Though I’ll defend the nut roast (or, somewhat big-headedly, my nut roast, at least) to the death, I’ll generously concede a vegetarian’s right to celebrate Christmas with something else occasionally. And a wellington is a stand-alone dish that has the wow factor to cut it for the most special of occasions. Of course, just about anything can be wrapped in rich, flaky pastry and baked until golden brown, but to displace the nut roast from my affections, this needs to be a recipe that looks at least as impressive inside as the blushing beef version, and that pairs as well with roast spuds, sprouts and cranberry sauce as it would with a simple jug of gravy. This wellington ticks both those boxes (even if I say so myself), can be prepared up to a day in advance, is easily veganised and won’t cost you £60 in beef fillet. Happy Christmas!
Thinking about a wellington, it strikes me that it ought to be more than just a giant vegetarian sausage roll, delicious as that might be – we all love Elly Curshen’s fruity nut wellington from her book Green, and Olive magazine’s chard, walnut and stilton filling, but it can’t be denied that, once cut, it is recipes, such as Jack Monroe’s and Anna Glover’s for BBC Good Food, with something solid in the centre that look more impressive. Monroe and Glover both go for beetroot, which is almost worth it just to steal the name beet wellington from Jack, but, even when it’s boiled in vinegar and sugar, as the former suggests, my testers and I find it just a bit sweet for our tastes.
Glover also includes butternut squash, as does the recipe on Jamie Oliver’s website. Though the latter’s directions for cutting it are somewhat unclear, the picture suggests that, like Glover’s, it’s meant to be in small pieces. Without her central beetroot, however, and good as it tastes, the latter feels like any vegetarian pie. Instead, I’m going to use the squash in two large blocks to replicate the shape of the beef in a standard wellington, and bake it with a savoury glaze, rather than Oliver’s chilli, coriander, cinnamon and rosemary, to keep the flavour profile simpler (note that any large, dense winter squash will work here; indeed, a fudgy kabocha or crown prince would probably taste even better, though the shape is less convenient for cutting into blocks, so you might need to improvise).
The duxelles
Monroe, Glover and Oliver’s team all incorporate the traditional mushroom duxelles into their recipes, for its “distinctive depth of flavour”, as Monroe puts it in her book Vegan(ish), though, unlike Glover’s classic, creamy version, she blends her mushroom mix with chestnuts and spinach to make a savoury paste.
Mushrooms, of course, are a familiar face in vegetarian food, thanks to their high umami content, which is popularly claimed to “make up” for a lack of meat (though why one fine-tasting ingredient should be better than another is unclear), but not everyone uses them, perhaps because they’re sick of eating mushroom risotto, mushroom lasagne and the like all year round. Alliums in some form, however, are mandatory: Olive uses whole shallots, Glover chopped ones, Curshen leeks, Oliver red onions and Monroe yellow ones. I like the faintly winey flavour of shallots with mushrooms, but be assured that any of the above will be delicious.
I feel that the sweetness of the squash demands the balancing savoury notes of a duxelles, albeit one with a chunkier texture to compensate for the softness of a baked butternut squash in comparison with even the rarest of beef fillets. Roughly chopped chestnuts, as used by almost everyone, have a festive feel, but I prefer the bitter crunch of Olive’s walnuts (Curshen’s mixed nuts would also be delicious), especially in combination with cranberries, which feel more Christmassy than her dates or Oliver’s sultanas. Almost any dried fruit could be substituted, though I might draw the line at anything too tropical.
And, for no other reason than I love greens, and that they look great in Olive’s wellington, I’ve included a layer of spinach, sauteed to stop it steaming in situ and making the pastry go soggy. If you’d like to use chard instead, or even finely chopped kale, you’ll need to cook it for a little longer.
Because I want this wellington to work with as many sides as possible, I’ve confined myself to the citrussy flavour of thyme, rather than adding lots of herbs and spices. I will, however, like clever vegetarian sausage Curshen, be stirring in a little Marmite to enhance the savoury flavour of the mushrooms. If you eat dairy, you might like to substitute some crumbled stilton (most are vegetarian, but do check) as in the Olive recipe.
The pancake
The beef in the classic wellington is sometimes wrapped in a crepe intended to absorb its juices and so stop the pastry going soggy. Monroe makes vivid green spinach pancakes for her version, explaining that it “acts as a barrier between the vegetables and the pastry, keeping the former tender and the latter perfectly crisp”, but much of the water should have already been evaporated from the pre-cooked mushrooms, spinach and squash, so I don’t think this layer is necessary. I have, however, added breadcrumbs to the mushroom mixture, not to soak up any remaining moisture, but because they give Glover, Curshen and Oliver’s wellingtons a slightly stuffing-like quality that will more than make up for not being able to eat any of the sausagemeat stuff that may also be on the table.
The pastry
You can, of course, make your own pastry, but the bought kind is much quicker, easier to work with, and also comes in vegan form. If animal products are a concern, replace the egg wash with Monroe’s plant-milk glaze, and add a drop of soy sauce if you’d like a really golden finish.
