Here’s the best thing: You can make most of it ahead of time, and then assemble and bake it on the big day. There are three parts to the recipe: The wellie, the “turkey”, and the gravy. Start this recipe the day before and your plant-based Thanksgiving is in the bag. Simple. Beautiful. Bang-on delicious. That’s how we roll in the Wicked Kitchen.

Prep Time: 20 mins (plus a few hours cooling)

Cook Time: 20 mins (plus 15 minutes cooling)

Total Time: 40 mins (plus a few hours cooling)

Potato Wellington With “Turkey” Gravy

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 lbs (1 kg) new potatoes
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• Sea salt
• 5 Tbsp plant-based butter
• 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp Wicked Kitchen Garlic & Herb Nooch Seasoning (see sub below)
• 1 sheet (11.25 oz/320g) puff pastry, thawed if frozen
• 3 cups (710 ml) King Oyster Mushroom “Turkey” (below)
• 2 cups (710 ml) Kick Ass Gravy (below)
• Fresh thyme sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

1. Scrub the spuds and cut into 2-inch (5 cm) chunks. Drop into a pot of cold water along with the whole garlic cloves, and then season the water with a generous amount of salt. Potatoes love salt. Cover and bring to a boil, then uncover and boil until fork-tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain well (you want the potatoes pretty dry) then transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the butter to the bowl along with a generous pinch of salt, pepper, and nooch seasoning. Mash it all together while the potatoes are still hot and melting the butter. Let cool, then spoon into a bowl, cover and chill until cold (a few hours, or overnight). You want the filling cold so it’ll hold a shape. 
3. Heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC) with convection on if you can.
4. Unroll the thawed puff pastry sheet on a large sheet of parchment paper. Tip the potato mash onto the center of the pastry and use your hands to mold the mash into a thick log in the center of the rectangle, about 3-4 inches (7-10 cm) in diameter. Leave a couple inches (a few cm) of pastry around the ends of the log. If you have too much potato filling, chill it to use as a side dish for another meal. Use the parchment to roll one end of the pastry up and over the potato filling. It should completely cover the top of the filling. Brush water along the edge of the other end of the pastry to make it sticky, then lift and fold that end up and over the top. You’ll want the seam of the pastry on the top side. Fold up the ends of the pastry toward the top too. It’ll look a mess and that’s okay – you’ll flip the log over to bake so the finished wellie looks nice and neat. Use your hands and the parchment to roll the log back and forth into an evenly round shape, ensuring a good seal all around.
5. Use the parchment to transfer the wellie to a sheet pan. Make sure the seams are down, then sprinkle the top with coarse salt. Bake until beautifully golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Now, make sure you let your big ‘ol log cool before cutting or the filling will spill all over the place. It can sit for up to 30 minutes, but 15 minutes is perfect. 
6. Cut the wellie into thick medallions and lay flat on plates. Pile a generous amount of “turkey” on top then spoon on the gravy and garnish lovingly with the thyme. 

Notes

• You can replace the Wicked Kitchen Garlic & Herb Nooch Seasoning with 2 tsp nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. 
• For the plant-based puff pastry: In the UK, Jus-Roll sells a 320 g (11.25 oz) sheet of pastry made with vegetable oils. In the US, Pepperidge Farm sells 2 similar sheets of pastry at 17.3 oz (490 g). Use 1 of the Pepperidge Farm sheets, which will be slightly smaller than the single sheet of Jus-Roll. In that case, just use a little less potato filling.

King Oyster Mushroom “Turkey”

The mighty King oyster has many guises. He can play the part of chicken satay—spicy, chewy and satisfying. He can slip into the role of elegant seared scallops. Here he becomes tender, thick pieces of savory turkey. Serve them with our Wicked Potato Wellington. Or as an open face sandwich on toast with our Kick Ass Gravy. Or make a turkey wrap for lunch.

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Serves 8 (about 4 cups/1 L)

Ingredients

• 7 large King oyster mushrooms (about 1 1/2 lbs/680 g)
• 1/2 cup plant-based butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp Wicked Kitchen Sage, Onion & Garlic Seasoning (see sub below)
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Pull the caps off the shrooms and tear the caps into a few pieces, dropping them into a bowl. Pull the stems into big, long pieces sort of like long pieces of torn turkey breast.
2. Add half the butter and quickly toss to distribute the butter (it’ll get soaked up quick). Season with the Wicked seasoning and a good pinch of salt and pepper, then toss to coat well. Tip the shrooms out onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and spread them in a single layer. 
3. Bake until the shrooms are steaming and lightly browned here and there, 20 to 25 minutes. They’ll give off a bunch of water. Bake until enough water evaporates that the shrooms start to brown on the tops.
4. Leave on the pan to use with our Wicked Potato Wellington, or serve as a “turkey” sandwich with gravy over toast, or serve them however you like. Experiment!

