With Veganuary upon us, there’s no better time to experiment with plant-based recipes to create delicious and healthy vegan meals. Our executive chef, Stephen Wheeler, has shared a recipe for one of his favourite vegan dishes, for you to try at home. The cauliflower wellington is a vegan take on the traditional beef wellington and is the perfect plant-based dish to kick-start a healthy new year.
Ingredients
Serves 8 – 12
For the mushroom duxelle
- 300g mixed mushrooms
- 25ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 10g dried porcini (soaked in 1 small mug of warm water)
- Salt
- Ground pepper
For the Cauliflower
- 1 large cauliflower
- 1 red onion (diced)
- 2 bunches of thyme (strip the leaves and discard the stem)
- 25ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp nutmeg (finely grated)
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 sheet vegan puff pastry
- Salt
- Ground pepper
- Bowl of iced water
- ½ cup of flour (to dust the bench)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220°C. Steam or boil the cauliflower (whole), for 6 minutes or until a knife is able to pierce the stalk and fall off easily. Then place into iced water to chill. Once cold, remove from the water and allow to dry on a paper towel.
- For the mushroom duxelle, combine the mushrooms with the garlic and half of the oil, season well with salt and pepper, and place onto a tray into the oven for around 20 minutes. Once cooked, strain any liquid from the tray and place the mushrooms in a food processor, add the dried porcini with the water they have been soaked in and blend together. Once mixed, set aside to cool.
- Place a frying pan on a moderate heat and add the red onion. Combine the salt, pepper and thyme and cook until soft. Then add the spinach and sauté for 20 seconds before placing onto a cloth to cool.
- Lightly flour a bench or surface and place the puff pastry on top. Cut the cauliflower into large florets and place onto the pastry. With a knife, gently mark the area around each of the florets for the filling to go into and then remove the florets from the pastry.
- Spoon the mushroom duxelle evenly onto each marked space on the pastry, then layer the spinach on top (ensuring all excess liquid has been squeezed out). Finely grate half the nutmeg onto the mushroom duxelle, before adding the cauliflower florets back to the pastry. With a pastry brush, brush the pastry with a little water and olive oil, then gently fold each corner one by one and seal together.
- Place the folded pastry upside-down onto an oven tray layered with greaseproof paper and brush with olive oil. Gently pierce a small hole in the top to let out steam and then into the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden-brown (ensuring the pastry does not get too dark).
- Set aside for 5-10 minutes and then slice into portions and serve with tomato salsa or rich vegetarian gravy.
Or if you’d rather leave the vegan cooking to the professionals, why not sample our vegan afternoon tea, available at the Lounges from 14 January – 28 February 2019.
