Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The vegetarian recipe for ‘Vegetarian Stuffed Roast Turkey’:

Ingredients

Mock Turkey

  • 2 and 1/2 cups soy beans (wash, soak in water for 10 hours)
  • 1 cup flax seeds (wash, soak in water for 10 hours)
  • 4 cups pure gluten powder
  • 3 cups oat meal
  • 1 cup wheat flour
  • ¾ cup cream cheese
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • ½ tsp white pepper

Basting Broth

  • ½ cup butter, melted
  • ½ cup honey
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

Stuffing

  • 2 cups chestnuts
  • 1 and ½ cups beetroot (1cm cubes)
  • 1 and ½ cups carrot (1cm cubes)
  • 3 cups white button mushroom (cut into 4 halves)
  • 1 and ½ cups capsicum (1.5cm square)
  • ½ cup oat meal
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 3 cups water

Stuffing Seasonings

  • 3 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ½  tbsp dried oregano crushed
  • ½ tbsp dried basil leave crushed
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • ½ cup orange juice
  • ½ tbsp salt

Method

a. Mock Turkey

  • Drain the flax seeds and blend until smooth, add the drained soy beans and blend till smooth.
  • Add cream cheese, butter, nutritional yeast flakes, salt, cinnamon powder and white pepper to the above mixture and blend till well mixed.
  • Pour the above mixture in a large bowl, add oat meal and mix well. Leave the mixture aside for 15 minutes.
  • Now add the wheat flour and gluten powder and knead well. Add a little water if the dough is too hard. Let the dough sit for 10 minutes before kneading again until smooth. You can use a dough mixer or a bread machine to knead if available. While leaving the dough to rest for about ½ hour, proceed to make the mock turkey mould.
  • To prepare a mold for shaping the dough into a turkey shape, cut aluminium foil approximately 4 inches wide into a continuous long strip. Crumple the foil lightly and roll loosely to form an approximate 1 inch tube. Spiral around it to form a 6 inches long egg shape mould with an approximate 3 inch diameter at the front, 4 inch the center and 2 inch at the tail end. Grease the surface layer with butter.
  • Remove the dough from the bowl but avoid breaking it up. Lay the dough on a long non-stick tray or a tray lined with cooking parchment to avoid sticking. Flatten the dough out into a approximate 5 inch wide strip. Wrap around the above mould to form the shape of a turkey trunk with the front end close up but the tail end open with ½ inch long of rolled foil protruded. You will need to pinch hard the adjoining edges of the dough together to stick well. Use the remaining dough to form the 2 drumsticks by wrapping it around an 6 inch long lemon grass with the stem end sharpened and inserted into the side of the trunk. You can also use other hard stem such as sugar cane or celery stem as the ‘bone’ of the drumsticks.
  • When the mock turkey is well shaped, put in on an oval shape casserole to hold it with it’s breast side up. Steam it for an hour till it is well cooked. Remove and cool it while proceeding to prepare the stuffing. (While steaming the turkey, proceed to prepare the chestnuts as shown in the Stuffing –Step 1 & 2 below.)

b. Stuffing

  • Make a small incision on sides of each the chestnuts and place it in a skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until toasted. Remove from heat, peel and set aside.
  • Fry mushroom with 2 tbsp butter for 2 minutes, remove and set aside.
  • Fry carrot + beetroot with 2 tbsp butter for 1 minute, add yeast flakes + oregano + nutmeg + basil + salt + orange juice + 3 cups of water. Cook for 3 minutes, add oat meal and cook for 1 minute. Add mushroom + capsicum + black pepper + cinnamon, mix well, remove content and place it in a bowl.
  • Remove the foil from the mock turkey cavity and fill it with the stuffing. Close  the opening with a crumpled alluminium foil. (Place the remaining stuffing content in a casserole and cover for further cooking in the oven later.) Loosely wrap the mock turkey with alluminium foil and place it in the oven and roast for 1 and ½ hour at 160o C.
  • Mix the basting broth well. Remove the foil from the mock turkey, brush it with the baste and roast it at 190o C. Repeat the basting every 10 minutes until the baste is finished. Remove the roast mock turkey from the oven when the skin turn golden brown and allow to cool while cooking the remaining stuffing.
  • Place the casserole of remaining stuffing with the cover on into the oven and bake for ½ hour at 170o C. Remove & serve with the mock roast turkey.