Note

• You can replace the 1 Tbsp Wicked Kitchen Sage, Onion & Garlic Seasoning with 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground sage, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper

Kick-Ass Gravy

Here’s a basic recipe to keep in your back pocket: creamy savory gravy that livens up anything you pour it over. Try it with our Potato Wellington and “Turkey” Gravy. Or just spoon it over a side of potato mash. Or serve it with our Wicked Little Brats for a satisfying meal. 

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 40 mins

Total Time: 50 mins

Serves 8 (3 to 4 cups total)

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 3 Tbsp plant-based butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp sherry or marsala wine (or veg broth) 
• 2 to 3 Tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
• Boiling water
• 4 Tbsp Wicked Kitchen Garlic & Herb Nooch Seasoning (Notes)
• 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
• King Oyster Mushroom “Turkey” juices (recipe above)
• 1 1/2 tsp Wicked Kitchen Sage, Onion & Garlic Seasoning (see Notes)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp picked fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp caramel color browning agent (see Note)

Instructions

1. Dice the onion, then melt the butter in a medium saucepot over medium heat and add the onion to the pan. Saute until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, stirring now and then. Some color on the onions helps to darken the gravy and make it super flavorful. 
2. Slice the garlic, add to the pan, and cook a minute or two. 
3. Add the sherry and cook until the pan is nearly dry, 1 to 2 minutes. 
4. Stir in a heaping 2 Tbsp of the flour, then cook a minute or two to cook out the raw flour taste. You should see a brown film (fond) starting to build up on the pan bottom.
5. Stir in about 1 cup of boiling water to deglaze the fond from the pan. The mixture will start to thicken up (called a roux). Keep simmering and stirring now and then until you get a medium-thick gravy consistency, about 5 minutes, adding more water if it gets too thick or boiling it off if it’s too thin. 
6. Taste it, then add the Wicked nooch seasoning and black pepper.
7. Use the juices from the King Oyster Mushroom “Turkey” to help season the gravy: Put a strainer over the gravy pot, then tip the pan of mushrooms into the strainer so the juices run into the gravy. Then add about 1/4 cup (60 ml) of boiling water to the mushroom baking pan and shake the pan or gently scrape the bottom to deglaze the fond and flavor from the pan. Pour those juices into the gravy as well. 
8. Add the Wicked sage seasoning and thyme then simmer the gravy on medium-low heat until it returns to a medium-thin consistency, 8 to 10 minutes. Taste the gravy and add more seasonings if needed. It should be tasty AF. 
9. Stir in the caramel color and simmer on medium-low until medium-thin, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes. 
10. Blend the gravy in a blender until velvety smooth, a minute or so. Return to the pan, then simmer on low heat. You want a medium-thick gravy here. Add some water to thin it out. Or simmer the gravy to thicken it up. 

Notes

• You can replace the 1 Tbsp Wicked Kitchen Sage, Onion & Garlic Seasoning with 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground sage, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper
• If you don’t have the Garlic & Herb Nooch, you can sub in 1/4 cup (60 ml) nutritional yeast with 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning and 1/2 tsp granulated garlic.
• For the caramel coloring browning agent, look for Kitchen Bouquet or Gravy Master in the US or Sarsons in the UK.

For more great recipes from In the Wicked Kitchen on The Beet check out these recipes.

The post In the Wicked Kitchen On The Beet: Potato Wellington With “Turkey” Gravy appeared first on The Beet.

Our Beet Blood can shock people (that splatter!), yet the heart of this recipe, like all our recipes, is about flavor. It’s about finding Wicked new ways to enjoy plant-based food. Beet Blood is essentially boiled down beet juice with some sugar to thicken it and salt to brighten the taste. Sometimes we swap half the beet juice for red wine, like Merlot, to add complexity. Either way, you end up with a devilishly good sauce that commands attention, whether it’s drizzled on grilled eggplant or splattered on a gory Halloween costume.

