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Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying your Boxing day! I’ll be back tomorrow with a round up of my amazing Christmas, but in the meantime I just had to post a couple of my recipes I made for Christmas dinner. Along side my Leek and Roasties Soup which we ate as a starter, I also made these two fantastic dishes:

Sage and Onion Stuffed Seitan Roll (vegan, serves 4)

For the stuffing:

• One box of vegan Sage and Onion Stuffing – I got mine from Aldi for 99p :-)

For the seitan:

• 1 1/4 cups of vital wheat gluten – (you can purchase vital wheat gluten in the UK via The Flour Bin or from iHerb)
• 1/4 cup of gram flour
• 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp of vegan vegetable bouillon powder
• 3/4 cup of water
• 2 tbsp of soy sauce

Pre heat oven to 160. Mix the dry stuffing mix with hot water according to packet instructions and set aside.

Combine all the dry seitan ingredients in a bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour the water and soy sauce into the dry mix and combine with a spoon until the dough begins to stick, then kneed using hands until all the dry mix has been incorporated.

You should be left with a ball of sticky dough. Place a sheet of foil on a work surface and place the dough on top. Pull and press the dough out into a rectangular shape. This will take a few minutes and the dough make break but just take your time pushing the dough out and nipping any holes together.

When you have a rectangle approximately 6 x 8 inches get the stuffing mix and spoon on top leaving a couple of centimetres of dough around the edge (you may not need the whole bowl of stuffing mix – roll any remaining stuffing into balls and bake).

Roll the seitan up using the foil to support it, into a roll, nipping the ends together. Wrap the foil around it in a sausage shape and twist the ends together.

Place the seitan onto a baking sheet and cook for approximately 1 hour. The seitan should be golden brown and firm but springy to the touch. I cut mine open just to check it was cooked through:

Slice into rounds and serve!

You can also make this ahead of time, slice and wrap in foil and allow to cool then store in the fridge for a few days. It will also freeze very well. This was delicious served with gravy and veg for my Christmas lunch, a perfect turkey alternative for any vegetarians or vegans! 

Salted Caramel Chocolate Mousse Cake (vegan, serves at least 6, adapted from CCKs Chocolate Fudge Pie)

Crust:

• 1 1/2 packets of lotus biscuits (which are vegan) – 375g, reserve a couple of biscuits to crumble over the top   
• 100g or about 3/4 cup of vegan spread – I used Vitalite

Mousse: 

• 1 package mori nu silken-firm tofu
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp non dairy milk – I used soy milk 
• 1 1/3 cups dark chocolate chips
• 3 tbsp agave syrup

Salted Caramel Sauce:

• 1/2 cup of light muscovado sugar 
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp of vegan spread (I used Vitalite)
• 3 tbsp of soy cream (I used a carton of Alpro light)
• 1/8 tsp of sea salt

To make the crust – using a food processor (or a bag and a rolling pin) crush the biscuits to crumbs. Add the vegan spread to the food processor and blend with the crumbs (or melt and combine if not using a food processor) Line a 9 inch spring form tin with greaseproof paper and press the mixture into the bottom of the tin. Put into the fridge to cool and set.

To make the mousse – melt the chocolate and add to a food processor along with all the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the spring form pan on top of the caramel crust. Put back in the fridge to chill until firm.

To make the caramel sauce - place the sugar and water in a sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil over a medium high heat – this should happen quite quickly! When the sugar has melted add the vegan spread 1 tbsp at a time and stir in. Then add the soy cream a tbsp at a time stirring constantly. Add the pinch of salt and continue stirring. Grease a small bowl with some vegan spread and pour the caramel into it to cool (wash up your pan and spoons straight away so they don’t get too sticky!) Leave the caramel to cool for a couple of hours.

When you are ready to serve the torte remove from the spring form pan and drizzle with the salted caramel sauce (you’ll probably have some left) and some crumbled lotus biscuits

This is super rich and chocolaty and for most people (er, not a chocoholic like me!) a small slice will be enough. I was going to call this a torte or tart but when everyone was eating this they thought the topping was like a rich chocolate mousse. 

Holy yum!! Considering that these two recipes were pretty experimental I was very happy that they turned out so well! I’m very much looking forward to enjoying leftovers of these today.

Did you make any special dishes for your Christmas Dinner?