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This holiday season, try my vegan glutenfree holiday roast! It’s made with a mix of protein-rich chickpeas and tofu and comes filled with roasted vegetables and features a sweet and sticky glaze. Vegan, Gluten-free, nut-free!
The holiday season is SO CLOSE and like every year I add a few mains to the blog collection. Try my Vegan Nut roast Meatloaf or my Lentil Quinoa Loaf. Those were highly popular last year.
This year I am going for a glutenfree holiday roast made with chickpeas and tofu! This roast is rich and hearty and comes with a roasted vegetable filling and a sweet maple glaze for that umami. The mix comes together easily in a food processor and is gluten-free, nut-free and lentil-free!
The chickpeas and tofu make a sturdy base. Tofu, chickpeas add volume, tofu makes it chewy a bit like seitan, rice flour and starch act as binders making the dough easy to work with. Make it into a cylinder roll or a stuffed roll. The glaze balances out the flavor so you get rich umami, creamy sweet roasted veg and a well seasoned savory “chickpea roast” all in one bite!
Serve it with my vegan gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce or pick any of the sides I listed at the end of the post!
More mains for the holidays:
- Lentil Quinoa Loaf
- Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
- Chickpea Veggie Loaf
- Shepherd’s Pie with Chickpeas
- Cauliflower Alfredo, Spinach, Artichoke Lasagna
- Easy Vegan Veggie Lasagna
- Grilled Portobello with Garlic Sauce
Vegan Gluten-free Holiday Roast
Ingredients
For the roast:
- 15 Oz can chickpeas, drained , or 1 1/4 cup of cooked chickpeas
- 6 ounces firm tofu , pressed for 10 minutes and cubed
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca starch
- 3 tablespoons rice flour or you can also use chickpea flour
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, or use more of the herbs below
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
- 1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce, , see subs in notes
For the glaze:
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped
- 2 teaspoons Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
for the stuffing
- 1.5 Cups or more Glutenfree stuffing or roasted veggies of choice
Instructions
For the stuffing:
- You can use any stuffing of choice, I use roasted root vegetables. (Fennel, sweet potato, leek, Golden beet chopped into equal size pieces, tossed in oil, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary in a baking dish and baked until Golden)
For the Roast
- Press the tofu for 10 minutes if you haven't already. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and there aren't any chickpea pieces or tofu pieces there. Process for 30 seconds, then scrape and process again. It will become a pasty dough kind of consistency. If it is too crumbly, add in a tsp or 2 of water/broth and process again. See pictures for consistency.
- Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a spatula to spread it out into a square or a rectangle about 8 inches in width.
- Add the stuffing of choice and then roll the roast over. Use your parchment to roll as the mixture will be sticky, use parchment to bring the ends of the chickpea mixture together and then seal it using the spatula.
- You can also seal the open ends. I like to leave it open.
- Keep the parchment on the rolled roast and bake at 385 degrees Fahrenheit ( 200 deg C) for 30 minutes. Then remove the roast from the oven. Uncover the roast(if it’s too cracked, just roll it so the bottom I cracked side is top now for the glaze)
- Mix your glaze and brush all over and continue to bake for another 15-20 minutes. Let your roast cool at least 15 minutes before trying to slice. Use a really sharp knife or a serrated knife and slice.
- Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy , cranberry sauce and other holiday fixings of choice.You can make the roast ahead. Bake until ready to glaze and refrigerate. Add the glaze and bake when needed.
Video
Notes
- Vegan Worcestershire sauce: use a mix of tamari sauce, balsamic vinegar, and molasses
- chickpeas : use other white beans
- tofu: this would be tricky to substitute as it helps make the roast chewy. You can use more beans but the roast will be very pasty.
Open parchment, brush the glaze and bake for 20-25 mins if it was in fridge and 30-35 mins if it was frozen. Add extra glaze at 25 mins so it doesn’t dry out.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients:
- the base of this vegan roast is a mix of chickpeas and tofu
- rice flour and cornstarch helps the roast mix to hold together
- my magic blend for this vegan roast is a mix of poultry seasoning, thyme, rosemary, sage and oregano along with onion and garlic powder
- the glaze is a sweet and salty power-blend of maple syrup, balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce
- filling: you can use any stuffing of choice, I use roasted vegetables
Tips:
- The gluten-free roast will keep well for about 5 days in the fridge when properly stored
- Feel free to add some sunflower seeds to the mix for some crunch
- You can use tapioca starch instead of cornstarch and chickpea flour instead of rice flour
How to make Glutenfree Vegan Roast
Make the roast. Press the tofu for 10 minutes if you haven’t already. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and there aren’t any chickpea pieces or tofu pieces there. It will become a pasty dough kind of consistency. Process in 1 minute batches
Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a spatula to spread it out into a square or a rectangle about 8 inches in width.
