How to Prepare a Vegetable Pot Roast by Dyfed Lloyd Evans

Pot roasts have long been the preserve of the carnivore. Basically, a joint of meat stewed with vegetables in a rich sauce. The difficulty with producing a vegetarian version of the pot roast is creating the vegetarian version of a joint of meat. Basically something that will hold together when you stew it along with the companion vegetables. This is because the essence of the dish is a solid lump of the main component with vegetables.

What I'm trying to do here is to create a vegetarian version of a classic meat dish, whilst keeping the essence of the original meat dish. The recipe itself follows:

Ingredients
120g instant gluten

30g vegetarian nutritional yeast flakes

1/8 tsp onion granules

5 Kalamata olives for stuffing (pitted and sliced in quarters)

4 Shitake mushrooms, sliced and fried until slightly browned

120ml water

1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

100g chopped onions

2 large carrots, coarsely chopped

200g sliced mushrooms (a mix of white and Shiitake is good)

1/8 tsp fresh thyme

1/2 tsp salt
200ml red wine

360ml vegetable broth

Charlotte potatoes, quartered, oiled, seasoned and roasted

Preparation:
Mix the gluten, nutritional yeast flakes, onion granules, olives and Shiitake mushrooms together in a bowl. Separately mix the water and soy sauce then pour into the dry mixture. Stir well and knead to form a spongy glutinous mix. Transfer this to a board and form into a loaf shape. If at all possible push the olives and mushrooms in to the centre of the loaf so that they don't stick out.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan over medium high heat. When the oil is hot add the gluten loaf and brown evenly on all sides until it develops a nice dark crust then set aside. To the same pot add a further 1/2 tbsp oil and use this to fry the onions until they caramelize then add the mushrooms, carrots and all the remaining ingredients (except the potatoes). Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the temperature to a simmer. Now add the fried gluten loaf. Reduce to the lowest simmer possible, cover the pot and allow to cook for an hour (turn the loaf every 20 minutes or so). Add the roast potatoes 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

Remove the roast from the pot and allow to rest, covered for 5 minutes before slicing. Cut into 1cm slices and spoon the vegetable sauce over the top before serving. You can find the original recipe at: Celtnet's Vegetable Pot Roast.

Another twist on this basic recipe can be found at: Vegetarian Pot Roast and if you want to compare these recipes with the original British Beef Pot Roast.

About the Author
Dyfed Lloyd Evans is the originator of the Celtnet Recipes site and you can find more stews (both vegetarian and meat-based) at his Stews Page.