This gluten-free vegetarian wellington uses a slightly unconventional rough puff dough, duxelles, and two packages of veggie ground round—a high-fat substitute, like Beyond Meat, will ring those lovely “mmm, flaky rich wellington” bells I am looking for in a wellington. I recommend serving it with mushroom gravy, or a good red wine gravy. And probably some mashed potatoes, and something leafy, like a simple salad, on the side. You’ll most likely have extra rough puff dough leftover; I’d recommend rolling it out thin, topping it with pesto, cheese, and broccoli, and treating it like a little pastry pizza.
Components:
Gluten-Free Rough Puff
Duxelles
Vegetarian “Beef” Filling
Gluten-Free Rough Puff
My favourite gluten-free rough puff pastry is the slightly unconventional recipe from Let Them Eat Gluten-Free Cake.
Gluten-full rough puff dough generally consists of flour, salt, ice-cold butter, and ice water. LTEGFC’s rough puff is a bit weird—it includes ice-cold milk and 2 large eggs. Kim goes into the science of why this swap works, but the essential thing to know is that it will make your dough so much easier to work with.
A final very important note: you’ll need to chill this dough for at least an hour before rolling it out to make your wellington. If I’m making it a wellington on the weekend, I pull the dough together right after breakfast and go on with my day. If I’m making it on a weeknight, I generally make the dough the night before I need it.
Duxelles
Ingredients
1 1/2 lb. mushrooms (your choice; button works fine)
1 shallot (or 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, or some onion)
1 or 2 sprigs of thyme
Bit of butter
Salt and pepper
Process
Chop the ever-loving heck out of the mushrooms, and mince the shallot. Remove the thyme leaves from the sprig and chop finely. Your end goal will be to have something like a paté, almost—getting all these bits and pieces tiny now will only help you later.
Melt a bit of butter on med-low heat in a skillet. After the butter melts, toss in the mushrooms, shallot, and thyme leaves, season with salt and pepper, and cook until all of the liquid has evaporated. This should take about 25 to 30 minutes.
When all the liquid has evaporated, double-check your seasoning, add salt if necessary, and refrigerate until cold.
Vegetarian “Beef” Filling
Ingredients
1 onion, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 egg, beaten
2 packages of vegetarian beef substitute
Salt and pepper
Process
Sauté your onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and herbs in olive oil on medium-low until everything is more or less tender—should take about eight minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer the veggie mix to a bowl and let it cool in the fridge for 15 minutes.
When cool, add your beaten egg and vegetarian beef substitute to the mix. Mix well.
Form the vegetarian “beef” filling into a log.
Making the wellington!
By now, you should have chilled gluten-free rough puff, chilled duxelles, and a nice cool vegetarian beef log. You will also need an egg yolk wash to complete this step.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees—you will turn it down to 350 after the first 5 minutes of baking.
Roll out your rough puff. You want to get it as thin as reasonably possible. My favourite method is to lay down parchment paper, lightly flour it, place the dough disc on top, lightly flour the top, and place a second layer of parchment paper on top. This will allow you to roll the dough out nicely. It is important to try not to get cracks in the dough as you roll…. Patch them up, or pinch them closed, if you do. As you’re rolling, keep the size of your “beef” log in mind. You’ll be fully enclosing the log in dough. You should have excess dough, so it’s really a matter of making sure that the dough is rolled thinly enough, and in a rectangular shape.
Once your dough is rolled out, estimate how much area your “beef” log will take up when you roll it up. Cover this estimated rectangle in your chilled duxelles. The goal of the duxelles—other than being delicious—is to provide a moisture barrier between your pastry and “beef.” So good coverage is important. BUT you don’t want mushrooms in the seam of your pastry, when you close it up.
Place your “beef” log in the centre of your duxelles. Roll your log up in your pastry—I recommend watching a few YouTube videos for technique—and package up the sides like a little pastry present. Trim off the excess dough—you don’t want much of an overlap at your seam, or the pastry will be too thick. Position the wellington on a baking sheet with the seam at the bottom of the log.
Brush with an egg yolk wash. (To make a wash, separate yolk from white and add just a tiny splash of water to the yolk.)
Bung the wellington into your 400-degree oven. Bake at 400 degrees for five minutes, and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Bake for another 40 to 45 minutes, until your pastry is golden brown.
Let sit for 5 minutes before you slice and serve—ideally, with a nice gravy, and maybe some mashed potatoes and greens.