspoon of sage and poultry seasoning, 1 tablespoon of parsley, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper.  Then, I stirred it up and let it sit while I made the seitan.

After I made the seitan turkey and it had sat for an hour, I added about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of no salt added vegetable stock to the stuffing.  (Yes, I now realize that I could have made the seitan turkey and while it sat for an hour, I could have made the stuffing, but I didn't do it that way.  So I used the hour wait time to eat a salad. :)

 I rolled out the seitan to about 1/2" thickness and spread the stuffing on it leaving a good margin all around the center so I could close the roast.  

It actually looked pretty good before I wrapped it up in the cheesecloth and tied it.  This is my first experience using cheesecloth.  It kind of looks like a caterpillar.  :::smile:::

This roast was a PERFECT fit for my cast iron oval dutch oven.  I put the roast in it, and then poured the broth over it.  Instead of using water in the broth, I used the rest of the no-salt vegetable broth as the base and then added the spices to it.  I'm hoping it will make the roast that much tastier. After the roast has cooked for 3 hours, I'll be using the seitan broth with mushroom broth to make the gravy. 

So, where's the finished product, you ask???  It's in the oven cooking.  It takes 3 hours to bake at 250ºF.  I threw the dish of the remaining stuffing in the oven too.  I thought I'd let it bake at 250º for an hour along with the roast.  It won't be done then, but I can bake it for another 20 or so minutes tomorrow just before dinner and it should be perfect.  I'll also be baking the seitan roast for about 20 or so minutes just before dinner to give it a firmer crust.  I'll post the finished products tomorrow.

NOW, I still have more to do.  I still need to make Vegan Pecan Pie Muffins and Slow-Cooked Mushroom Gravy to complete my portion of the meal tomorrow.