*Special thanks to Eva Kosmas Flores, the talented photographer who took this bloody apron photograph, which also graces the cover of our Wicked Healthy Cookbook.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 50 mins

Smoked Eggplant Loins With Beet Blood

Serves 4

Ingredients

For Beet Blood

• 2 cups (16 ounces) beet juice
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt

For the Smoked Eggplant

• 4 long skinny Chinese eggplant loins (approximately 8 -12” long each)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp Chinese Five-Spice Powder
• 2 tbsp Kite Hill plain yogurt or another non-dairy yogurt
• 1/4 cup rough chopped hazelnuts
• Sprig of mint, basil or cilantro, to garnish
• A handful of applewood chips for the grill

Instructions

1. For the Beet Blood, whisk everything together in a small saucepot. Bring to a slow simmering boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Let the mixture simmer and reduce in volume by about half, 30 minutes or so. At this point, the consistency should be like thin syrup or warm maple syrup. But don’t taste it—it’s as hot as molten lava!
2. Remove from the heat and let the syrup cool just until warm but still pourable, 5 to 10 minutes. Use right away or pour into a glass jar and screw on the lid (it makes about 1 1/4 cups). Refrigerate for up to 1 month. When cold, the consistency will be thicker. Bring to room temperature or slightly warm it before serving.
3. For the Eggplant, fire up your charcoal grill to hot and glowing embers.
4. Rub sesame oil between your hands like a massage therapist, then rub those eggplants all over to coat. Season with the salt, pepper and five spices, and let sit while the grill heats up.
5. Toss a handful of applewood chips on the coals for smoke, then place eggplant loins on grill and close the lid. Grill until the eggplants are soft, easily pierced, and nicely grill-marked on both sides, about 10 minutes total, turning once or twice. Don’t worry if purple color fades.
6. Remove from the heat and let sit for a minute before carving.
7. Slice into 1-inch thick slices on an angle. Place on platter and begin your art project. First drizzle with a little yogurt, then a couple of tablespoons of the beet blood…now you’re an artist!
8. Top with chopped nuts and garnish with fresh herbs. We like to add sliced red chilies too.

Options: To get 2 cups of beet juice, run about 2 1/2 pounds of beets (8 to 10 medium) through a juicer—greens and everything. Or pick up some beet juice at a local juice bar or natural foods store.

The post In the Wicked Kitchen On The Beet: Smoked Eggplant Loins With Beet Blood appeared first on The Beet.

Here are five reasons to make mushrooms a regular part of your meals, along with a recipe for Essential BBQ Mushroom Steaks, including a special Wicked technique for pressing and searing mushrooms that you can use in your own amazing creations.

1. Mushrooms Taste Great

It’s easy to see why so many varieties of mushrooms are popping up in food markets these days. They taste amazing! Mushrooms are packed with “umami,” that savory flavor compound that makes everything from meat to tomatoes to soy sauce taste good. It’s the texture that sometimes throws people off. If that’s you, try our patented Wicked mushroom technique, a.k.a., the Sarno Sear. You just press and sear your shrooms in a hot pan with another heavy pan on top. That flattens them, condensing both the texture and flavor, turning all kinds of shrooms from portobello and oyster to king oyster and lion’s mane from soft and moist to incredibly dense, chewy, meaty, and delicious. Try our recipe for Essential BBQ Mushroom Steaks. You’ll be hooked!

2. Shrooms Are Good For You

Mushrooms are showing up in everything from healing powders and pills to wellness teas and functional foods. Medicinal mushrooms like reishi, chaga, and lion’s mane have been used to treat ailments in China and Japan for thousands of years. Now, the West is catching on and market watchers say the functional mushroom market is going to generate more than $69 billion in sales by the end of 2024. Yowza.

It’s not snake oil. Plenty of studies show that all varieties of mushrooms are good sources of antioxidants that can help support the immune system. Mushrooms also help fight off viruses and harmful bacteria. There is even evidence that many varieties of mushrooms can help people reduce inflammation and help alleviate arthritis.

A few published studies have found that shiitake and maitake mushrooms can help reduce the risk of illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. And researchers have found that some mushrooms can help lower your blood sugar to help prevent diseases such as diabetes. Plus, mushrooms provide key minerals like potassium and zinc along with good doses of vitamin D and the B vitamins niacin and riboflavin. In fact, mushrooms are the only natural source of vitamin D in the produce aisle. Apart from meat, fish, eggs and fortified food products, the only other way for us to get vitamin D is through sun exposure. Hell yeah, shrooms!

3. Mushrooms Can Keep You Sane

Some of the most exciting developments in modern mushroom research are in the mental health field. “Magic” mushrooms have been used for therapeutic and religious purposes for hundreds and potentially thousands of years by Aztec, Mayan, Greek, and other indigenous cultures. But after a few too many bad LSD trips in the 1960s, magic mushrooms were deemed illegal in 1970 in the U.S. However, pioneering doctors continued to study the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms. They just did it underground. In the dark. These scientists weren’t trying to get high and go on psychedelic trips. They saw lasting positive benefits in treating depression, anxiety, alcoholism, and substance abuse among their patients.

