Name: Mushroom Wellington
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 135 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons avocado oil; 4 oz crimini mushrooms (minced); 4 oz oyster mushrooms (minced); 2 tablespoons coconut aminos; ¾ cup unsalted walnuts; ½ cup panko breadcrumbs; 1 15- oz can chickpeas; 4 tablespoons aquafaba (reserved from can of chickpeas); 2 tablespoons tomato paste; 1 small onion (diced); 1 carrot (diced); 2 tablespoons minced garlic; 2 teaspoons dried thyme; 2 teaspoons ground sage; 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1 sheet puff pastry (thawed); 2 tablespoons aquafaba (can substitute 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water if not vegan)

When I first adopted a more plant-based diet, holiday food began to require a lot more thought. While it was fun that my family still enjoyed turkey for Thanksgiving or ham for Easter, it took some initiative on my part to find a good vegetarian main dish for the holidays. This mushroom wellington is a spectacular vegan holiday recipe; I love it so much that I made it for both Easter and Thanksgiving this year.

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Even though this mushroom wellington is technically vegan Christmas food, my family members have come to thoroughly enjoy it alongside the traditional meat dishes of the holidays. Even my husband’s 93 year old grandfather asked for seconds of this wellington! No, this dish is not going to taste exactly like beef wellington – but if you enjoy mushrooms and chickpeas and puff pastry, you’ll be able to appreciate this dish for the delicious flavors it brings of its own accord.

My mushroom wellington recipe is adapted from this one found at Vegan Huggs. If you’re looking for more vegan Thanksgiving recipes, check out my roasted brussels sprouts or broccoli salad.

Vegan mushroom wellington rests on a white plate. This dish consists of a mushroom and vegetable filing surounded by puff pastry. In the image, the wellington is sliced and a cross section is visible.

If you’re abstaining from meat but still okay with dairy and eggs, I have quite a few vegetarian Christmas recipes to recommend: everything from mashed potato casserole and green bean casserole to stuffed peppers and tomato tortellini soup.

Ingredients

As you might expect from a vegan Christmas main dish, this mushroom wellington does require quite a few ingredients.

For the filling, you will need:

Avocado oil – to saute your vegetables
4 oz of both crimini mushrooms and oyster mushrooms, minced
One carrot and one onion
Coconut aminos (can substitute Worcestershire sauce if not vegan or vegetarian)
Unsalted walnuts
Panko breadcrumbs
Canned chickpeas – including the aquafaba!
Tomato paste
A whole lot of spices, including rosemary, garlic, thyme, sage, and just a pinch of salt.

For the puff pastry casing, you will need two primary ingredients:

1 sheet puff pastry (thawed in the refrigerator)
Additional reserved aquafaba (can substitute 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water if not vegan)

About the puff pastry. Can you make your own? Yes – though to keep it vegan, you would need to use a vegan butter-alternative instead of the classic dairy stuff. A much easier alternative is to buy the traditional Pepperidge Farm puff pastry from the grocery store – as the normal version is already vegan! This company (and I assume many companies that produce frozen puff pastry) uses oil instead of butter to achieve the delicious layers of flaky dough.

How to make mushroom wellington

Place avocado oil in a wide saucepan over medium heat. Add diced onions and sauté until they are soft and translucent. If you would like some extra flavor – which I usually do with this recipe – continue to sauté until your onions are slightly caramelized (about 15 minutes), adding water as necessary.

Onions in the process of caramelizing for mushroom wellington, my favorite vegan Christmas dish

Add diced carrots to the pan and sauté until they have softened, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in garlic, thyme, sage, and rosemary, and sauté for 1 minute or until fragrant.

Add diced mushrooms and coconut aminos to pan. Cook until the mushrooms have have released their moisture (6-8 minutes). Once the mushrooms have become relatively dry, stir in coconut aminos and cook for 1 minute.Then, remove your pan of vegetables from the heat and allow your vegetables to cool for at least 10 minutes.

Pour walnuts into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Blend until the walnuts have become a rough powder – about 10 seconds.

Drain your can of chickpeas into a medium mixing bowl, saving the aquafaba. (We’re going to use this later!) Do not rinse. Mash the chickpeas into a rough paste using a potato masher or pastry blender. We are not trying to make hummus; you still want an abundance of chickpea texture once you are done.

Add ground walnuts, panko, 4 tablespoons of aquafaba, salt, and tomato paste to mashed chickpeas. Mix in cooled sauteed vegetables.

The filling for vegetarian mushroom wellington, including ground walnuts, mashed chickpeas, and tomato paste, sits in a white bowl. This will make the perfect vegan holiday main dish.

Stir until ingredients are thoroughly combined and are easy to manipulate. (If you can form it into something that looks like a meatball, it’s ready.) If mixture appears too wet, add additional panko. If it is overly dry and crumbly, add a bit more aquafaba or water. Once it has reached the desired texture, form mixture into a roughly 9-inch-long log.

This is the natural “pause point” in this recipe. If you want to make this mushroom wellington a few days ahead of time, you can tightly roll the log in plastic and allow it to rest in the refrigerator until you are ready to move on and finish the dish. I recommend adding the puff pastry and cooking your vegan or vegetarian mushroom wellington on the day you plan to serve it. While it does make for delicious leftovers, it tastes best when eaten fresh from the oven.

A log of vegan mushroom wellington filling. I prepared this as a vegetarian Christmas main dish. — Form your vegetarian mushroom wellington filling into a log. Wrapping in plastic and placing it in the refrigerator are optional steps, but encouraged if the mixture is still warm or if you want to make part of this dish ahead of time.

Once you are ready to bake your mushroom wellington, remove the thawed puff pastry from the refrigerator and, on a clean surface, roll it into a roughly 10” x 13” rectangle. (For optimal results, I recommend moving your puff pastry from the freezer to the refrigerator 30-60 minutes before you start rolling it out.) Place the mushroom log in the middle of your widened puff pastry and preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Vegetarian mushroom wellington filling rests on a rolled out piece of puff pastry. I made this as a vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish.

Place the mushroom log in the middle of your puff pastry. Wrap the log like a gift, ensuring the edges are completely sealed. If you have extra dough along the edges, feel free to trim them off before folding them up onto the ends of the log.

Transfer the wrapped log to a greased or lined baking sheet. Flip the mushroom wellington so that it is seam-side down and cut a series of cross-hatches into the top of the loaf, to allow it to release excess moisture. (Make sure the cuts are full-thickness – meaning you can see mushroom log through the holes. Otherwise the pastry may simply pull away instead of opening up to release moisture.)

Brush the loaf with 2 tablespoons of aquafaba to add extra shine before placing the mushroom wellington in the oven. (If you don’t mind using animal products, you could instead make an egg wash by beating together 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water. This adds a better shine to vegetarian mushroom wellington, but of course would not fit a vegan diet.)

Bake at 400 degrees F for 40-50 minutes, until center of the mushroom wellington is hot and the pastry is golden brown. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Vegetarian mushroom wellington rests on a white plate. The wellington on the right has been sliced, and the slice rests on an adjacent plate to the left. This mushroom wellington is vegetarian because an egg wash was used to make the puff pastry more golden in the oven; for a vegan mushroom wellington, aquafaba can be used for a similar result.

I hope you enjoyed this vegan mushroom wellington recipe! It has become a favorite vegetarian holiday food in our home, and I would love to see photos if you choose to add it to your family’s table. Feel free to tag @WhiskAverseBaking with any photos you post on social media, or leave a comment below. If you’re reading this and it’s not Christmas or Thanksgiving, you can always click “Pin Recipe” to save this mushroom wellington for when the time is right.