Plant-Based Nut Roast Strudel With Quick Gravy
You know it, you love it, and you bake it every year for Christmas: our vegan nut roast. For years, it's been one of the absolute favorites on our blog and can't be missing from many of your holiday tables. But let's be honest – as much as we love it, sometimes you need a fresh idea. A version that's just as hearty and nutty but looks absolutely stunning. And that's exactly why we're sharing this nut roast strudel today!
Where did the idea come from?
This recipe is, of course, inspired by börek, a traditional pastry from Turkish cuisine. Börek is classically prepared with yufka or phyllo dough and filled with various savory fillings like spinach, cheese, or ground meat. The characteristic rolling technique ensures that everything gets wonderfully crispy on the outside while the filling stays juicy inside. We're adopting exactly this principle here – just with a nut roast filling.
Which dough should you use?
You can use strudel dough, yufka dough, or phyllo dough for this recipe. Strudel dough is usually a bit thicker and is traditionally used for sweet or savory recipes. Yufka and phyllo dough, on the other hand, are paper-thin and get especially crispy. We've already baked a phyllo apple cheesecake and a phyllo pie with zucchini with them.
Important: The dough dries out very quickly. That's why you should cover the dough sheets with a clean, slightly damp towel during preparation and only take out individual sheets when you're actually going to use them. Each sheet should also be brushed with oil (or melted vegan butter) so the dough gets really crispy while baking. Take a sheet of dough, brush it with oil, place a second one on top, and brush that one too. Then distribute the filling lengthwise along the bottom edge and roll everything up. Place the first roll on your baking sheet and roll it into a spiral. Attach the next roll directly to it and keep making the spiral bigger. Brush with oil again at the end and pop it in the oven.
The secret tip: Tartex lentil love
While we often use beans or lentils for our nut roast, we've made it a bit easier this time and reached into the evening snack box in our fridge. The beluga lentil balsamic spread from Tartex binds all the ingredients into a compact mass that's super easy to roll up, and simultaneously replaces tomato paste and lentils. This not only saves work but also brings a wonderfully hearty flavor to the filling. But you can, of course, also serve it at any dinner – if you still need a simple, homemade bread for it, check out our no knead walnut-carrot bread!
Plant-Based Nut Roast Strudel With Quick Gravy
Ingredients
For the strudel:
- 1 package (at least 8 sheets) strudel/phyllo/yufka dough
- 2 onions
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 carrots
- 8.75 oz brown mushrooms (or other mushrooms)
- 10.5 oz mixed nuts
- 1.75 oz sunflower seeds
- 0.33 oz fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp mustard
- 5 oz plant-based lentil spread (e.g., beluga lentil balsamic from Tartex)
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- salt
- pepper
-vegetable oil for frying and greasing - sesame seeds for sprinkling
For the quick gravy:
- 1 onion
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- 0.5 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp wheat flour (type 405)
- 0.75 cup (200 ml) vegetable broth
- 0.66 cup (150 ml) water
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp mustard
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
First, for the filling, chop the onions, garlic, carrots, and mushrooms into small pieces – this doesn't have to be super neat since they'll end up in the food processor anyway.
Heat vegetable oil in a large pan and fry the chopped vegetables for 5–6 minutes until the mushrooms have lost their liquid and are browning. Then remove from heat.
In the meantime, add the mixed nuts to a food processor and blend until they're finely chopped but not yet ground. Then add the fried vegetables, sunflower seeds, parsley, mustard, the plant-based lentil spread, dried thyme and rosemary, soy sauce, salt, and pepper, and process everything again with the food processor until the mixture is well combined and still slightly chunky.
Preheat the oven to 200 °C / 390 °F (convection). To roll, take a sheet of strudel dough and brush it with oil. Place a second one on top, brush with vegetable oil again, and distribute part of the filling lengthwise along the bottom edge of the sheet and carefully roll up. Place the first filled roll on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roll it into a spiral. Repeat with the remaining dough and remaining filling, making the dough spiral bigger and bigger.
Brush the top of the strudel spiral with vegetable oil again, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake at 200 °C / 390 °F (convection) for approx. 30 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
While the strudel spiral is in the oven, prepare a quick brown sauce. To do this, peel and finely dice the onion. Melt vegan butter in a small pot and sauté the diced onions together with dried thyme until they're translucent. Add tomato paste and roast for approx. 3 minutes over medium heat until the paste turns darker. Dust with flour and immediately pour in vegetable broth and water while stirring thoroughly. Add soy sauce and mustard and stir to combine. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer until the nut roast strudel is done baking. Then serve both together.