Now, lawmakers in the US. and UK are finally seeing the light. The US Food and Drug Administration recently granted “breakthrough therapy” status to psilocybin for a select few organizations, such as the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Anticipating a sea change in psilocybin mushroom laws, more than 20 US companies have raised millions of dollars in funding and have gone public in the past year, and more than a dozen other companies have moved into the therapeutic mushroom space, according to a recent report.

Several recent studies have shown that psilocybin mushrooms can effectively relieve depression and anxiety. Some preliminary studies show that psilocybin may even be more effective than current antidepressants on the market. A recent survey of mental health studies found that 100 to 150 clinical trials using psychedelic compounds like psilocybin are currently being conducted around the United States. That’s all amazing news.

4. Mushrooms Are Sustainable

The best news of all is that mushrooms are among the most sustainable organisms on the planet. That probably explains why they’re among earth’s longest-living organisms. According to the US Mushroom Council, growing a pound of mushrooms requires only 1.8 gallons of water and 1.0 kilowatt-hours of energy. That’s far less water than it takes to produce 1 pound of beef, which requires anywhere from 400 to 2,000 gallons, depending on where and how it’s produced. Better yet, that 1 pound of mushrooms generates only 0.7 pounds of CO2 equivalent emissions, according to the Mushroom Council. Plus, growing mushrooms yields an average of 7.1 pounds of produce per square foot. That means up to 1 million pounds of mushrooms can be grown on just a single acre.

Delicious. Nutritious. Therapeutic. Sustainable. No wonder there’s a mushroom movement afoot! If all of that isn’t enough reason to hop aboard the mushroom train, what can we tell you? How about we start in the kitchen with a recipe so you can taste them for yourself. Seriously. This recipe is reason #5 to love mushrooms: Essential BBQ Mushroom Steaks. For more tasty mushroom recipes, check out our free e-book, the Wicked Mushroom Manifesto.

Here’s our signature Wicked pan-pressing technique for making show-stopping steaks with crispy edges and juicy centers seasoned just right. Use oyster mushrooms, Portobellos, lion’s manes, maitakes, or whatever you like. For the biggest steaks, use the biggest mushrooms you can find. Check out the video to get the hang of this method. Once you do, you’ll be slicing into swoon-worthy, meaty AF, sexy eats any time you please.

Prep Time: 15 Min

Cook Time: 25 Min

Total Time: 40 Min

ESSENTIAL BBQ MUSHROOM STEAKS

Serves 2 

Ingredients

• 2 large clusters of brown oyster mushrooms (about 1 lb total)
• 4 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
• 4 tsp BBQ rub, such as Wicked Kitchen Hot & Spicy BBQ Rub
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt, if needed
• 1 cup your favorite BBQ sauce, such as Wicked Kitchen Asian Style BBQ Sauce
• 1/4 cup citrusy IPA beer
• 1 green onion (scallion)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400ºF. Trim the mushroom stems, keeping the clusters in one piece.
2. Get a large heavy pan like cast-iron ripping hot over medium-high heat and add half the oil, swirling to coat. Place the mushrooms stem side down in the pan then put another heavy pan over the mushrooms to gently weigh them down, but don’t press down hard yet or the shrooms will break. After a couple of minutes, fold up a kitchen towel and gently press it into the top pan to press the mushrooms. As the shrooms release water, apply firmer pressure to press the mushrooms. Pressing the first side will take 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Sprinkle with half the BBQ rub, half the granulated garlic, and half the cracked black pepper, adding salt if your BBQ rub is salt-free. Flip the shrooms with tongs or a spatula and add the remaining half of the oil, shaking the pan to get the shrooms coated. Press firmly until they are seared, browned, and pressed to less than half their original thickness, another 5 minutes or so. Season the second side with the remaining seasonings. Continue pressing, searing, and flipping until both sides are slightly charred and crispy.
4. Mix the BBQ sauce and beer in a bowl. Place the seared clusters gently in the bowl, pushing down to coat completely. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and add a little more BBQ sauce over the top. Bake until the sauce reduces to a glaze on the steaks, but doesn’t burn, 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Remove to a cutting board. Thinly slice the green onion and scatter over the steaks. Thinly slice and enjoy!

Option: Melt some plant-based cheese on the insides of a long sandwich roll, then slice the steaks and serve in the rolls for a Wicked BBQ Mushroom Steak Sandwich!

This kicks off The Beet’s Guest Chef Column. For more great exclusive content and what to cook this week, check back for updates as we add new chef columns every week!

The post In the Wicked Kitchen on <em>The Beet</em>: Essential BBQ Mushroom Steaks appeared first on The Beet.