This Vegan Roast "Ham" is made from seitan. It's got a maple glaze to give it the flavour of a honey roast ham without using ingredients that aren't suitable for a plant based diet. Get the recipe below.
Vegan roast dinner centrepieces
What is the centre of your table when you make a roast dinner? When you're vegan it's easy to resort to yet another nut roast or perhaps even a wellington but for some of us we miss that meaty centrepiece.
In the past I've shared recipes for roast "beef" and roast "turkey", both made using seitan. Today I'm sharing a similar recipe, this type for vegan roast "ham". If you've made any of these seitan dishes before then you'll see that the method is very similar. The difference centres around the flavourings and the addition of a sticky glaze.
How to make vegan ham
The key to making a juicy vegan roast ham is a two step process: (1) cooking in stock to lock in moisture and (2) roasting in the oven with a sticky glaze for flavour and texture. But before we get to cooking we need to make the seitan.
The basic method of making seitan is as follows:
- First, mix powdered vital wheat gluten with herbs, spices, tofu and water to form a dough.
- Next, knead the dough, before shaping it into something that resembles a joint of ham.
- Cook the dough in stock then finish it off by roasting in the oven.
The herbs and spices you use are what will transform the seitan into your fake meat. Two ingredients that may stand out from the ingredients list are (1) liquid smoke and (2) beetroot powder.
Liquid smoke is used to help mimic the flavour of roast ham. The beetroot powder is added to give it a pinkish colour. You could use food colouring or just leave it plain. The choice is yours.
Because this is a vegan roast "ham" joint it has to be glazed.
Before it goes into the oven for roasting, we cut diamond shapes in the top, poke a clove into each diamond and then baste it with a glaze made from light brown sugar, maple syrup, mustard, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon and allspice.
Keep basting the vegan roast ham joint with the glaze to build up a sticky layer while it cooks.
How to serve your vegan seitan roast "ham"
Seitan roast "ham" is best served in thick slices.
There are lots of different side dishes you could serve with your vegan roast ham, but I think these are some of the best:
Roasted vegetables like carrots and parsnips, sauteed cabbage and steamed green beans are also delicious side dishes.
Oh, and don't forget the roast potatoes!
The recipe
Vegan Seitan Roast "Ham"
Ingredients
For the seitan roast "ham"
- 300 grams silken tofu
- 3 tablespoon miso paste
- 2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 0.25 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoon liquid smoke
- 250 grams vital wheat gluten
- 25 grams chickpea flour
- 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon beetroot powder optional
- 2 teaspoon rice flour or potato starch or tapioca flour
- 1 teaspoon agar agar dissolved in 4 teaspoon water
- cloves
Cooking stock
- 750 ml vegetable stock
- 1 onion cut into wedges
- 1 carrot peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 turnips quartered
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 sprig rosemary
For the glaze
- 7 g light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- 0.5 teaspoon mustard
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 0.5 teaspoon allspice
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 150 C / 300 F / gas mark 2.
- Place the silken tofu, miso paste, onion powder, garlic powder, herbs and liquid smoke into a blender and blitz on high until smooth.
- In a large bowl, mix together the vital wheat gluten, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, beetroot powder (if using) and rice flour.
- Pour the wet ingredients (including the dissolved agar agar) into the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix well until it has formed a dough.
- Next, knead the dough (either by hand or using a stand mixer) until it is stretchy and elastic and all of the ingredients are well combined.
- Roll the dough out into a fat sausage shape.
- Lay a cheesecloth out on your counter, place the sausage in the middle and wrap it up, using kitchen twine to seal.
- In the meantime, add the ingredients for the cooking stock to a large casserole dish.
- Place the wrapped sausage into the stock (it should be at least half covered by the stock), add the lid to the casserole dish and cook for 1.5 hours, flipping it over halfway.
- Once cooked, remove from the pot and unwrap.
- Score diamond shapes into the surface of the roast ham using a sharp knife.
- Poke cloves into the centre of each diamond.
- Put all of the ingredients for the glaze into a pan and place over a medium heat.
- Cook the syrup until all of the sugar has dissolved and it has thickened slightly.
- Place the roast ham into a roasting tin and baste with the glaze.
- Turn up the heat of your oven to 200 C / 400 F / gas mark 6.
- Roast for 20 minutes, basting again halfway through and at the end of the cooking time.
- Leave to cool slightly before slicing.
Nutrition
More vegan mock-meat roast joints
If you like this recipe then you'll also want to try these other vegan seitan roast joints.
Enjoy!
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