We don't celebrate Easter. Even if we wanted to we would have been working Easter weekend for the last few years. This year we were celebrating that we actually had Easter Sunday off. The restaurant where we work recently decided to close Sundays in trade for Wednesdays. Although we don't celebrate the holiday, I have attended quite a few Easter dinners at other peoples homes throughout my life.
One of the most memorable for me was many years ago. My boyfriend at the time was from a Greek family. He convinced me to join them and meet them for Easter at their home. I was reluctant knowing that I had plans to break up with him but didn't know how to tell him. He was a good guy but I wasn't that into him. He talked me into it. This was a feast of many Greek specialties of which the only thing I have a clear memory of was the barbecued lamb and some tzatziki. The dinner was amazing and it was the first and last time I saw his family. I am thankful that I had a once in a lifetime Greek Easter experience.
We have consumed a plant based diet for 7 years now, but it doesn't mean we can't enjoy a typical holiday feast. The only thing is that we are trading the meat for plant based meat.
For this, I have made a mock roast from seitan which is made from vital wheat gluten. I don't consume seitan regularly but on occasion I like to experiment with it. I never make it the same each time.
This time I was going for a mock ham which ended up more like a pork roast but the flavors were good and it served it's purpose as a protein which would be accompanied with side dishes and smothered with gravy.
I will give an approximate amount of ingredients used. I don't measure.
I used approximately 400 grams of firm tofu. The brick was 450 grams but I put some aside to make a vegan feta to mix with my spinach rolls.
After chopping it to pieces I crumbled it in a food chopper.
Dry ingredients
Aside from 3 cups of vital wheat gluten, I added seasonings which included, 2 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 3 tablespoons powdered vegan chicken stock, 1 tablespoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon clove powder and 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.
Wet ingredients
2 cups vegetable broth cooked with a beet inside for color (I removed the cooked beet), 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 teaspoon liquid smoke, 3 tablespoons maple syrup, 3 tablespoons Braggs liquid aminos (soy sauce), 1 tablespoon miso paste.
Blend the wet ingredients with the tofu and seasonings until smooth. Then mix the wet ingredients with the vital wheat gluten.
I don't have a stand mixer but if I did I would mix it for around 10 minutes. I did this by hand for as long as I could. Perhaps not quite 10 minutes.
I would have preferred to wrap it in a cheesecloth but I didn't have any and the stores were closed. I used tin foil instead.
After wrapping it in foil, I put it it my bamboo steamer and steamed for 1 hour until it was plump and firmed up. This swells up as it cooks.
After an hour remove the tin foil and let it sit and prepare the glaze to put on before going in the oven.
The glaze was a simple mixture. A 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 2 tablespoons prepared mustard. After glazing the seitan, sprinkle with seasonings made with around 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon black pepper and 1 teaspoon salt.
Stick several cloves all over then place in the oven for an hour. Because this is not real meat, it doesn't dry out as much. I put it on 350 F degrees.
While cooking I made one of my side dishes which was a spinach roll with puff pastry. I used a store bought one since I have no patience to make my own puff pastry. When I got out the puff pastry I wasn't sure where I was going with this. I decided to make a spinach pie then changed shape at the last minute to a roll.
The spinach filling was made by cooking two bags of spinach then squeezing out the water. After cooling the spinach it is chopped in a chopper then mixed with the remaining ground tofu. In addition it was mixed with a cup of ground soaked cashews, a squeeze of lemon and 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast.
I cut the puff pastry into strips then added the spinach mixture. I didn't really know what I was doing so I made decisions that work out in the end after I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
I added quite a bit of spinach mixture since the pastry is quite fatty. I wanted to lesson the guilt of eating it. It was still quite fatty but I didn't feel guilty in the end.
After rolling them I put them on a pan and squished them down a bit. I don't know why.
Since I wasn't following a recipe I just put them in the oven at 375 F degrees until they were golden. I turned them every 7 minutes or so for even cooking.
One of my sides was bread dumplings which is usually made using eggs. These were made without eggs but they were good anyway. A bread dumpling sounds pretty boring but for me it's comfort food. It takes me back to visits with my aunts. I fell in love with dumpling soup. Marc's mother used to make dumplings that I loved and they also remind me of matza ball soup which I loved years ago. I used to be married into a Jewish family. We had passover dinners each year. Matza ball soup was my favorite thing. Everything else didn't wow me too much.
These dumplings were made with leftover bread chopped into little pieces. I sprinkled the bread evenly with tapioca flour. I suppose you could use any kind of binder like potato starch or other flour. I added salt, pepper, onion powder and chopped parsley. I also added plant milk bit by bit until I could form a ball. After rolling them I put them in the fridge for a while.
When I took them out I dropped them in a pot of boiling vegetable soup broth. I didn't make dumpling soup this time so I just used enough broth to cook the dumplings then remove them. This was to be covered in gravy.
Mushroom gravy 2 pints of mushrooms sliced, 1 cup chopped onion, 4 cloves minced garlic, 4 cups vegetable stock, 1 teaspoon dried sage, 1 teaspoon thyme, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 3 bay leaves, 3 tablespoons corn starch.
After browning onion, garlic and mushrooms, add the stock and other ingredients. I let this simmer for at least half an hour then strained out the liquid. I added cornstarch that had been mixed with a little liquid whisking it in to make sure it didn't lump. When it was cooked in I returned the mushrooms.
I like to have Brussel sprouts for such dinners but this is one vegetable that I like a little over cooked. I first steamed them then roasted them with carrots and potatoes, which were also pre steamed a bit. My big oven doesn't have a working bottom element so I had to do all of my items separately. The pre steaming made the roasting faster. I used a bit of the glaze from the roast to glaze the vegetables before putting in the oven.
The feast would not have been complete without a salad which was made with spring greens, arugula, baby greens, cucumbers and tomatoes topped with sunflower seeds.
After digging in the plates were full of family style helpings.
Like many holiday dinners, we had quite a lot of leftovers. This is a welcome thing. I think leftovers are great to have. You can live the fun all over the next day.
Just like a regular feast, this also made me go to bed much earlier then usual. A typical lazy Sunday evening like we used to have when we didn't have to work.
Thanks for dropping by and have a great day.