Add the stuffing of choice and then roll the roast over. Use your parchment to bring the ends of the chickpea mixture together and then seal it using the spatula.
You can also seal the open ends. I like to leave it open. Keep the parchment on the rolled roast and bake at 385 degrees Fahrenheit ( 200 deg C) for 30 minutes. Then remove the roast from the oven.
Mix your glaze and brush all over and continue to bake for another 15-25 minutes. Let your roast cool at least 15 minutes before trying to slice. The top skin will crack because of drying faster than the rest of the loaf. But it doesn’t affect the sturdyness of the loaf. Use a really sharp knife or a serrated knife and slice.
Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and other holiday fixings of choice.
Sides to serve with this gluten-free holiday roast:
This roast would go really well with Roasted Brussel Sprouts or Kabocha Squash. Mashed Sweet Potatoes or regular Mashed Potatoes would also go excellently. If you’re feeling adventurous, serve this roast with my Indian Mashed Potatoes
Can this be mixed but not baked ahead of time? I would like to make it on the morning that it will be baked to save time later.
yes!
Thank you, thank you! This recipe was amazing and so tasty 😋 we were able to enjoy a delicious vegan AND gluten-free dinner with our family. We made a bread stuffing using gluten-free bread that was delicious. I also found this recipe for vegan Worcestershire sauce that was so good and fast that I will never buy Worcestershire again! https://veggiedesserts.com/vegan-worcestershire-sauce/?unapproved=102826&moderation-hash=c043265a2a162ac9a047815a35f89f18#
YUM! That recipe looks good, and it’s always great to hear when recipes can work for everyone.
Do you think this could be prepped a day early and baked the next day ?
You can make the roast ahead. Bake until ready to glaze and refrigerate. Add the glaze and bake when needed.
This was superb!! So happy to now have a go to GF option for Thanksgiving! Thank you! I’ll leave it in the oven for at least another 10 minutes next time (could have been that the stuffing I used was too wet or because I had something else in the oven with it). Flavors were spot on and it was surprisingly manageable to make!
Thank you!
SO GOOD! Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I used roasted vegetables for the stuffing. The one I made for Thanksgiving was devoured, so I made another one the next day.
This is the only vegan, gluten free worcestershire sauce I could find. Description says vegetarian and wheat free, but the label on the bottle says vegan and gluten free.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SXWVQJL?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Thank you, Michelle!
I made this last evening as a ‘try out’ for my Christmas family offering. It was delicious. The recipe loosely reminded me of a recipe I used to make called ‘Mock Goose’. This was made of a layers of savoury red lentil mixture which then covered a sage and onion stuffing. So instead of using roast vegetables I made a moist sage and onion stuffing. It worked very well. Many a time a festive meal becomes too heavy, this was not: it was just right. Thanks for posting.
Sounds wonderful!
Wow, wow, wow. This was so good! Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I would think, since I’m not big on tofu, but I was so impressed. The glaze is a game changer.
Thank you!
This was so delicious!! I made it for thanksgiving and it was a perfect substitution. I loved how quick putting it together was! I accidentally put a whole thing of tofu in instead of 6 ounces, oops. I adjusted the seasonings and it still came out amazing! I will definitely be making this again (correctly). But hey, a recipe that still tastes great even when messed up is a great recipe!
Haha it definitely happens 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed.
Do you think I could use all tapioca flour? I’m gonna probably try anyway and report back. This recipe looks amazing and I will definitely also try it again when I can get rice flour!
You can use tapioca flour, but note that it might change the texture. Tapioca tends to add a hint of chewiness. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out!
Made this today for Thanksgiving. (Up to the glazing point) Tripled the recipe and it seems to have come out great, even with a few adjustments. I added some hydrated soy curls for 1/3 of the chick peas (only had one can). I’ll try to post pics on IG. Another great recipe!
Wonderful! Thanks so much.